21 Sep 08 Choosing Your First Digital Camera
Author: Kirsten Whittaker
Digital cameras are no longer a luxury these days, with high resolution mega pixels and sophisticated features coming within a very appealing price range. And thanks to many comprehensive digital camera reviews, it’s easy to pick the most sought after features and qualities and still stay within a budget.
Most people turn to digital photography because they like the ease of printing and sharing the photos on the web. Business owners choose the digital quality for their product catalogues or brochures, students employ digital cameras for their projects and with digital cameras in most recent cell phones, even a child can take a snap and publish it instantly on the web. And thanks to the newest lens and zooming qualities, you don’t have to be a seasoned pro to shoot close-to-professional images with modern digital cameras.
You can hardly find a digital camera today with resolution lower than 2 megapixels - two million color dots per picture. This is a decent quality for most uses, including printing the photos for the home or school use. The higher the megapixel rate, the bigger photos you can print without sacrificing the quality. However, if you are not a professional photographer or a graphic professional who deals with upscale images all the time, you don’t really need a digital camera that produces more than 8-megapixel camera - and these rarely become available for less than $1000. Plus, if you seek to print large detailed photos, make sure you have a high-quality printer that can reproduces all the tiny details that make a difference.
When you pick a digital camera, you should also pay attention to the zoom number. Digital cameras have two different kinds of zoom. Digital zoom enlarges all pixels digitally, while optical zoom enlarges the image with the lens magnification. Since you can always enlarge the image later, on the computer using the Photoshop or other image manipulation program, you would be better to concentrate on higher optical zoom rate. The average optical zoom for midlevel digital cameras is 2 to 4x.
There are a few other options to consider: whether a digital camera uses a rechargeable batteries (zoom and LCD screen consume a lot of energy); whether the digital camera has a standard flash memory (you may need to buy a few more flash memory cards in future), and if the menus are easy to understand. If you travel a lot, you may want a digital camera that is lightweight and compact.
Even if you decide to pick the least expensive digital camera to serve your basic photography needs, you will still enjoy all the benefits of digital photography: no film rolls to buy, no wasted photos to dispose of and best of all, no waiting time to get them printed. New models of digital cameras are constantly launched, and the older ones are becoming less expensive day by day. Know your priorities, check the most recent digital camera reviews, and there should be a digital camera to perfectly suit your needs.
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21 Sep 08 Helpful Guidelines For Choosing Your Next Digital Camera
Author: Vince Nitti
Digital cameras are available in many shapes and sizes, represent various specifications, and offer an impressive array of features in many price ranges. This is why their popularity is soaring all over the world, with many people already using one for their own pictures. They have become an integral part of many geographic and corporate cultures.
Digital cameras have become more than simply replacements for 35-mm cameras, however. They can be used for taking videos as well as still photos by upgrading the camera’s memory card to increase storage capacity, allowing them to replace the old VHS recorder as well.
While enjoying significant popularity on their own, digital cameras have also become integrated within a large number of other hand-held tools, such as PDAs and cell phones. Technology now allows these devices to incorporate a digital camera within them, making the use of both devices much more functional and convenient.
Many brands of digital cameras are available today with a wide range of features. All the big camera names of the past, Kodak, Nikon, Canon, etc., offer everything from 35-mm to digital products. Even companies better known for the computer products, such as Panasonic, Sony, and HP, are now offering digital cameras in their product lines.
Digital Camera Considerations
Digital cameras differ from conventional cameras by having a small LCD screen, sometimes including a viewfinder. This screen is similar to a TV screen, allowing the user to better see the picture before snapping it. Some have screens large enough to include much more of the subject and background than has ever been possible before.
Instead of film, these devices have slots to hold a memory card or “stick.” The amount of memory available within any device can be measured along a range of megabytes to gigabytes, depending on how much you’re willing to spend. Getting a camera with more memory means spending more money, but the extra storage capacity can be worth it.
Another feature to consider before purchasing is the type of battery used. While some units feature disposable batteries, the more expensive cameras use rechargeable batteries for longer energy life. Disposable batteries typically wear out quickly, while a charger is generally bundled with those cameras using rechargeable batteries.
Another consideration when considering which model to purchase is how the pictures are downloaded. Most digital cameras have a USB port to allow easy connectivity to a computer, but some require removal of the memory card and using a reader to download pictures into a computer.
Digital Camera Features
Those considering purchasing their first digital camera should at least know the basic features of an individual camera before spending a lot of money. While snapping a picture is basically the same in all cameras, there are many other features that will influence your decision. The number of megapixels used when taking a picture should be among the top concerns. Megapixels represent the number of pixels, or dots, that make up the picture. The more pixels used in a photo, the greater the clarity will be. Cameras that utilize a greater number of pixels are capable of producing better resolution over a larger image, but these pictures require much more memory space for storage.
Another important feature to consider in a digital camera is the zoom feature. The terms to be familiar with are optical zoom, which utilizes a moving lens and brings the image forward to make it appear closer, and digital zoom, which is used to crop and stretch the image. Most digital cameras have two-zoom capability.
