This information is Copyright January 2006 by http://www.santaclausca.com and Loring Windblad. References for this article include the author’s personal knowledge and experience. Additional information references with first article. This article may be freely copied and used on other web sites only if it is copied complete with all links and text, including this header, intact and unchanged except for minor improvements such as misspellings and typos.

OK, you have read my article Digital Photography: The Basics, and checked out all the references above and their good information, and you are ready to decide on your new camera. The final pieces of choosing your digital camera are determining just what you are going to use the camera for and how much money you have available to invest in your camera. Your considerations should be 1) your purpose for using the camera, 2) quality of product (particularly the lens), 3) megapixel rating of the camera and 4) buy the best camera you can afford.

Are you really ready to buy just yet? Well, maybe, then again, maybe not? Your overriding consideration for this purchase must be quality of image. Almost equally of importance is your intended use. Are you going into photography as a professional? As an amateur? To make video records? Still image records? A combination of still and video? How much local processing will you be doing on your pictures – i.e., color corrections, readying them for internet use, putting them into just libraries or creating presentations with them? How many pictures will you be taking at a time; i.e., how much memory will you need for your camera before you dump the pictures onto your computer?

Do you need a video camera which will provide JPG stills? Do you need a video camera which will provide both JPG stills and MPG video as well as regular video? Do you need a still camera (JPG) which will provide you AVI or MPG video clips? Or do you need a professional quality SLR which will provide JPG still images only?

Simply saying “I’m going to get the best, most expensive, digital SLR I can find” doe not mean this camera will meet your photographic needs. What if you want, or need, both digital stills and digital video? Check both of my video presentations at http://www.santaclausca.com. Note the sound problems in the first one which has partially been corrected in the second one.

First, I am no longer involved in professional photography except coincidentally. So I guess that means “Yes, I am involved in professional photography” – at least as far as the above link goes, with my Santa Claus work. We started with my wanting a good quality 35mm SLR when we got married. And I replaced it with a better one a few years later. Then we decided we wanted to add video, and got a high-end JVC VHS camcorder, one of the new smaller ones. A few years into that and we decided to go with digital video. We went with a Sony TRV 140. It gives us Digital Video on Digital 8 tape; it also provides us with JPG still images in the 640×480 range at about 125 kb each and 15-second video MPG, both on the “memory stick”. However, the “quality” of the still images is the equal of a 2 to 4 megapixel still camera which produces images in the .6 to 1.2 megabyte range.

This was such a great improvement over the VHS camcorder that I purchased a second Sony TRV 150 a year later, which is even better in some respects. Image quality is very high. We can make a video and take still images without interrupting the video at all. We can make 1-minute long video MPG directly on the memory stick with the JPG images. And with our new computers we can take the video output directly off the camera and onto our computers in a digital video format.

I added a cheap Mercury 3.1 mp digital camera and it was nice but overall very unsatisfactory, and very slow recovering from taking a picture and getting ready for the next picture. I found a discontinued Minolta 2 mp digital camera for a reasonable price that actually took better pictures, had a 3X optical zoom lens (the equivalent of 35mm to 135mm lens on a 35mm SLR) and was not so slow on recovery and readying as the Mercury. It was also less susceptible to blurring if you did not hold it perfectly still – a better shutter action.

Later I found on an eBay auction a Fuji 2.2 mp digital camera which I accidentally won high bid on? Hah! That’ll teach me to play around with bidding on my account before I know what I’m doing. It could have been a financial disaster but I knew the price of the camera retail ($299) and the price I bid ($150) and I actually got a pretty good deal. Particularly when there were 9 others of the same Fuji model and none of them went for under $220 each.

I have learned some differences between my Minolta and Fuji. These include 4 AA batteries for the Fuji and 2 AA batteries for the Minolta. This boils down to a brighter flash and better flash results from the Fuji over the Minolta. It also makes for slightly less lag time moving from one function to the next and a faster shutter time (less delay) when you take a picture. The resultant pictures are about 865 mb compared to 675 mb from the Minolta. But if I need audio on the AVI video clips the Fuji does not provide it. I have to use the Minolta for audio tracks on the video clips.

