Choosing and Using a Digital Camera

Kevin Amboe

Surrey School District

2006

Film vs Digital

• Low Priced• Very High Resolution• Lots of Accessories• Better Exposure Control• Easy to make prints• True Point and Click

success

• Prices are coming down• Resolutions are

increasing• Post Processing • Can control exposure• Can print your own• Point and click not

always successful

Types of Cameras• Low End / Integrated

– 1 - 3 megapixels– Cell phone– Palm pilot

• Mid Range– 3 to 5 megapixels– Zoom Lens– Removable storage

• High End– Better Optics– 5 or higher megapixels– Advanced controls– Advanced file saving

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Lenses

• Glass vs. Plastic

• Optical Zoom is critical

• Digital Zoom decreases quality

• Progressive Zoom

• Filter / Protective Adapter

• Removable Lenses

Features

• Manual Controls• Program Modes• Ease of Use• Ergonomics• Size• Flash - off body• Batteries• Movies and Sound

Manual Controls

• Aperature– Fstop - how much light gets in– Lower works better in low light– High provides better focal range

• Shutter Speed– Seconds to 1/30 to 1/2000th of a second– Slower allows blurring - Faster for high

action

Program Control

• Portrait

• Sport

• Scenery

• Macro

• Snow

• Backlight

Ease of Use / Ergonomics

• Charging / Changing Batteries• Hand Position• Downloading• Changing Settings• Choose size for type of use

– Larger for sturdy– Smaller for easy carrying

Flash

• Must synchronize with shutter speed

• Usually good 10 to 20 feet only

• Away from camera body is better

• Red Eye reduction

Batteries

• Double AA Alkaline (1.5V)

• Double AA rechargable( 1.35 V)

• NiMH

• LiOH

More Features

• Digital Storage

• Image Resolution

• File Type

Digital Storage

• Floppy, CD, DVD

• Compact Flash

• Smart Media

• Secure Digital / xD

• Memory Stick

• Ideally want 2 x 512 MB

• File Type - JPEG - RAW - TIFF

Image Resolution

• 3 Megapixel images will print clearly an 8 x 10 photo

• 3 Megapixel image is about 1 Megabyte

• For screen/ web projects use lower resolution

• 1 Megapixel image is about 150 Kilobytes

Resolution100%

200% 3200%

400 %

800%

If you increase size of decrease resolution, you will get pixelization.

Resolution Needs

Use• Web page / Email• On-Screen• Ink - Jet• 3 x 5 snapshots• Photo quality

Enlargements

PPI• 72• 72• 125• 300• 600

What is PPI

• Pixels Per Inch (PPI) relates to the Dots per Inch(DPI) that the printer can print

• To determine PPI, divide the pixels by the inches. 17 inch monitor is usually 11x13”. A 1200 x 1600 image (1.2MB at 3 Megapixels) would be 1200/11 - thus 109 ppi

Onscreen Resolution

• Onscreen is only 72 ppi so a 15” screen (9x12) only needs

• (72x9) by (72x12)• 648 by 864• Or 559 872 … Just

over 1/2 a megapixel

• We can’t set cameras for onscreen projects to low resolution.

• If printing a full 8 x 10 photo, then could use 3 megapixel mode.

File Types

• JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group. Stores files compressed - loses some information

• TIFF - Tagged Image File Format• RAW - stores the actual numbers for

each pixel - 100% quality - increased file sizes - must be converted to be viewed

Kevin’s Pick

• 3 Megapixel

• Secure Digital Memory

• 2 x 512 MB Storage(extra cost)

• USB / Firewire transfer

• 10X Optical Zoom

• Around $300

Sample Websites

• http://reviews.cnet.com/Digital_cameras/4520-7603_7-5023995-7.html?tag=dir

• Kodak Support– http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?

pq-path=2/3/38&pq-locale=en_US

• Digital Camera Comparisons– http://www.mycamera.com/index_digcompare.cfm

References

• Cnet

• Pics4Learning.com

• Wikipedia.org