| By Administrator,
on 07-06-2008 00:00
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Published in : Reviews, Cameras |
To the beginning: digital camera in comparision with a film camera has own bugs and own features. Not all of the old rules do apply. There are a lot of half-truths going around about photography. Generally, the various photographic equipment companies spread one or two of them for marketing purposes, and then the various photography magazines and megasites play along because they realize that to go against what the photography companies want is a great way to not get access to the latest and greatest for review. Disinformation have caused unexperienced users to buy inappropriate (as a rule too complex and therefore too expensive) cameras. And there are plenty of bad habits already forming by users of this relatively young technology.
#1: “More Pixels Are Better-1”
Are you make really large prints, for example, 3x3' (1x1 m)?
99% of your prints are in album-size (4x6” or 10x15 cm)?
When you give negative answers on both questions, it means you don’t need 6-7-8 megapixels, and unserious 3.2 Mpix are good enough. Look on a table below.
| Print size, cm | Image size, pixels | Sensor size, Megapixels | | 9 x 13 | 1063 x 1535 | 1,6 | | 10 x 15 | 1181 x 1772 | 2,1 | | 13 x 18 | 1535 x 2126 | 3,3 | | 15 x 20 | 1772 x 2362 | 4,2 | | 18 x 24 | 2126 x 2835 | 6,0 | | 20 x 30 | 2362 x 3543 | 8,4 | | 30 x 40 | 3543 x 4724 | 16,7 |
The photo prints from the lab have resolution about 300 dpi, and in this table made evaluation of theoretical resolution, when number of pixels on a print less or equal with number of pixels on an image. In real life you can make prints at least one grade more then theoretical calculation. And you never find any errors.
If you want to spend big money, it’s better to invest on a camera with more useful features like a really good zoom lens or image stabilization.
#2: “More Pixels Are Better-2” Achievments of microelectronics make possible to place a millions of pixels onto CCD sensors: 10, 12 MPix at the moment of time is usual value. A digital SLR with a quality lens and a large sensor can provide 10 megapixels with good quality. A point-and-shoot with tiny sensor can't. For P&S's upper limit IMO is somewhere about 4-5 MPix. Some authors define even more strong limitations for pixels count. Another side of it is producing of image noise and decreasing dynamic range. First trouble is better viewed on high ISO values (maximal for your camera - 800, 1600 etc). Sometimes it's only solution to have good shutter speed. But you may foung random colour dots on a solid, ecpecially darkest places. This problem has a long physical explanation about minimal pixel size, but I don't want to go so deep. For more details you may visit this site. But this is a problem of compact cameras with large sensors - above 5-6 Mpix. Indeed, cameras with 2-3 Mp have a noice too, but its amount is not so critical. Well, and what's about DSLR with high pixel number? It is a less problem, because they use larger sensors, and each pixel is also larger. #3: "Anti-Shake Make Sharp Pictures In Any Light" Typical example of half-lie. Yeah, anti-shake able to suspend hand tremor, but it is not an absolute weapon. When you try to shoot night city from a moving car, no chances to get acceptable photos. You may win 2-3 eV, and that's all. If without of anti-shake you may shoot with exposure up to 1/60s, with anti-shake you [may be] can reach 1/15s (sure, if you subject not running aroung you  ). This photo made without of any anti-shake and without of any tripod. Exposure was 1/10s. See EXIF data With wide-angle lenses this feature works better, with long-focus lenses it works worth. This is usual dependence. But when you really need long exposures, take a tripod. The term ISO is one more legacy from good old film photography. It is an international standard for describing the light sensitivity of film. In the USA they use the abbreviation ASA, but the actual values are the same. Standard consumer film ranges from ISO 50 to ISO 400, and the higher the number the more sensitive the film. Technically films differ in the amount of tiny silver particles in emulsion. In digital cameras there is only one sensitive element and ISO application, which regulates the different processing of data from the sensor. Typical settings for automatic mode is somewhere in the range of ISO 64 – ISO 100. So you can have your ISO as high as you want if you can accept the increased noise and reduced dynamic range. Just because your camera with a grain-of-salt-sized sensor has an ISO 8000 setting doesn't mean you can actually take a good picture at 8000 ISO. You need a big sensor like the digital SLRs to look even nearly good at high ISO settings. The tiny sensor in your typicall P&S camera has only marginally improved in the past few years. In fact, most modern P&S cameras have smaller sensors (and with smaller pixels!) than before, so their noise is likely worse. It's just that they've tweaked the software so it appears like there's less noise in the image, generally at the cost of actual resolution. They do this not because it will result in a better camera, but because they want ISO speed to be the next feature they heavily advertise to people who don't know cameras well. Remember, however, that Nikon's advertising for the D3 (6400 with boost up to ISO 25600) is not a lie.  But it is not an amateur camera.