I’m actually very satisfied with both cameras, and with the two Sony digital video cameras as well. And while the digital still image quality from the Sony jpg’s is very high, the 125 kb size does not allow printing of anything larger than 4″x6″ while I can print very satisfactory 8″x10″ pictures from both the Fuji and Minolta cameras. I have two 256 MB SD memory sticks for the Fuji and Minolta digital cameras, each of which provides about 285 pictures. Nice for trips somewhere. And I have a 128 MB and 64 MB chip as well.

As to the Sony video cameras, they do come in handy. We do most of our picture taking with the Memory Stick and JPG/MPG pictures and video clips. This is a lot of fun and makes for nice memories. A few times, however, I have been called upon to take videos of presentations, 1-2-3 hours long. The Sony video cameras come in very handy for those, too. But on trips or traveling around, my sweetie usually carries the Sony while I carry the digital and film still cameras.

We actually chose the Hi8 digital format when we purchased our Sony cameras a few years ago; were we to make the same decisions today we would simply go with the straight digital format instead of Hi8. For the Sony’s, we have two 64 MB memory sticks for the TRV-140 and we have two 256 MB memory sticks for the TRV-150. If we did no video clips at all the 256 MB memory stick would give us almost 2000 jpg images and make a standard 1-hour-per-tape home movie at the same time. Three hours of video plus 2000 still pictures would cover a very long trip.

However, when I really need versatility and the highest quality possible, I continue to use my 35mm Minolta film camera. It takes about 20 mp of digital picture to equal the quality of the 35mm film results – and we aren’t there yet. The last I checked we were at about 12 mp for digital quality. So I still shoot a lot of film; I just process it anymore by having it put right to CD in digital format, with no prints. I usually start out any trip we take with 10 rolls of 35mm film of the finest grain I can get by with – ASA 100.

So lets take one final look at the “image quality” question. 125 kb from the Sony, as high quality as the lenses are, simply does not compare to 675 or 865 kb from the Minolta and Fuji still cameras. Nor do they compare even remotely to the 925 kb pictures I get from the film. And that’s a bone of contention for me because 2 years ago my film pictures came back at about 1.5 mb each; then all of a sudden a couple of years ago they started coming back at 1.1-1.2 mb and for the last year plus they are in the 900 kb range? The quality is still good, but we’re dealing with pixels here rather than film grain.

If you have any kind of angled surface – i.e., any angle not either vertical or horizontal – you will have a low-resolution result. The reason is that pixels are squares. When my film (dots of color) is converted to digital (squares of color) I lose the higher resolution capability of dots to produce angled and curved lines.

OK, you say, I’ve got 8 megapixels. That gives me much better resolution than your 2.2 megapixels? Well, yes it does but not near as good as my film camera provides! Nor good enough to make 18X24 or 24X30 prints. 12 megapixels still only gives us high quality at 11X14 or perhaps 16X20. The reason is that as the little squares of color become visible they tend to blur the edges of angled and rounded objects whereas the dots from a film negative tend to keep those same lines sharp. So even though the film gives me higher resolution, the conversion to digital format costs me some resolution.

There’s one more important factor that goes into this matter before you decide on your particular camera needs. This is the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom. Let’s say that you get a camera with 3X optical and 4X digital zoom and they “sell you” on this model because it is “effectively 12X zoom”! And well, yes, it is “effectively 12X zoom”! But just what does that mean? Not all that much.

The optical zoom part is the only important factor. Typically a 3X optical zoom on a digital camera would give you a lens that corresponded to 35mm x 135 mm focal length on a 35mm camera – i.e., wide angle to short telephoto (actually what used to be known as a “portrait” lens). What the digital feature actually does is not enlarge your image but enlarge your pixels. This actually reduces the quality of the resultant picture because it is reducing the total number of pixels per square inch in your final product. The other downside of digital zoom is that you must put your camera on a tripod and make sure you don’t jiggle it when you snap the shutter – otherwise you will definitely get blurred pictures.

As you can see, choosing your camera or cameras to fit your needs is not all that quick and easy and may actually involve owning more than one camera. Maybe several cameras. But for your still image work you should choose a camera that has at least 6X to 10X optical zoom (totally disregarding any claims for digital zoom) and 4-5 megapixels or larger image. Also, make sure that the camera has a mike pickup for digital video sequences. You don’t need to use this capability but you can’t use it if you don’t have it.

