Digital Cameras & Digital Photography

Sonia Sood asked:


The Vacation Season is fast approaching and naturally you will be taking your digital camera along for the journey. After all your vacations are far and few between and it is nice to look back on those memories as you slave away at your job. However, when you travel with a digital camera, it is a completely different experience from that of traveling with a film camera. This is a lesson that far too many travelers seem to be learning the hard way, especially if you’re traveling to Europe. After a couples years of relying solely on digital for taking photos when I travel, there are things you should consider before you head off on your next trip.

Charging Batteries is one of the biggest stumbling blocks you’ll face when you travel. Outlets can be scarce in hotels. On a recent trip to Europe, only one of the five modern hotels I stayed in had more than one outlet available for use when charging up electronics. Charging your battery can be more of a hassle if you’re traveling by train: If you take an overnight train in Europe, they don’t have power adapters at the seats (certain trains do, but it’s not something you can count on). I suggest bringing at least two rechargeable batteries, three if you plan to travel with overnight trains, or don’t think you’ll be able to charge every night. If your camera uses regular AA batteries, consider yourself lucky-you’ll find those everywhere. Scope out the situation in your room when you check in: You should get at least one usable outlet, but don’t count on more than that.

Bring your plugs. Some digital cameras typically come with a power brick that can handle international voltages, so you won’t need a voltage adapter. However, you will need a power plug adapter to convert a US outlet plug to the local plug. Most of Europe is on the same outlet now-but not all countries accept the general “Europe” plug. Be sure to research what you’ll need to jack in, and try to buy it before you leave (try CompUSA, Radio Shack, Rand McNally, or your local luggage store). If you don’t have a chance to get what you need Stateside, don’t fret: You should have no trouble finding an outlet converter overseas.

How do I offload my images? For fellow travelers using digicams, this was the number one problem I have heard repeatedly. Many comments from folks traveling for a week or more are: “I’m taking more pictures than I expected to.” “I’m not shooting at the best resolution, because I need the room on my memory card.” “I’m only halfway through my trip, and I have only 50 shots left.” When you travel, odds are you’ll take more pictures than you expect to also. A 1 GB card is very useful, and should suffice for low-usage shooters. But for those of us, who can go through a gigabyte or more in a day, not a week? Whether it’s because you’re a high-volume shooter, shooting in RAW format, or a combination of the two. What I discovered is many who had digital SLRs, that had 5 megapixels or more reported they were traveling with a laptop to off load their images. None of these folks were traveling on business, so they didn’t need to bring a laptop along. The sad fact is, for now, a laptop remains the most efficient and usable means of off loading images. Epson and Nikon have dedicated handheld units with a hard drive, card reader, and LCD display for copying over and viewing your images. But neither has a full-blown keyboard. If you’re first buying a laptop, and intend to travel with it, I suggest going for the smallest one you can. Fujitsu, Panasonic, Sharp, and Sony all have models under four pounds. A laptop provides several additional advantages. For one thing, you can see your pictures on a big screen-to view how you’re doing, and if you see any problems you want to correct with your exposure, for example, or if your pictures are being affected by dirt. For another thing, you can properly label your folders, so you know which pictures were taken where. Most newer laptops have integrated memory card readers, but otherwise, you can buy a small external card reader. For the wire-free approach, use a PC Card slot adapter for your memory card; and invest in a 32-bit Cardbus adapter (Delkin and Lexar Media offer these), for speedier transfers. Nothing’s worse than coming back to the hotel after a long day of sightseeing, and needing to stay awake another 40 minutes just to off -load two 1 GB cards, at about 20 minutes a pop. If you bring a laptop, I also suggest investing in a portable hard drive. A portable hard drive can serve multiple purposes: It can be a means of backing up your photos on the go; a means of giving you a way to take your photos with you if you have to leave your laptop unattended; and a means of expansion, if you somehow manage to fill up your laptop’s built-in hard disk. If you don’t want to bring a laptop, and already have an Apple iPod, Belkin sells an attachment for using your iPod with memory cards; or, consider the pricey units from Nikon and Epson. And if you’re in a bind, remember you can always buy memory overseas. I was surprised that when I went to Europe, the prices were high, but not so outrageously so that I wouldn’t buy another card if I were in a bind. Cards were more readily available, too, than they were when I last traveled through Europe three years ago. Look at it this way: Even if you overpay on the card, you can still reuse it-which beats overpaying for a single use 35mm film cartridge when you were in a bind in years’ past.

Be prepared for problems. Things happen when you travel and I’ve had more things go awry carrying my digital SLR than I have had with my 35mm over the years. Lens paper is always useful to have on hand, but if you have a digital SLR, another supply is absolutely critical: An air blower bulb, to blast out the dust and dirt that will inevitably get trapped inside your camera. I never had problems with my 35mm SLR, but with my digital SLR, I constantly find dirt gets trapped inside, when I change lenses. And there’s nothing worse than having a splotch marring your otherwise awesome shots. Finally, remember the philosophy of redundancy. Whether your battery dies and you have no way to charge it, or you run out of space on your memory card(s), and don’t want to buy another at a higher-than-usual price, I suggest packing a second camera if you can. A digital point and shoot is a good option but I usually carry a point and shoot 35mm to use if I run into any problems just so I won’t lose any precious pictures.

sue webster asked:


The Difference Between Digicams And Film Cameras

Digital cameras – abbreviated as digicams – are the newest and most convenient method of taking photos today. While these cameras may seem daunting to people, especially members of the older generation, they are really quite easy to use. One big advantage of a digicam: you never run out of film. Let’s take a look at the differences between a digicam and a regular, old fashion film camera.

