How To Read A Digital Camera Review And Select A Digital Camera For Your Needs
Labels: reviewDigital vs Film Camara, Whitch is Best?
Labels: reviewHaving lost count of the number of people who have asked me: have you gone digital? I am always left wondering why it's such a much-asked question. The camera is only a tool in which a photographer creates an image. His personal ability to create a unique image remains the same.
For many forms of photography, digital has long held obvious advantages, but for landscapes the resolution necessary to make larger prints just wasn't available. But things have changed and digital cameras are fast becoming the tools that most pros use.
Modern digital cameras are perfectly capably of matching the 35 mm film - the format which most landscape photographers begin with. But can they really match the large format film cameras? This is probably the greatest question that all photographers face.
Instant LCD feedback is digitals greatest gift and this enables the photographer to check exposure and composition of their image in the blink of an eye. While this is a big advantage, the hours spent in front of the computer processing the raw images have to be a hindrance. A landscape photographers time is best spent behind a camera not in front of a computer.
The pros and cons of digital photography will remain an issue for some time. At the end of the day a digital camera won't make a photographers images better. The same values we apply in our photography should remain regardless of which camera we use.
Good photography remains as elusive and as enticing as it ever was; going digital doesn't change this or make getting good images any easier. It brings technical advantages, and plenty of them, but the majority of photographic techniques never change. Good landscape images come from the photographer's personal ability, not the ability of a camera. The camera helps, but the creative eye remains the same.
As a landscape photographer I am still hesitant to embrace digital photography and all the qualities that digital has brought to other professionals in different photography fields.
There are a few simple reasons that I still use a film camera:
The authenticity of my images could be questioned if I used a digital camera. It is often assumed that great digital images have been manipulated.
Too much time is spent in front of a computer.
Slide film produce stronger colours than a digital camera.
There are many advantages for changing to digital but I'm going to stick with film: for the time-being that is. With time film cameras will be a thing of the past and all our images will be exchanged for the pixels. But, be wary believing our work will be superior would be falling into a great trap. For me size matters, the larger I can print an image the better.
Digital Camera Vs. Film - Pros And Cons
Labels: review
Consumers have been pretty receptive to the lower priced “point and shoot” models (some 5 million digital cameras were sold in the U.S. during the Christmas 2005 holiday season), but there are still some holdouts.
Great strides have been made in digital technology over the past few years, but more sophisticated digital cameras have only recently come down in price enough to attract the “serious amateur” market. In the past, the price of high-end digital camera equipment was more suited to the professional who could turn that investment into an income source.
Even traditional film buffs are slowly coming around to the benefits of digital photography. Among the holdouts, the chief problem seems to be confusion. There are so many choices, with a broad range of options, and just as many price ranges.
It’s cheaper not to make a decision, than to make a mistake.
They get lost in the terminology, and have reservations about the quality of digital photos and about the reliability of the digital cameras. With the whirlwind of innovation flooding our lives everyday, it’s become really difficult to keep up.
Technology advances, prices come down, and a deal today may be obsolete tomorrow. At least that’s what worries many potential digital camera owners.
So let’s look at five of the most common questions about digital camera photography to shed some light on the matter, for those who are hesitant about this new technology, or who have dismissed it as a mere fad.
1. Do digital cameras produce quality photos?
Digital photos can be displayed at very high resolutions, and could easily surpass conventional photographs, but many have seen poorer quality images. Early color printers could be used to print color photos from digital cameras, but the quality just wasn’t there. Blurry images on low-grade computer monitors or on the small LCD screens of the cameras themselves, do nothing to increase your confidence.
But view the high resolution images available from today’s digital cameras on a capable monitor or after being printed on one of the newer photo quality printers (using photo quality paper) and you’ll see the crystal clear quality of what is available today.
2. How durable are digital camera photos?
Digital camera photos are not stored on film. They’re stored on electronic memory devices that actually require much less care than negative film.
As long as reasonable care is taken of the particular storage device, there shouldn’t be any problems with protecting images caught on a digital camera, and you can easily make copies of the digital image files on your computer or even burn them to a CD - an option that isn’t available with film.