So now you have your cameras and you need to know what to do with the pictures? Well, see my next article, Digital Photography: Using Windows XP (to manage your digital pictures).

About the Author

Loring Windblad worked as a freelance photographer for more than 20 years. He and his wife presently own and regularly use 1 VHS camcorder, 2 digital 8 camcorders and two digital still cameras. His latest business endeavor is at: http://www.santaclausca.com –

When photographers are hired to do a wedding, these professionals know what it takes to get the right shot. These people may not always tell the client to strike a pose and shoot but wait patiently to be able to catch that memorable shot.

There are a lot of great shots that can be taken during a wedding. Here are a few basic styles and techniques for those who also want to capture the event using a digital camera.

1. The individual should take these pictures with a good background or in a not so crowded place so the attention will focus on the newly weds or those who are the intended targets in the shot.

2. If there is a nice background in the back and it is hard to get both, the photographer should shoot the couple from shoulder up. Everyone will be happy and pleased when the pictures come out.

3. If some of the guests are wearing classes, these people can be advised to stand sideways or tilt the head down a little to avoid the reflection that usually occurs when the flash is used.

4. The individual should zoom in or out if there are only two or a group of people in the picture. This will also catch everyone in the shot instead of only getting half of person?s body when the print comes out. This will be embarrassing so the image has to be reviewed at once and deleted so another one can be taken.

5. Proper lighting must be observed at all times. The person must not shoot the couple or the gusts against the light because only a dark image will appear after the picture has been taken.

6. The photographer should also get some stolen moment shots. This should be done when the husband or wife is doing something else or is not looking. This is the trademark of many professionals that is done during the ceremony or the reception.

People will enjoy shots such as the cutting of the cake, the toast and the first kiss or dance. The pictures taken can?t be done again so the individual must be alert and present to get these images on camera.

Photography is truly an art. The person must practice the basics and learn from others to be able to do well in a wedding.

There has been a tremendous increase in the number of books on digital photography in recent years, including books on specialized aspects. You can find excellent books on such specialized topics as digital black and white photography, digital night photography and digital infrared photography. And nothing beats the pleasure of reading a book at your ease and convenience.

?Complete Digital Photography? by Ben Long is one of the best books on digital photography. It provides basic as well as specialized information. It even gives a lot of useful tips for shopping your new camera. It?s the perfect book for people who are just venturing into digital photography

The book explains most technical aspects of digital photography. By the time you?ve finished it, you?ll be able to shoot properly and edit the photos. The entire process of digital photography from the moment the image is captured to printing the final image is explained in simple language.

?Complete Digital Photography? is divided into four sections. Part 1 covers the basics.

Part 2 tells what features you might want to look for in your new camera.

Part 3 talks about setting up your shot, choosing the correct exposure, using a flash and using a histogram.

Part 4 tells you how to edit and otherwise ?fix? your photos. It ends with instructions on printing them.

In addition to printed books, you can buy many good e-books on digital photography, if you are looking for economic and easily accessible information right now.

Good luck!

There has been a tremendous increase in the number of books on digital photography in recent years, including books on specialized aspects. You can find excellent books on such specialized topics as digital black and white photography, digital night photography and digital infrared photography. And nothing beats the pleasure of reading a book at your ease and convenience.

?Complete Digital Photography? by Ben Long is one of the best books on digital photography. It provides basic as well as specialized information. It even gives a lot of useful tips for shopping your new camera. It?s the perfect book for people who are just venturing into digital photography

The book explains most technical aspects of digital photography. By the time you?ve finished it, you?ll be able to shoot properly and edit the photos. The entire process of digital photography from the moment the image is captured to printing the final image is explained in simple language.

?Complete Digital Photography? is divided into four sections. Part 1 covers the basics.

Part 2 tells what features you might want to look for in your new camera.

Part 3 talks about setting up your shot, choosing the correct exposure, using a flash and using a histogram.

Part 4 tells you how to edit and otherwise ?fix? your photos. It ends with instructions on printing them.

In addition to printed books, you can buy many good e-books on digital photography, if you are looking for economic and easily accessible information right now.

