Lesson 3: Choosing a Digital Camera Digital Photography MITSAA Fall 2001 Rob Zehner

Three major classes of digital cameras Web-quality cameras Mid-range point-and-shoot Interchangeable-lens digital SLR’s

Web-quality cameras Fairly inexpensive - $100-$300 Low-resolution, 1 MPixel or less –only suitable for 4x6 prints Low-quality optics –typically fixed focal length Good uses –videoconferencing – photo sharing –web photography

Mid-range point-and-shoot Most popular market segment today Cost: $400-$1500 –wide range of features and options High-resolution: 3-5 Mpixel –Good enough for 8x10, possibly 11x14 prints Higher-quality optics, zoom lens standard Top-end cameras may have digital viewfinders and large lenses - so-called “ZLR’s”

Digital SLR’s Very expensive - $2,000 and up Some prominent examples –Canon D30 –Fuji S1 Pro –Nikon D1 Offer ability to use standard 35mm lenses –Must scale focal length by 1.6x to account for size of CCD Usually only 2-3Mpix!

Important Features High-quality optics “Fast” lens - large maximum aperture throughout the zoom range Large zoom ratio (ignore digital zoom) High pixel count (3Mpix or more) USB connection for file transfer External flash sync/hot shoe

A Word About Batteries Digital cameras eat batteries! Expect to get 1 hour from 4 AA alkalines Rechargeable NiMH, Li batteries will make life better Cameras with built-in recharger are best –Spare batteries for these cameras can be $$$ If you’re going on a long trip, plan on taking lots of spare batteries

Memory Standards CompactFlash –Short and thin (but not flat) –Most popular format today –CF cards are “smart” can pretend to be a hard drive or USB peripheral makes them more expensive than SmartMedia –Available in sizes up to 256 MByte –IBM Microdrives are CF standard Can store up to 1GB (more?)

Memory Standards SmartMedia –Long, flat cards with metal pads on surface –Second most popular format –Not available in larger sizes –SmartMedia cards are “dumb” Can’t emulate other devices SmartMedia is slightly cheaper than CF SmartMedia readers are more expensive than CF

Memory Standards Others: –Sony MemoryStick Looks like a piece of chewing gum Not available in large capacities Only used by Sony cameras & consumer electronics –CD-R, Mini-CD-R, 3.5” floppy Cheap, unlimited storage space Sony’s Digital Mavica uses mini-CD-R’s Older Sony cameras used 3.5” floppies for storage

Buying a digital camera Digital cameras are more like consumer electronics than film cameras Local photo store –Good service, usually good advice, may not be experts on digital technology –Prices will usually be higher than average Local retail electronics store –Will probably only have low-end models –Prices will be higher than average –Assume zero (or negative) knowledge

Buying a digital camera Ebay –On-line auctions –Prices are generally good, but not the best –Warranty protection, customer service iffy at best On-line merchants (or traditional mail-order) –Offer the best price, but require lots of legwork –May be “gray market” item –Camera is often a loss leader - store makes money on accessory sales with camera –Sometimes use questionable sales tactics

Image Manipulation Software Adobe PhotoShop –Gold standard for image processing –Fairly expensive, but worth it –Available for Mac & PC xv –Shareware image viewer for Unix/Linux –Not an editor, but can do image conversion GIMP –Open-source, powerful image editor for Linux

Photo sites on-line photo.net –Founded by MIT alumnus Phil Greenspun –Offers tutorials, equipment reviews, image sharing and critique shutterfly.com –Founded by Jim Clark (SGI, Netscape) –Film processing & scanning, image storage, prints stevesdigicams.com –Reviews and info on digital cameras

Photo sites on-line Other on-line photofinishers –snapfish.com –ofoto.com –photonet.com –NancyScans.com Pro-quality scans, prints, proofs On-line price comparison –cnet.com –webshopper.com