Driving a Lean, Clean Shooting Machine

When I was growing up in the 1960s one of the mandatory things you had to do to your car (if you were among the chosen few to own a car) was to put flame decals along the back and front fenders. Anyone who knew anything about cars knew that if it had flames painted on it, it went faster — much faster. Camera companies seem to borrow that philosophy and are always looking for ways to add flames to what I think is already a pretty cool ride — your basic digital camera.

One of the growing trends in digital cameras is the abundance of style modes. These are sophisticated types of in-camera processing features that are designed to give your images a more, well, stylish look, without having to resort to a lot of fancy after-the-fact editing tricks. Different camera companies give them different names (Nikon calls them Picture Controls and Canon has Picture Styles), but they are all aimed at doing the same thing: matching the camera’s response to a certain type of subject while simultaneously jazzing up your photos.