As you might imagine the paradigm shift from traditional film-based photography to digital is rapidly creating new opportunities to learn and grow. The photography industry is moving at an incessant pace, and digital cameras sales have surpassed their film-based cousin at an alarming rate each year. On January 16, 2004, Eastman Kodak announced it would end its sales of film cameras in the United States and on June 15, 2005, Kodak announced it will discontinue production of black-and-white photographic paper by the end of the year as it continues its transition to digital photography. Soon digital cameras will hit critical mass and film will only represent a minute segment of the industry.
Traditionalists are disappointed, and amateur and advanced film photographers alike are pondering the inevitable question - how can I learn this new digital camera technology in shortest amount of time?
The differentiator between a traditional 35mm film camera and digital cameras is how the pictures are captured, processed, and stored. A conventional camera exposes an image on a roll of silver-halide coated film. A digital camera captures an image on a photosensitive silicon computer chip called a charged couple device, also known as a CCD. The camera converts the image captured by the chip into digital data and saves it in a camera's memory as a digital photo. These photos can then be copied onto your computer's hard drive where you can email, edit, and save them.
ASSESS YOUR INTERESTS
The immediacy of digital is quite satisfying and may present you with opportunities to photograph subjects that perhaps you had not thought of due to the financial constraints of film and development costs prior to taking on this new digital experience. It is important to assess what peaks your interest, i.e. sports, nature, medical, macro, people and lifestyle, etc. Brainstorm and narrow your equipment selection to suit your current and future photographic needs and budget.
CAMERA SELECTION
Just as with traditional film cameras, digital cameras come in two offerings: point and shoot, and digital single lens reflex (DSLR).
Both types of camera use flash memory cards ("digital film") to store images and are immediately available for viewing through the camera's rear liquid crystal display (LCD).
Point and Shoot
Point-and-shoot cameras are extremely affordable and remain popular in current market conditions. These cameras are easy to use, give outstanding results, and for all practical purposes are compact. Point-and-shoot cameras mainly offer a limited feature set, offering mostly automatic features such as: auto flash, auto exposure, and the camera selects the shutter speed and aperture for you. Family gatherings and vacations are ideal for point and shoot cameras. The corporate world also uses point and shoot cameras for company newsletters, web sites, and business functions.
Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR)
Digital SLR cameras offer photographers the ability to use interchangeable lenses and accessories, which give the photographer greater artistic control and flexibility. DSLR cameras allow photographers to visually check image sharpness and composition. The effects of changing lenses, changing exposure values, and viewing the camera's histogram are immediately visible in the LCD viewfinder and/or eye viewer. There are many advantages of using DSLR digital cameras. They can handle a variety of lighting and focusing situations unlike point and shoot cameras. DSLR cameras offer optical zoom as opposed to just digital zoom, which essentially crops pixel data and will add unwanted noise to an image.
IMPORTANT TIPS
? Look for cameras that can save files in RAW. Saving your image as a RAW file will provide you with a higher quality image to work from in post processing. Images shot in RAW remain uncompressed, unlike JPEG images. Through repetitive opening/closing of JPEG files image -- image degradation occurs.
? Equally important is finding a camera with a minimal amount of shutter lag. It can be rather frustrating with some of the point and shoot cameras available when there is a long lag between clicking the shutter and the camera taking the shot. Choose a camera with a large buffer memory. This allows a number of images to be continually snapped before stopping to allow them to be downloaded and processed.
? Digital camera quality and the size of the created images are continually rising. As a general rule you will need at least 1800 x 1400 pixels (2.5 mega pixels) to print up to 6 x 4 inch with good quality. To date recommendations include the Canon Rebel XT (8.0 Mega Pixels), Canon EOS 20D, Nikon D70 and so on.
Based on the previous tips, there are two resources that will enable you to read professional reviews as well as real-world user feedback on various types of digital cameras presently available in the marketplace.
Steve's Digicams http://www.steves-digicams.com and Digital Photography Review http://www.dpreview.com
DIGITAL FILM: FLASH MEMORY
Manufacturers of cameras ,namely Canon, Olympus, and Sony use memory cards that are usually not compatible with one another. Canon uses compact flash cards and/or IBM micro drives. A micro drive is similar to a compact flash card, but it was formerly recognized for its larger capacity. Olympus uses an xD Picture card and smart media card, and finally there's Sony. Sony uses a memory stick. File formats generated by flash memory for digital cameras are RAW, TIFF, JPEG (pronounced 'J-peg'). RAW being a memory intensive format uses several megabytes of data on a memory card and does not compress the image at all.