3. Are digital camera photos more expensive to process?
Not anymore. First, you can eliminate any poor images before printing and only pay for those that you print. With “easy share” technology and photo quality printers now available, it is both affordable and convenient to print digital camera photos.
You can even do the task yourself, in the comfort of your own home - without buying expensive development chemicals that are required for film processing! Or, you can send your images electronically to a professional processor, and receive professionally produced photos back in the mail in just a few days.
4. Can I get different effects with a digital camera?
That depends on the digital camera. High end models have built-in features that allow different kinds of effects. But even if your digital camera doesn’t have these advanced features, you can always manipulate the photographs on your desktop computer, using any image editing software.
5. Are zooming features comparable?
Here digital cameras actually have a distinct advantage over film cameras. While cheaper digital cameras may only have digital zoom (which is really just a form of in-camera enlargement that results in a lower resolution original image), high end models are available with both digital and optical zooming.
When shopping for your digital camera, give priority to the optical zoom capability and buy the highest power optical zoom that fits within your budget. Digital zoom is a nice extra, but the effects can easily be replicated during the “processing” of the image on your computer, prior to printing the images.
Consumers have been pretty receptive to the lower priced “point and shoot” models (some 5 million digital cameras were sold in the U.S. during the Christmas 2005 holiday season), but there are still some holdouts.
Great strides have been made in digital technology over the past few years, but more sophisticated digital cameras have only recently come down in price enough to attract the “serious amateur” market. In the past, the price of high-end digital camera equipment was more suited to the professional who could turn that investment into an income source.
Even traditional film buffs are slowly coming around to the benefits of digital photography. Among the holdouts, the chief problem seems to be confusion. There are so many choices, with a broad range of options, and just as many price ranges.
It’s cheaper not to make a decision, than to make a mistake.
They get lost in the terminology, and have reservations about the quality of digital photos and about the reliability of the digital cameras. With the whirlwind of innovation flooding our lives everyday, it’s become really difficult to keep up.
Technology advances, prices come down, and a deal today may be obsolete tomorrow. At least that’s what worries many potential digital camera owners.
So let’s look at five of the most common questions about digital camera photography to shed some light on the matter, for those who are hesitant about this new technology, or who have dismissed it as a mere fad.
1. Do digital cameras produce quality photos?
Digital photos can be displayed at very high resolutions, and could easily surpass conventional photographs, but many have seen poorer quality images. Early color printers could be used to print color photos from digital cameras, but the quality just wasn’t there. Blurry images on low-grade computer monitors or on the small LCD screens of the cameras themselves, do nothing to increase your confidence.
But view the high resolution images available from today’s digital cameras on a capable monitor or after being printed on one of the newer photo quality printers (using photo quality paper) and you’ll see the crystal clear quality of what is available today.
2. How durable are digital camera photos?
Digital camera photos are not stored on film. They’re stored on electronic memory devices that actually require much less care than negative film.
As long as reasonable care is taken of the particular storage device, there shouldn’t be any problems with protecting images caught on a digital camera, and you can easily make copies of the digital image files on your computer or even burn them to a CD - an option that isn’t available with film.
3. Are digital camera photos more expensive to process?
Not anymore. First, you can eliminate any poor images before printing and only pay for those that you print. With “easy share” technology and photo quality printers now available, it is both affordable and convenient to print digital camera photos.
You can even do the task yourself, in the comfort of your own home - without buying expensive development chemicals that are required for film processing! Or, you can send your images electronically to a professional processor, and receive professionally produced photos back in the mail in just a few days.
4. Can I get different effects with a digital camera?
That depends on the digital camera. High end models have built-in features that allow different kinds of effects. But even if your digital camera doesn’t have these advanced features, you can always manipulate the photographs on your desktop computer, using any image editing software.
5. Are zooming features comparable?
Here digital cameras actually have a distinct advantage over film cameras. While cheaper digital cameras may only have digital zoom (which is really just a form of in-camera enlargement that results in a lower resolution original image), high end models are available with both digital and optical zooming.
When shopping for your digital camera, give priority to the optical zoom capability and buy the highest power optical zoom that fits within your budget. Digital zoom is a nice extra, but the effects can easily be replicated during the “processing” of the image on your computer, prior to printing the images.