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Subject: 
Re: Camera ?'s
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.publish
Date: 
Tue, 24 Dec 2002 22:47:51 GMT
Viewed: 
1350 times
  
In lugnet.publish, William R. Ward writes:
"John Henry Kruer" <jhkruer@yahoo.com> writes:

I don't know about a video camera, but for a still camera you should look for:

Resolution (megapixels)- you can crop small stuff out of large pictures that
you couldn't do otherwise with smaller sizes, and get more detail

Personally I leave my camera set to 640x480 most of the time, though
it can do 1024x768 (1.3 megapixels).  That's all you need if you're
just going to post it on the web.  Higher resolution (i.e. more
megapixels) is only needed if you want to print the pictures on paper
or show them on a monitor locally - for the web, they're too big (in
terms of bytes).

Well, not always.  What I ment is that, using high resolutions, you can, in
effect, do a 'digital zoom' on an image-editing program.  For example:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/tboy/Misc/monkey.jpg

I took a 2048x1536 picture, then cropped out a 640x480 section, which held a
monkey.  The result was a monkey that filled the screen, and looked very big
and detailed- you can see all the nicks in the pieces.

Now, if you just pocked the camera at the monkey, trying to get it to fill
the whole screen, it would appear as a blurred blob, because the camera
won't focus that close.

The primary use of high-res images for me on the internet is to crop out
sections, making very nice close-ups.



Zoom:  Might not be neccecary for macro photography, but still useful.  Go
for optical zoom, its real zoom.  Digital zoom is just adding pixels into an
image to make it bigger- it dosn't add any real detail.

Actually digital zoom is just cropping done for you by the camera.  It
takes the picture using its highest resolution but then crops out the
outside edge.  That's why digital zoom pictures can not be made at the
maximum size.  But optical zoom adds considerably to the price, so you
need to decide if it's important enough.

We're both right.
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/Glossary/Digital_Imaging/Digital_zoom_01.htm

Digital zoom can be cropping out the center OR interloping a section to make
it larger.  That's why on my camera, you can digital zoom on highest-res
images.  But you said your camera is old, so maybe that's why you'rs has a
'cropping' zoom.

Macro mode:  This allows you to take close-ups of objects.  Look at the
focusing distance on a camera, I would say anything below 4 inches makes for
a good macro.

Most cheap cameras are fixed-focus, but have "tree" and "flower"
settings, which affect the exposure.  I can take close-ups in "tree"
mode but the colors will be off.

Fixed-focus... ugh.


Controls: Look for how much controls you have on the camera.  Automation is
nice, but being able to change white balance, ISO, exposure, flash, set
focusing, and other things as well make for good pictures.

Depends on how technical you want to get.  My camera has the
tree/flower setting and several flash modes, and that's enough for my
purposes - I get much better results with my digital than I do with my
old manual-focus Minolta SLR's.

Well... it depends on the conditions.

My camera's auto features are fine, but sometimes it just doesn't do the
right thing.  It dosn't have very many manual things (only exposure, flash,
ISO, white balance, some focal lengths, and sharpness [I wonder how that
works?]) but it can come in useful sometimes.


It's also nice if the camera can use a rechargable battery, as cameras are
large power hogs.

I use Rayovac Rechargable NiMH batteries.  The 1600 mAh AA batteries
work great.  I can use Duracells but they'll only last about two shots
before being relegated to flashlight duty...

My camera uses 1750mAh NiMH batteries,and I have to say that I like them a
lot.  Very useful things, only they take 13 hours to charge.  I have 3 sets
of them around, so there's always power around.

I would also add: get a camera that uses SmartMedia, CompactFlash, or
Memory Stick chips.  Don't rely on using a data cable to transfer
images.  Get a PCMCIA adapter for the memory card and you can use any
laptop to download the images, and it's even faster than USB.  Also,
with the USB cable to the camera, you have to install software on the
computer, which limits your ability to download pics into someone
else's computer.  And buy a big memory card to supplement the one the
camera comes with, so you can go longer between downloads.

Mine didn't require software to use the USB.  The software it came with was
pretty bad, and was way to slow and cumbersome.  I just use windows
explorer.  But I still use USB... my parents don't want to get anything better.


Caveat: my camera is an Olympus D-360L and it's a couple of years old,
so I'm not sure what the latest technology offers...

My camera is a Sony DSC-P71
http://www.megapixel.net/reviews/sony-p71/p71-review.html
I like it, although it tends to be a bit dark.


-JHK



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Camera ?'s
 
(...) [...] (...) Doing film photography I learned that it's best to do your cropping when you take the picture, rather than afterward. So I try to compose all my pictures how I want them in the end, without cropping. Not that I always succeed, and (...) (22 years ago, 25-Dec-02, to lugnet.publish)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Camera ?'s
 
(...) Personally I leave my camera set to 640x480 most of the time, though it can do 1024x768 (1.3 megapixels). That's all you need if you're just going to post it on the web. Higher resolution (i.e. more megapixels) is only needed if you want to (...) (22 years ago, 24-Dec-02, to lugnet.publish)

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