DIGITAL CAMERA ADVICE

Digital cameras

The digital revolution in terms of photography has given more people accessibility to their own editable imagery in a form more permanent than ever before. Whether your requirements are professional, hobbyists or just the occasional snap shooter on holiday there is something for everyone in the minefield of products available now. In most if not all cases this movement into the digital world is advantageous whichever way you look at it. But which camera is best for you and how do you make sense of all that is available if this is your first venture into this world? Digital vs Film - Advantages and Disadvantages

It is becoming more rare for people to ponder the pros and cons of digital vs film cameras these days but for the sake of those that still are. here are some of those pros and cons.

Advantages

Digital cameras give immediate viewable results, there's no developing or waiting to see if you got that vital shot. No wastage of media and so better pictures overall. Running costs are virtually nil once you've got your memory card. Batteries are usually rechargeable so once you've got a couple of sets this is all you really need. You can buy from a huge range of all types of rechargeable batteries for all types of cameras from TWENGA.

You have full editorial control via your PC or MAC computer allowing you to alter and improve your pictures, make slide shows and dvds etc.

Quality for even the cheapest cameras is generally better than it's film counterpart these days with a few exceptions at the top end and even then it's catching up fast. Digital photography is and has been used on a professional level for many years.

More sophisticated models will allow you to change the ISO rating to cope with low light conditions for each picture. With film this is constrained by the film you buy and cant' be changed. The implications of this are significant when you consider that with a film camera the solution to low light was generally a faster lens and these do not come cheap.

An SLRs CCD (on most) are slightly smaller than the 35mm they represent, (typically referred to as APS), which has one advantage. It increases the focal length of the lens by a factor or 1.4 to 1.6. This would make a 200mm lens into a 300mm lens for instance.

Other features like movie mode are often available often giving you the ability to catch action with sound.

Disadvantages

Film can still provide better quaility at the top end but Pros too have been using digital increasingly for tasks involving smaller output sizes such as magazines. It is said that in order to get to the resolution of 35mm film in digital you need around 25 megapixels. This is fast becoming a reality and even now it's indistinguishable on normal size prints.

Digital cameras cost relatively more than their film counter parts, but when you compare this to developing, printing cost this is more than offset.

The digital camera uses a sensor often refered to as CCD. These have some disadvantages. Depending on the camera they come in different sizes. It is worth noting for instance that a prosumer (all-in-one) camera has a smaller sensor than a SLR. This affects sharpness and a number of other aspects such that an 8mp prosumer will not necessarily produce better results compared to a 4mp SLR and in many cases worse.

CCDs can be prone to noise (grain like quality) particularly in low light and when ISO is pushed up higher although film will also produce noise at higher ISO ratings. Size of CCD is relevant to how much noise the camera will produce.

As listed in the advantages there are disadvantages with APS sensors, the focal length lens mulitplier gives you better reach on the zoom end and of course this is going to reduce any wide angle by the same factor.

Another unwanted effect of CCDs and in particular the smaller ones, is what is termed as blow-out. The CCD is an array of tightly packed pixels that record the light falling on them. When they are pointed towards a very bright light source (sun for instance) which is too bright for them there tends to be leakage which runs into neighbouring pixels producing a blow out of the highlights. Larger CCDs suffer less but this is still an issue with most DCs.

DCs obviously need batteries to function. The previewing is via an LCD and can deplete the power pretty fast. Consider also CPU lenses that come with SLRs also get thier power from the camera for such things as autofocussing and image stabilisation. However, it is worth noting that many cameras now have very respectable staying power and this is much less of an issue especially with rechargeables and perhaps a second set of batteries in your kit. Do bear this in mind though when choosing a camera as they do differ quite a lot in this area, check the specs for battery life.

How to choose a camera.

There's a lot to choose from, that's for sure! So what should you be considering?

Make a list of your priorities, for instance:

These are some of the questions to consider and once you've got those priorites clear, you can reckon on 3 types of camera available.

1) Point and shoot compacts (with or without zoom) - snapshooters and first camera buyers but with better results than thier film counterpart.

2) Prosumer cameras (usually look like SLRs but with a fixed all in one lens) - Serious amatuers usually.

3) SLR - Serious amatuers and pros.

That's a simplified list but good enough for a general guideline.

One thing to be aware of is the specification of the zoom optics. This is often referred to as optical zoom and digital zoom. A manufacturer might specify that their camera has a 4x optical and 10x digital zoom. The optical is the one that you should be concerned about, the digital zoom is little more than cropping and enlarging the picture which you could do on the computer easily enough. You should consider this feature as important only if you do not intend to manipulate your pictures on the computer.

Recording movie clips is a feature available on a lot of cameras (160x120 pixels - 640x480 pixels) at 15-30 fps (frames per second). Picture quality is good and whilst most cameras can automatically adjust for focus a few also allow zooming whilst recording movie clips. This can be useful for a short capture but they don't match the camcorder and it is worth noting that many camcorders will now take still pictures. It's a trade-off as the stills are not going to be as good as a DC.

How Many Megapixels do I need?

Largely the megapixel game is played to the full by the manufacturers who use this as a selling ploy without really explaining much more. The subject is not in the scope of this document but let's expound a few myths:

"8mp is better than 6mp isn't it?" - Yes, on a level playing field otherwise, not necessarily. An 8mp compact camera will be easily out performed by a 4mp SLR (Single Lens Reflex), because, as mentioned above, the CCD in the latter is larger which in simple terms leads to less noise and better dynamic range.