Good luck!

About the Author:

http://www.travel-outdoor-tips.com http://www.recreation-news-magazine.com

–

Digital sensor is an important matter of consideration for a digital camera owner. The quality of the photography depends on the size of the sensor. The larger the sensor the better will be the quality of the photograph. This fact plays a vital role in choosing the perfect digital camera.

The size of the sensor affects digital photography

The final image is an outcome of the various pixels that are arranged by the sensor of the camera. Soon after clicking on the shutter button, the pixels start to accumulate the photons in a cavity. After completion of exposure, camera confines those pixels and find out the number of photons that are attached to each other. Now these photons are compiled in accordance with the levels of intensity. But all these can only give you a colorless image. There are some filters on the cavities that release the specific color of light into those cavities. All the contemporary digital cameras are unable to capture all the three primary colors. Only one of the three primary colors gets into each cavity. Thus the camera needs to estimate the remaining two colors to get the adequate information about all the three colors at every pixel.

Bayer array is one of the commonest color filters used in digital cameras and passes on all the information about different primary colors to each pixel. Higher or lower resolution of photograph depends on the array.

In a very precise meaning a sensor is a silicon semiconductor meant for acquiring photons and converting them into electron. The size of the sensor is, perhaps, the second most important thing just after the quantity of mega pixels. Though the size of the sensor has a huge range, generally it is of two basic categories. The sensor of DSLRs comes under the range of 24×16mm to 36×24mm, but it remains of the range of 8×6mm in the case of a consumer camera. The size of the sensor affects the performance of the camera and decides the intensity of sensor produced noise. Noise, actually, worsen the images of digital camera. If the sensor is smaller than actual requirement, then the camera is unable to capture the full view of the image. Fisheye lens can actually compensate this to some extent. But one, who really does not want to compromise with the quality of the image, should only go for the camera having adequate size of sensor. In case the sensor is small, centre of the lens captures the image. Since maximum portion of the image passes through the centre of the lens, quality of the lens becomes very important factor to consider. The quantity of light that reaches into the pixel is very less. Therefore useful image is only available after proper enlargement of the same.

There is a relation between sensor and crop factor. In this case, because of limited size, while using 35mm lens, the sensor crop out the inferior quality portion of the image. This is simply because the fact that the image passes through the centre of the lens in case of smaller sensor and the image remains sharpest at that position. The use of lens becomes a meaningless practice if the sensor of the camera is undersized. But a 2/3 or even ? size can give optimum output if it is used with a 35mm lens.

In upshot, it can be concluded that finding out a pixel pitch of a given sensor, while buying a digital camera can be tricky. However, one can seek the help of certain review sites that provide the information about recent models including their sensors.

About the Author:

OpenDP Digital camera buying guide web site. Visit OpenDP and get the hottest photography tips on shooting and buying guides on sports, portraits, weddings, birds and wildlife, underwater seascapes, landmarks, flowers and nature and more

Panoramic digital photos cover a wide angle of view. In its extreme a panoramic photo can cover 360 degrees of view. Such panoramic photos are for example taken from a sky scraper to convey the view it provides. Most new digital cameras provide a panoramic mode that supports such photography.

There is no formal or definitive definition of what a panoramic photo is. It is common practice to define panoramic photos as such that cover a wide angle of view. How wide? A common definition is “wider than our eyes can see” – or in other worlds – provide an artificial view that otherwise we could not have gotten by just looking at the scene (without moving our head left and right or up and down of course). Panoramic digital photos can be taken in a single shot using special panoramic wide angle lenses. This technique is limited of course as for example a 360 degree panoramic photo can not be taken this way.

Another way in which panoramic photos are created is in segments – a few photos are taken in series and are later attached to each other to create one big panoramic photo. The process of attaching the photos together is fast and easy thanks to modern digital photo processing software (as long as you’re following some guidelines when taking the photos). Panoramic photos are not limited to capturing landscape or wide angle view. They can be very useful when capturing objects that are just too big to be captured from where you stand. For example if you are standing too close to a tall tower and can not retreat to a farther position – using panoramic photography will enable you to capture the complete tower (in 2 or more shots).

