Setup guide

DIGITAL CAMERAS
THE BASICS
DIGITAL CAMERAS
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LCD Monitors
Most digital cameras have an LCD display of 1.5 to 2-inches on
their back. This is where you playback images (or video) deciding
which ones to keep. Some cameras allow the previews to be
zoomed in so you can examine images more closely. The LCD moni-
tor is also usually where the camera features and functions are con-
trolled from usually via menus. Some cameras also include an LCD
viewfinder although they are not really recommended for sharp
focusing. They basically help you frame the shot and maybe help
with the colors. It is recommended though, that the camera should
also have a conventional optical viewfinder (more expensive mod-
els offer true through-the-lens viewfinders), in addition to its LCD
monitor. That’s because a camera that only offers an LCD monitor
requires you to hold it away from yourself to frame a shot possibly
causing unsteadiness.
Burst Rate
Burst rate is important in sports or fashion photography where a
fast recycle time is essential. Since a digital camera has to actually
write an image file every time you take a picture, you usually have
between 3-5 seconds of dead time between shots. Higher-end
cameras overcome this problem to a certain degree by adding
RAM to the camera which acts as a buffer. In this way, you can
take several shots before having to wait 10-20 seconds while the
images write. (Some professional digital SLRs such as the Nikon
D2H or the Canon EOS-1D have very fast refresh rates.
Compression
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the image format most
common to digital cameras. It gives dramatically smaller sizes than
a full photo file by compressing the information in the file. The
other format common to digital cameras is TIFF (Tagged Image File
Format), which stores image information as full-sized uncom-
pressed files. A common JPEG of a 3 million pixel image might only
be a1MB file, while the equivalent TIFF is about a 9MB file. While
any applying any compression will result in some loss of image
quality, at low compression it is minimal.
High-end cameras offer RAW option. This is the raw data directly
read from the image sensor, with no in-camera processing. The
advantage of this is that while RAW is a smaller file size t
han TIFF, it
gives a more accurate representation of image data and image data
is recorded over a wider range for
deeper color.
ISO Equivalents
Like conventional cameras, where you can select films with differ-
ent sensitivities to light, most digital cameras offer multiple sensi-
tivity settings ranging from an ISO (International Standards
Organization) equivalent of 100 through 400. But for those who
work in low-light photography; you’ll have to look for cameras that
offer higher ISO. However, a similar problem results when doing
low-light photography with digital as with film--as you get "grainy"
results from shooting with fast ISO films like 800 or 1600, digital
cameras get "noise" shooting in high ISO modes.
Storage Capacity
Most cameras today accept removable storage media allowing you
to shoot bigger files, and much more of them. Most digital cameras
use either SmartMedia or CompactFlash cards (some can accept
both) while Sony offers their Memory Stick and the more exotic
Mavica CD disc. Like Moore’s Law in computers, storage media
capacity seems to be doubling every two years while costing half
as much. SmartMedia and Memory Sticks are available in 512MB
while CompactFlash and IBM’s MicroDrive offer over 1GB capaci-
ties. Finally, Fuji and Olympus’ xD-Picture Cards while offering up
to 512MB capacity today—can go up to an amazing 8GB!
Once you’ve taken your pictures, you’ll probably want to download
them to your computer for filing, manipulation, mailing or printing.
To do this, most cameras come equipped with a USB port allowing
fast downloads. But if you have big files and/or shoot a lot of
images you’ll probably want a Memory Card reader. Available for
PCs and Macs with single or dual slots or dual media compatible,
with SCSI, USB or Firewire connection, a reader will fly your pic-
tures to the computer about five times faster than by your camera
to omputer via USB.
Other Useful Features
Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB)—This is a must have for professional
shooters. AEB mode gives you three different exposures (+1/0/-1) of
the same shot—insuring you’ll get proper exposure.
Movie Mode—Almost every digital still camera made today offers
some kind of movie mode. They run the gamut from 160 x 112 to
full VGA 640 x 480 resolution at anywhere from 10 fps (frames per
second) to 30 fps. Lengths are anything from 15 second clips to full
five minute movies.
Stitch Mode—This is a unique feature to help you shoot multiple
images for building a panorama later.