#5: “Digital Zoom - Rulezzzz!”
You may have seen cameras described as having “4x optical/6x digital zoom, 24x total zoom power!” Looks good, but for newcomers only. If you try digital zoom at least once, you never want to repeat, because of blurry images. While a real (or optical) zoom will appear to bring distant objects close, digital zoom simply stretch a part of the image. It’s like cutting a document-size photo from a poster-size print. The problem is that digital zoom enlarge pixels, and as result you got a low resolution image. Maybe on a camera's display such shots looking good, but after printing you will change your opinion. If you want a zoom lens, I suggest you look at the camera’s optical zoom specs, and forget the digital zoom numbers. 
This shot I've made with "full power" of 8x optical and 4x digital (together 32x) zoom w/o of any processing - resize only. Only the purpose - to running you out use digital zoom.
One more time: digital zoom is a lie! #6: “I can expand a space on my memory card, so I’ll just make low-resolution and/or low-quality pictures.”
You’ve been shooting away, happily creating full-sized JPEG images, and notice that you only have ten pictures left on your memory card. So, you dial down the image quality setting and suddenly you have 30 pictures remaining. Unfortunately, all those pictures will look blurry when viewed as the full-res shot.
What I can offer? Buy extra memory cards, and always have more than you think you’ll need (I have cards for about 800 shots and this volume never was exhausted).
Guys, avidity is not the best touch of nature! Now the 1 GB card costs about US $15.
#7: “I charged the battery last weekend. That should be enough.”
Well, it is not so easy. Power consumation depends on many parameters. All factors are listed below decrease number of shots with one battery pack
- flash light
- LCD screen
- autofocus (especially continued AF)
- motorised zoom
- transfer the data directly from camera to computer
Another words - any activity and any feature recharged a battery. One day you can make hundreds of shots, next day - much less. Best solution against bad surprises - bring a charged extra battery pack. Out of them, NiMH batteries have relatively fast self-discharge: 10% in first 24 hours and then about 5% per week. Doesn't matter, are batteries inserted in a camera or not, in a month a battery pack will have about half of charge. My advice: buy so called "improved NiMH" like SANYO eneloop. They are more expensive but almost free of this issue: their discharge rate is about 15% in year. #8: 100 shooting modes for better pictures! Most shooting modes are there to impress dummies novices and/or your girlfriend. When I teach people how to use their cameras, I tell them to keep their cameras in full-auto mode until they know what isn't coming out right... and then figure out what to do about it. In my opinion, when you reach that point, you are probably interested enough in photography that you are ready to learn about the image composing and related concepts and are ready for half-automatic and manual modes. If you are not interested in learning about the concepts of photography, you are probably not interested in learning about what each of the modes does and when you want to use it. Anyway, if you will need "sepia" or "B/W" on this competence level, you would prefer to use image editor. I suspect that a very short list of modes would be more or less useful, maybe Sunset, Night, and Action, but it turned into a numerical figure to compare cameras with and therefore got out of control. #9: 10x Zoom Camera Thal Looks Like DSLR (but smaller and cheaper)  I like "prosumer" cameras because of their wide number of features and their powerful zooms. But these cameras are not free from problems. Every zoom lens is a composite optical device, and high magnification lenses are extremely complex. To manufacture them without any compromises between quality and price is impossible. In middle-level cameras this solution tends to be in favour of price. Happily, developers of software for photo processing know about this common problem, and tools for distortion correction are included in all photo editors.