Most digital cameras support a special panoramic mode. In this mode the camera optimizes its optical settings for panoramic wide angle photography. But more than just setting the optical parameters the camera also provides tools that allow you to more easily take the photos series and later on stitch them together. When put in panoramic mode the camera will first let you choose if you plan to take a horizontal panoramic photo (i.e. taking photos from left to right or right to left while keeping the vertical position fixed) or to take a vertical panoramic photo (i.e. taking the photos from bottom to top or top to bottom while keeping the horizontal position fixed). You can also choose a combination.

After you choose the panoramic mode – the camera will let you start taking the photos. On its LCD screen you would always see the previous photo you took and the new photo you are taking. This allows you to easily compose each photo in a way that it complements the previous one. You would also want to make sure the photo overlaps a bit with the previous photo – this allows for easier photo stitching later on. The camera also names the digital photos files in a special format that further helps stitching.

Photo stitching can be easily done on a computer at home. Many digital cameras come with a photo stitching software. If your digital camera did not come with one you can find either free or low priced commercial software that can stitch single photos. Basically what the photo stitching software does is: based on the photo file names it orders the photos in their right order. Then it identifies the overlapping areas in each pair of photos and places the photos in a way that these overlapping areas match (this is why having a bit of overlap is important). The final step is to attach all those pairs of files and create a single panoramic digital photo.

It is a good practice to use a tripod when taking panoramic photos. A tripod will help you maintaining either a fixed horizontal or a fixed vertical position. Also it is good practice to keep the optical settings fixed between shots and to make sure that the lighting stays the same. As always practice makes perfect – go and experiment with panoramic photography and master your digital camera panoramic mode.

About the Author

Ziv Haparnas writes about science and technology. Find more on photo printing and photography is on printrates.com – a place about digital photo printing This article can be published as long as the resource box including the backlink is included. Ziv Haparnas is an expert in technology. –

Have you ever noticed that in digital photography there always seems to be photos of fork lightening that some clever photography enthusiast has mastered? The fact is that digital photography is a challenge and as soon as we develop the interest in digital photography we are challenging ourselves from the start. And a real challenge in digital photography is fast moving subjects. And when it comes to either traditional or digital photography catching electrifying fork lightening just is too much of a enticement to see if we can ?win? the challenge.

So how do we apply our digital photography to sharp, brilliant streaks of colour over our images?

Getting great shots of forked lightening is not as difficult as you would think, or have been led to believe.

As a digital photography teacher I can honestly say that the first thing people do it buy way to much equipment for this exercise. You really just need a few simple things. A camera and a tripod are the main things.

The main challenge in digital photography when taking lightening shots is where to position yourself. I?ve had many a frustrating time, in the early days of my photography, trying to get the best angle, the best position only to find I had the camera pointed at completely the wrong part of the sky. And some of my digital photography lightening exposures were all wrong. I was thinking it was as hard as trying to predict a horse race with a crystal ball until I worked out the logic of it all and it started to become a lot of fun.

The first thing to keep in mind is to make sure your shutter is open. Lightening is sharp, short and sweet. Its important to get the most out of the long, open shutter speed by leaving it open for a long time. You can do this with confidence on a really black night such as being in the country on a dark night without any city lights or too many clouds around for the light to bounce off. In the country you may have the freedom to leave the shutter open for as long as 60 seconds.

However in the city it?s a bit different. What tends to happen is that due to other light in the atmosphere, light from buildings, streets and cars you can see this scene turns out much brighter on a 60 second shutter speed.

A quick way to get great lightening shots is to find a good place to set up where you know lightening is either happening or is about to happen. Take your tripod, camera and shutter release cable. The great thing about a shutter release cable is that once the lightening has struck there is no need to keep the shutter open and you can simply press it the shutter will close.

Try setting your aperture to about an f 8 or so and leaving the shutter open from anywhere between 10 seconds to 60 seconds. (Setting B). Set your IS0 at 100, set the focus to infinity and wait.

Digital Photography Safety

It?s a good idea, any time in digital photography, not to jeopardize your safety. Digital photography is intensely fun and incredibly educational and creative, but it?s not worth risking your life for. As much as it?s a beautiful spectacle, its much more wise to stay well away from lightening. It?s carrying enough energy to give your house power for two months solid, so be careful!