Powering your camera is the first thing to cover. Both digicams and film cameras use batteries to power them so that you can snap the photo you want. There is nothing more frustrating than your batteries dying. Most film cameras, however, use disposable batteries to power the flash. Digicams use the batteries to power the whole camera. Most models or both types of cameras use disposable AA-sized batteries, but some digicams also come with Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. These type of batteries last longer in your digicam than standard disposable one.

When you take pictures with a standard camera, you can snap them in a multitude of frame sizes and at different resolutions depending on how fast the shutter opens and closes. These are imprinted on film and needs to be developed by a professional. Digicams use a special chip to record the photos that you take and many of them offer you different options and features for your frame sizes and resolutions. Developing is a matter of downloading the pictures onto a computer and printing them, something that can be down at home.

In order to frame the picture you wish to take, you look through the optical viewfinder, line up the shot, and then snap the pictures. Digicam owners can line up their shots using the optical viewfinder or they can use the small LCD screen on the back of the camera to line up the shot. The LCD will show you exactly what the picture will look like before you take it, which saves many people’s heads from being cut off in the picture.

As mentioned earlier, in order to see the pictures taken with a traditional film camera, you need to have the film developed first. Then you pass around the glossy pictures and everyone gets the chance to see them. In order to have them developed and printed, however, you must take the film to a professional photo lab and wait as little as an hour or up to a week in order to get the photos. With a digicam you can immediately download the picture from your camera onto your computer, view and the print the ones you want without waiting and without having to pay someone to print them. With the many different photo papers available on the market today, you can save a lot of money printing your own digicam pictures as many times as you wish.You can find a great range of digicams as well as many other electronic gadgets at GadgetsAuction.com

Tywford Lamai asked:


What is most outstanding in the ongoing progress in digital photographic technology is that it enables everybody capture special moments of his or her lives with extra detail and precision more so now than ever. Enhancements in picture resolution and shutter velocity makes it uncomplicated for proficient photographers and novices to equally capture splendid pictures. And though a picture may not be perfect at the time it was shot, highly sophisticated photo-editing application packages (i.e. software) is capable of transforming the picture into a masterpiece of art in no time flat!

Guess What? One of the enormous rewards of digital photography is that it allows you to rapidly and without difficulty distribute your pictures and snapshots with acquaintances and relatives wherever they may be on earth via electronic mail (e-mail). Do you care to remember the hassle that you would have gone through if you tried using your old your film camera to do that?

Veteran digital or film photographers affirm that timing is, for the most part, a major important issue for shooting a first-class picture. There is only a small, fraction of time available to capture a grand shot. Be it a shot of a splendid sunset or a snapshot of athletes as they cross the finish line, your timing must be razor-sharp, this is the intuition that lets you know precisely when to depress that shutter knob. This is the reason why digital photography is an art form.

To a large extent, majority of photographers never really actualize their dream of shooting that “perfect” shot. For instance, their picture may be framed well, but the lighting is not exactly right. Or maybe they’ve got the lighting accurately, but they forget to use the flash or red-eye decreasing option. Instances like these give digital photography an obvious edge because it offers a brilliant method to getting the precise look you intended to capture in a picture.

Guess what? A second tremendous advantage of digital photography is its capability to print out your snapshots almost instantly. Whereas with film cameras you would have had to take the film to be processed before going back to pick them up, digital photography gives you an instant alternative!

All shots taken via a digital camera can be altered digitally via photo-enhancing software to attain its full potential - color improvement, zoomed or cropped to their finest size, red-eye reduction etc., etc. All of these editing options occur within minutes, giving you the opportunity and advantage of having the most outstanding photos ever shot.

The tag-team of a high-quality digital camera and a good photo-editing software package can achieve great things. Your camera has built-in capabilities that represent only the start of the editing potential expected of the digital photographic era.

Guess what? Another gigantic advantage of digital photography is the ability for you to tweak and change your pictures and images in any way that you please. Due to the fact that your photos are in digital files, they can be worked on in photo-editing software packages that enables you adjust the images in a variety of ways thereby enhancing its final output.

Editing software can be utilized to tweak images in any way you wish. Retailers locally and online can furnish you with the gear, photo-enhancing software, and information you require to capture splendid digital photographs. Before settling on a choice of digital camera, you ought to verify that it has all the features and options that you require for your work. Go for models having not only the capability to deliver those great pictures you so require but that also boasts simple docking methods for transferring these pictures from the camera to your printer or PC. High-quality photo-enhancing software that enables you modify your digital images include: Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo Album and Kodak Picture.

So, now you know all about the advantages that digital photography has over your basic film camera technology. Bottom line? Your choice of camera/technology, should ultimately be informed by what you intend to achieve at the end of the day! Have fun.