However, consider that throughout the 18-200mm's zoom range, it gets between f/3.5 (the best!) and f/5.6 (as a rule). Such lenses are "slow" and for shooting in dark conditions they need longer exposure time and/or higher ISO value. Prime lenses that are at least f/2 are available. Zoom lenses get easier to design with a smaller sensor. You can make a 10x zoom lens for a grain-of-salt sized P&S sensor with astonishing ease. They make video camera lenses with an astonishing zoom range because the sensor's even smaller and the resolution's low enough to not notice too much blur and diffraction. Nothing currently on the market holds a candle to a real digital SLR. If were to make a camera with (for example) a 10x zoom lens like the the aforementioned Nikon 18-200mm lens and a 10 megapixel sensor, it would end up looking like you'd taken the 18-200mm lens and glued it onto the front of a SLR body. It would cost about the same. And you wouldn't have the option of using other lenses. #10: Warming (Skylight) filter to improve your digital. Unlike film, a [properly designed] digital camera is neutral in colors that anything other than a severe color shift is going to be adjustable either with the implemented white balance controls, or afterwards with a Photoshop (or your favorite image editor, even in Picasa). For your average user who just wants to take pictures, they'll probably leave the camera in Auto white balance mode. If somebody insists on trying to sell you a warming filter for your digital camera, ask why he's trying to sell you such a piece of crap that it won't adjust white balance on its own properly. Note that an advanced photographer can and will carefully work with white balance and they might have sufficient understanding to find situations where a warming filter on the lens would be handy. I certainly don't have any uses for a warming filter on a digital. The markup on cheap, uncoated, no-name filters is rather high, so it's a good way for a camera store to make up for having to compete with online merchants. When selling gear on eBay, it allows you to say "comes with 3 filters!" where one of them is a warming filter, one is a UV filter, and one is a CPL. Even with film, if you were shooting print film, it didn't matter what kind of warming filter you used, the results would be the same because the printing machine try to adjust the colors to look "correct" on his opinion. More information about filters you can found here #11: Point and shoot camera with a Zeiss/Schneider/etc. lens  In the "film age", german company Karl Zeiss was unmatched in lenses. Eventually, everybody else got better. At this point, regardless of who developed the lenses.... Zeiss, Schneider, Canon, Mamiya, Nikon, or even Sigma or Tamron most of the time... most folks aren't going to be able to tell the difference between any two similar lenses built to similar quality standards.
People are brand sensitive when they are not equipped to analyze for themselves the relative merits of what they are choosing between, which is why Sony pays Zeiss money every year to put Zeiss-branded lenses on their cameras. Why to pay more just for a label? #12: 3X teleconverter so you can make a 600mm lens out of your 70-200mm zoom! A teleconverter works like a magnifying glass for your lens. It sits behind it and enlarges the central portion of the image. You cannot get something out of nothing. A 2x teleconverter costs you two stops of light and reduces your image quality. In the days of prime lenses, a teleconverter was a good deal because your f/2.0 50mm lens became a f/4 100mm lens with a teleconverter. Also, remember that most cameras will stop being able to autofocus below f/5.6 your viewfinder is going to be awfully dim and hard to see through at f/5.6. A 1.4x or maybe a 2x teleconverter can come in handy in some situations, generally paired with a quality prime or excellent zoom lens. But you must be ready for blurry images. But when you really need a powerful long-range lens, better to look for an old-fashioned "manual" lens on eBay.
#13: “Compose Shot With Brilliant 4" LCD Screen.”
 Most compact P&S cameras have no "usual" optical viewfinder at all. It shows the entire photo, but don’t rely on your LCD screen to be sure if your picture correctly exposed. Why? The screen may display images brighter or darker than they’ll appear on your computer monitor. Another problem is the ambient light in the location where you’re looking at the screen affects how the scene looks. Too much ambient light could make the screen image look dark by comparison. If there’s too dark, the image could appear misleadingly bright.
Shading the LCD screen with your hand may help, but not everywhere it's possible at all. You can also try adjusting LCD monitor brightness on your camera until it matches your computer monitor. That's not all. Such design force you to hold the camera around 20-30 cm from your eyes so you can see the image in the LCD screen. It means you have very poor camera support, and many cases to move the camera by taking the picture. As a result - shaky shots.
#14: “You can print my photos at home on my photo-quality printer and save a money.”
Home printing has enough benefits, including control over the final results. But saving money is out of this list.
If all you need is a stack of album-size prints, better to go to the next photo store or download images for online processing. A typical inkjet home-made print costs around 40-50 cents per sheet 10x15 cm. If you look around, you can find online print deals for 2-3 times less. It takes time, but cases when shots should be ready "yesterday" in real life happens seldom. #15: "You Need Our New DSLR To Make Perfect Photos" In fact, any camera is just a tool, and photos are made by photographer. 90% of success depends namely on person is looking into a sight. If you are not trust me, visit Flickr Camera Finder and look for your model there. I'm sure, you will found enough A+ photos are made with same camera!. Last update: 07-06-2008 20:34
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