The last feature this article will discuss is the durability of the camera’s case. Many buyers don’t consider this as important, but camera cases made mostly of plastic are relatively fragile. Some camera cases are made from a combination of metal alloy and plastic that is more durable and can sustain more jarring without allowing internal damage, although neither option can guarantee your camera’s safety. It’s better to spend a little more for a case that will better protect your investment.
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20 Sep 08 The Magic Behind Digital Camera
Author: Harry Rockwell
A digital camera, as opposed to a film or videotape camera, uses an electronic sensor to transform images (or video) into electronic data. Modern digital cameras are typically multifunctional and the same device can take photographs, video, and/or sound.
In 2005, digital cameras are starting to push traditional film cameras out of many markets. Shrinking device sizes have recently allowed miniaturized digital cameras to be included in multifunctional devices, such as cell phones and PDAs.
Classification
Digital cameras can be classified into several groups:
* Professional video cameras such as those used in television and movie production. These typically have multiple images sensors (one per color) to enhance resolution and color gamut. Professional video cameras usually do not have a built-in VCR or microphone.
* Camcorders used by amateurs. These are a combination of camera and VCR to create an all-in-one production unit. They generally include a microphone to record sound, and feature a small LCD to watch the video during filming and playback.
Still cameras
Digital still cameras are generally characterized by the use of flash memory and USB or Fire Wire for storage and transfer.
Most have a rear LCD for reviewing photographs. They are rated in mega pixels; that is, the product of their maximum resolution dimensions. The actual transfers to a host computer are commonly carried out using the USB mass storage device class (so that the camera appear as a drive) or using the Picture Transfer Protocol and its derivatives.
All use a CCD (for Charged Coupled Device) which is a chip comprised of a grid of phototransistors to sense the light intensities across the plane of focus of the camera lens.
There has recently been some application of a second kind of chip, called a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensor, and this chip is often differentiated from a CCD proper in that it uses less power and a different kind of light sensing material, however the differences are highly technical and many manufacturers still consider the CMOS chip a charged coupled device. For our purposes, a chip sensor is a CCD.
* Standard Digital Cameras: This encompasses most digital cameras. They are characterized by great ease in operation and easy focusing; this design allows for limited motion picture capability. They have an extended depth of field.
This allows objects at multiple depths to be in focus simultaneously, which accounts for much of their ease of focusing. It is also part of the reason professional photographers find their images flat or artificial-looking. They excel in landscape photography and casual use.
* Digital SLRs typically have a sensor nine times larger than that of a standard digital camera, and are targeted at professional photographers and enthusiasts. They resemble ordinary professional cameras in most ways, with replaceable flash and lens components, which give the user maximum control over light, focus and depth of field.
They are also bulkier and more expensive than their casual-use oriented counterparts. They are superb for portraiture and artistic photography because they can be customized for various applications with a comprehensive range of exchangeable lenses.
Professional modular digital camera systems
High-end digital camera backs used by professionals are usually separate devices from the camera bodies which they are used with. (This is because most of the large- and medium-format camera systems in professional use at the time that digital capture overtook film as the professional’s medium of choice were modular in nature, i.e. the camera body had multiple lenses, viewfinders, winders and backs available for use with it to fit different needs.)
Since the first backs were introduced there have been three main methods of “capturing” the image, each based on the hardware configuration of the particular back.
The first method is often called “Single Shot,” in reference to the number of times the camera’s sensor is exposed to the light passing through the camera lens.
Single Shot capture systems use either one CCD with a Bayer filter stamped onto it or three separate CCDs (one each for the primary additive colors Red, Green and Blue) which are exposed to the same image via a beam splitter.
The second method is referred to as “Multi-Shot” because the sensor is exposed to the image in a sequence of three or more openings of the lens aperture. There are several methods of application of the multi-shot technique.
The most common originally was to use a single CCD with three filters (once again red, green and blue) passed in front of the sensor in sequence to obtain the additive color information.
Another multiple shot method utilized a single CCD with a Bayer filter but actually moved the physical location of the sensor chip on the focus plane of the lens to “stitch” together a higher resolution image than the CCD would allow otherwise. A third version combined the two methods without stamping a Bayer filter onto the chip.
The third method is called “Scan” because the sensor moves across the focus plane much like the sensor of a desktop scanner.
These CCDs are usually referred to as “sticks” rather than “chips” because they utilize only a single row of pixels (more properly “photosites”) which are again “stamped” with the Bayer filter.
The choice of method for a given capture is of course determined largely by the subject matter. It is usually inappropriate to attempt to capture a subject which moves (like people or objects in motion) with anything but a single shot system.
However, the higher color fidelity and larger file sizes and resolutions available with multi-shot and scan-backs make them attractive for commercial photographers working with stationary subjects and large-format photographs.