Bear in mind that until very recently the professional Nikon offering used by many pros was only 4mp and for many a year a good deal of those glossy magazine articles and adverts were produced by such a device. Impressive yes?

The Megapixel number therefore can be misleading. You should use this when considering the output you would like to print to. For most of us 4 mp is good enough and if you are used to getting those 4 x 6 prints from your film camera most of the time it's more than you need to get good clear sharp prints. see table below.

Film is not used in a digital camera. When you take a picture, light is captured by the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and stored as a matrix of red, blue and green coloured squares. These squares are known as pixels. The standard used to measure the size of an image is the "megapixel", which is one-million pixels.

Resolution of 3 megapixels are now found on low-end, inexpensive cameras. 3 or 4 megapixels is usually sufficient for normal use and are now priced very attractively, for the serious amatuer 8 - 10mp SLRs are appearing at an affordable price. The professional photographers tend to work 6mp - 16mp or more and have a choice of APS or Full frame CCDs.

To give a rough guide in relation to output this table will illustrate the maximum blowup sizes that would be worthwhile for the megapixels involved.

Storage

As the megapixel stakes are raised the memory requirements follow. Of course like computer memory, for the cost of 64mb memory 2 years ago you can probably buy 1GB today. This is just as well if you've got an 8mp camera and like taking lots of photos you'll probably do with 1GB. Generally if you have a PC this is probably all you need for one day or until you can dump them onto your computer and clear it. Many cameras provide a RAW format which gives you much more control over editing but at the the expense of much larger file sizes.

The type of storage may be an influencing factor on the camera you choose. Bear this in mind as there are quite a few standards which are incompatible with each other. By far the most common and long lived type is Compact Flash. You will find that many devices apart from cameras use this. It might be an advantage therefore to keep to this format if you have one or more of those devices. The most restricted types are the proprietory ones like Sony's memory stick so you will only be able to use these on Sony devices.

Below are the most common storage devices on the market, each offering a variety of storage sizes from 64MB up to 4GB

Editing your Images

If all you want to do is go down to Jessops, Boots or a handy machine round the corner armed with your memory card and return with a fist full of prints or if you've chosen a Pc-less solution in the form of a dedicated printer then there's no need to worry about editing.

For all others the big advantage of the digital camera is your own editorial control providing you have the necessary PC / MAC and the appropriate software. This allows you to rescue photographs you'd otherwise throw away because of one problem or other.

Many use photoshop but if not there's much cheaper software out there which will allow you to improve your pictures, make montages, albums and slide shows.

Many cameras bundle some kind of software usually containing separate viewing and editing software. When considering your camera give some attention to the software attached if you don't already have it as this can save a lot of money. A number of cameras put a cut down version of Photoshop - called Photoshop elements. Look out for this popular solution.

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 producers Corel provide a free trial of their software, and the freeware Irfanview contains image optimisation features. You can repair, crop & resize, sharpen, colour correct, adjust contrast & brightness, remove dust, scratches, and "red eye", create special effects, add text to your pictures and optimise them in many more ways. Many viewers now try to provide and all-in-one solution such as ACDsee these are worth a look.

Digital Printing

Home printing

Entry level colour laser printers can now be bought for under £300. Entry-level inkjet printers can now be bought for under £60. See UKorbit's Printer Advice Page for information on printers. Inks are quite expensive if you buy from the manufacturer but there are an increasing number of compatible inks for most printers that are a fraction of the price and will reduce printing cost considerably.

"PictBridge" is a feature of most new digital cameras that allows the camera to be connected directly to a printer via a cable. Images can be printed directly without the need to upload them to a computer. The process is controlled by software in the camera itself. The printer also needs to be Pict Bridge compatible.

Commercial printers

High street shops is the largest growth area with regard to digital printing. Nearly all camera shops and others that have traditionally provided a printing service, such as chemists are now offering digital printing services. Most outlets allow you to take your chosen images in on either a memory card or on a CD. They will do the rest for you. In some cases "one hour printing" is available. The norm is around two days.

Digital Video Cameras

For home movie making, a basic digital video (DV) camera with specs similar to those below costs around £250. A range of auto exposure modes should give reasonable results under all lighting conditions. An LCD monitor display screen on the camera will allow for playback "on location". If you plan to use zoom a lot, concentrate on the optical zoom spec because the effective range of the digital zoom depends upon this.

If you plan to edit video, get a camera with DV-in. You can then transfer edited footage back to MiniDV tape and produce VHS copies via the camera's S-video out. Cameras with S-video in can often be used to capture analogue video. Models with on-camera editing facilities are of little practical use as much better results will be obtained using video editing software on your PC.

DV camera minimum recommended spec

More advanced options include a good manual focus and colour viewfinder, which will make for more flexible camerawork. An external microphone will greatly improve audio capabilities, and good battery and charger options will improve the length of time you can continue filming. A high resolution CCD will improve video quality. In combination with a flash memory slot, this will allow your DV camera to double as a digital camera, but expect the quality to be quite basic. For serious film-making, expect to pay around £1,500 for a DV camera with the best optics, three CCDs and connectors to attach professional AV accessories.

Resources

Kodak offer a web-based service to provide prints from your digital images.

Buy a camera online

Books - Use 'digital photography' in the search box

Camera Reviews - A good rescource for reviews of current models

Visit UKOrbit's Consumer & Advice Centre for further help and information.