Both RAW and TIFF are known as 'lossless' file formats because compression algorithms are absent, thus giving the photographer more pixel data and better image quality. However, since RAW is not as widely recognized as JPEG in the photography marketplace, special conversion software is necessary to convert images from RAW to TIFF or JPG. Some camera manufacturers include RAW conversion software with their higher end point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras, but it is not as great as some RAW applications developed by cutting edge companies such as PhaseOne, a Danish company that markets an outstanding product called Capture One DSLR. It is made specifically for photographers that wish to process RAW files.
For a complete primer on flash memory cards, visit the following links:
Primer: Flash Memory http://www.steves-digicams.com/flash_memory.html
Finally, once you determine which camera you plan to use, there are peripherals you might want to consider to round off your purchase. First, if you intend to take a lot of family photographs and wish to print photographs for friends and family, then a color photo printer is a must. There are low-to-high end printers. Get something in between. Needless to say, the printer is only as good as the paper you print your images on. Read the manufacturer's recommendations and check the online forums on dpreview.com to learn who is having success with a particular brand of paper.
Interestingly enough, another peripheral that will save battery life on your camera is a compact flash card reader. It plugs into your USB port and permits you to download your images by inserting a memory card in it. This is preferred over downloading from your camera/cable because your camera's battery juice will quickly render your camera's battery dead, especially if you are downloading several hundred photographs. The memory card reader acts as an auxiliary drive. Just make sure you get a memory card reader specifically made for your type of memory card and that it can handle a high capacity card such, i.e. 4GB (Gigabyte) flash card.
In closing, it is important to determine your budget for all of your photographic needs before you start spending. Whether a hobby or soon to be home-based business, your photographic equipment can quickly add up in price. It is not uncommon to spend thousands of dollars after the digital photography bug bites you.
Ryan Shapiro is a freelance digital photographer based in Germantown, Maryland. His most recent clients include Kerrigan Media International and Harvard Graduate School of Education.
You may reach Mr. Shapiro at: http://www.digitalstockpro.com
shuttle from O'Hare Bingham .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareFor years I wondered how big the bucks were that... Read More
Quality digital cameras are becoming affordable for just about everyone... Read More
Let's start there (but not spend too much time on... Read More
When I promised readers that I was going to do... Read More
The world of photography is an amazing one. It's been... Read More
Reflected Light Readings for Film and Digital ImagesIn order to... Read More
As you might imagine the paradigm shift from traditional film-based... Read More
Think about Laurel and Hardy for a moment, or Charlie... Read More
So your picture came out less then perfect. Blemishes or... Read More
Why is a 3 megapixel camera better than a 1... Read More
Kids grow up so quickly and while we are often... Read More
Digital photography promises much. Store your photographs on your computer,... Read More
ContentEven if you feel that you already know what kind... Read More
You may have joined the photo-sharing craze to share your... Read More
So you have this great new camera. Now you're standing... Read More
So you have this great digital camera and you've taken... Read More
Elephants in the Sky[1980s, Lee Evens in Mali, Timbuktu/Africa]Advance: Lee... Read More
Love is in the air at the Venice Rookery. The... Read More
How many of the birthday party pictures you've seen are... Read More
The article given here was written for Adobe Photoshop 5,6,7,CS,... Read More
Family vacations, summer weddings and family reunions are in full... Read More
If you think that digital cameras are for snapshots only,... Read More
Too many people have the idea that being paid to... Read More
Almost all of us will have seen this particular photographic... Read More
So you have rushed out into the malls in a... Read More
Mishawaka limo O'Hare ..In a device such as a digital camera it is... Read More
When my old Olympus digital camera got broke while caving... Read More
Did you know that in many cases digital photos are... Read More
Using a digital camera to take pictures is great. It's... Read More
With modern technology in the form of SLR digital cameras,... Read More
Disposable cameras are cheap and easy to use. If you... Read More
Think about Laurel and Hardy for a moment, or Charlie... Read More
If you think that digital cameras are for snapshots only,... Read More
There are two types of underwater camera systems: an ""amphibious""... Read More
Early cameras of the 16th and 17th century were able... Read More
Photography with the aid of a digital camera is beyond... Read More
Some of the best images can be captured during the... Read More
What I learned from a mentor that enabled me to... Read More
Sony was the first company to introduce digital cameras into... Read More
If you're like me, you have hundreds of photographs sitting... Read More
Elephants in the Sky[1980s, Lee Evens in Mali, Timbuktu/Africa]Advance: Lee... Read More
Good wildlife safari photography is not only about composition and... Read More
Digital Photo Diary - memories that last a life timeThe... Read More
There are a large number of digital camera accessories available... Read More
I once heard a lady say to a photographer that... Read More
If you have hopes of becoming a professional photographer, or... Read More
Almost any shot will look better if you take two... Read More
The Vacation Season is fast approaching and naturally you will... Read More
I've been practising wildlife photography on safari for over twenty... Read More
So you have rushed out into the malls in a... Read More
Photography |