Webcams
* Webcams are digital cameras attached to computers, used for video conferencing or other purposes. Webcams can capture full-motion video as well, and some models include microphones or zoom ability.
These devices range in price from very inexpensive to expensive higher-end models; many complex webcams have a servo-controlled base capable of tracking facial motion with the help of software.
Interpolation
Image color or resolution interpolation is used unless the camera uses a beam splitter single-shot approach, three-filter multi-shot approach, or Foveon X3 sensor.
The software specific to the camera interprets the information from the sensor to obtain a full color image. This is because in digital images, each pixel must have three values for luminous intensity, one each for the red, green, and blue channels. A normal sensor element cannot simultaneously record these three values.
The Bayer filter pattern is typically used. A Bayer filter pattern is a 2×2 pattern of light filters, with green ones at opposite corners and red and blue elsewhere.
The high proportion of green takes advantage of properties of the human visual system, which is determines brightness mostly from green and is far more sensitive to brightness than to hue or saturation.
Sometimes a 4-color filter pattern is used, often involving 2 different hues of green. This provides a wider color gamut, but requires a slightly more complicated interpolation process.
The luminous intensity color values not captured for each pixel can be interpolated (or guessed at) from the values of adjacent pixels which represent the color being calculated.
In some cases, extra resolution is interpolated into the image by shifting photosites off of a standard grid pattern so that photosites are adjacent to each other at 45 degree angles, and all three values are interpolated for “virtual” photosites which fall into the spaces at 90 degree angles from the actual photosites.
Connectivity
Many digital cameras can connect directly to a computer to transfer data. USB is the most widely used method, though some have a Fire wire port.
Integration
Some devices, like mobile phones integrates digital cameras. Mobile phone cameras are much more sold than standalone digital ones.
Digital cameras need memory to store data. The higher one goes in pixel size, the more memory will be needed. Cameras use a removable memory card to store data, but the cheapest and smallest cameras may simply use fixed internal memory instead. Some cameras come with inbuilt memory as well.
Autonomous devices
An autonomous device, such as a PictBridge printer, operates without need of a computer. The camera connects to the printer, which then downloads and prints its images. Some DVD recorders and television sets can read memory cards too.
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18 Sep 08 Digital Camera Buying Tips For Novice Photographers
Author: Roberto Sedycias
Life is a stream that lets memories flow away as we leaving them behind. Although, it`s difficult to find time to look back and reminisce your past memories in this fast-paced world, sometimes we feel really special to muse over the pleasant moments of those bygone days that take us into a sweet nostalgia. Hence, people make it a point to capture their special moments with the help of digital cameras no matter how big or small the occasions are.
Digital cameras have become so popular in the last couple of years that many cell phone manufactures have started offering mobile phones with a built-in camera. Although, cell phone cameras let people capture photograph as and when they like, their use, however, is limited to certain occasions. This is because mobile phone cameras are unable to offer the clarity and precision that standard digital cameras can offer. This brings the necessity of buying a digital camera among many people who are passionate about photography.
But, here is the deal - if you are one of those first-time buyers of a digital camera, you are likely to face some or other problems while buying which is going to hurt your decision. Remember the following points before you go and buy a digital camera for the first time.
Determine your needs:
Before you decide to buy a digital camera, determine your specific needs. Do you need a digital camera just for fun such as capturing pictures and sharing them with your family and relatives via email, or do you want to learn the nuances of professional photography? Knowing your specific requirements will help you in buying the right digital camera and saving money as well.
What`s your budget:
Digital cameras are available with price range starting from 100$ to 1000$. However, you should set a particular budget before buying the gadget. Actually, what you want to do with the digital camera decides the money that you are required to spend on it. For instance, if you want to buy a digital camera for professional photography, you may have to spend a few hundreds extra than if you want to buy a standard digital camera used for amateur and fun photography. If you are buying a digital camera for fun, it should cost you between 300$ and 400$ with all the standard features.
The mystery called megapixel:
Megapixel is critical to the clarity of a picture when you take pictures with the help of a digital camera. Hence, higher the megapixel of a digital camera, clearer the pictures that you will be able to get with it. What should be the megapixel of your digital camera? If you are going to use your digital camera to take and share pictures with your friends, family and relatives for fun, a 2-mega pixel should be ideal for you. If you are looking at taking pictures of professional quality and bigger size, buy a digital camera that should be have at least 4-5 megapixel.
Zero in on the optical zoom:
If you are not familiar with the lingo of digital camera, you are most likely to confuse between digital zoom and optical zoom. Many manufactures will try to sell their digital cameras on the basis of digital zoom. However, you should know that digital zoom gives you larger image compromising the quality. Go with the optical zoom as you can get enlarged pictures with good quality.
Compatibility factors:
When you buy a digital camera, make sure you figure out if it is compatible with your personal computer. This is because you are going to use it along with your computer. Usually, specifications and minimum requirements are mentioned in the digital camera manual. Ask the sales person to explain them to you if you are not able to understand them properly enough.
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