Saturday, April 28, 2007

Digital camera disc formats

As it is a fact that digital cameras are comprised of miniature computers that have storage discs for retrieving the images as digital information, so a certain amount of knowledge is necessary regarding the digital camera disc formats. A proper understanding of the disc formats of the digital camera memory can help the photographer or user make efficient use of the device in a correct and useful fashion. This discussion is aimed at revealing these little details!

At present in among the common users of digital cameras there are two main types of storage medium available nowadays. Some cameras use 1.44-MB floppy disks, which are available almost everywhere in the present market trends, and some digital cameras use assorted forms of flash memory having a range of capacities covering from several megabytes to a gigabyte. The difference lies between these two types of disc formats in their capacity. Floppy disks have a fixed memory capacity that cannot be altered, and the flash memory devices have capacities that keep increasing everyday. This is a kind of boon because of the fact that picture-sizes are also increasing constantly with the invention of higher resolution cameras that become available in the markets with daily technical advancements.

The major and the most popular file format available for digital cameras are TIFF and JPEG formats respectively. Looking in a little detail into these two formats, the TIFF format is an uncompressed format without any alteration of image sizes and JPEG is a compressed format that does alter the image size for economic use of memory for storage. Certainly, from common sense, majority of the digital cameras use the JPEG file format for storing images and photographs, and they even offer quality settings such as medium or high and accordingly the size is altered thus providing both memory management as well as quality management of the pictures.

Again looking at the disc formats from a different angle, it is apparent that a 1.44-MB disk cannot clutch many photographs or images. Sometimes, in fact, they can't even fit one picture on one disk, due to high quality and subsequent seize and memory requirements. However, the floppy disks have their own advantages. In today's world of Internet publishing and email a picture size larger than 640x480 is hardly required, and more or less always they are saved in JPEG formats. During such times it is possible to accommodate about 15 pictures on every disk. Thus making situations more economic and flexible for the users. However for storing bigger and greater quality pictures higher capacity media are required such as a 128-MB flash memory card that can store more than 1,500 small compressed images or 20 of the uncompressed 1600x1200 images.

Thus so far a handsome amount of information regarding the disc formats has come into light from the above discussion. It is a humble effort to bring out the rudimentary knowledge for such a wide field of study as digital camera disc formats, which includes photography as well as computers all in one. What a fantastic combination!

About the Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.comVisit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

Old Fashioned High Resolution Photo Camera

Tired of trying to keep updated with the highest mega pixel resolution digital camera? Well even if one has tried to do that, most certainly he will soon find out that his few months old digital camera is outdated in terms of mega pixel resolution. It’s an ever changing kind of product that has become very hard to keep updated, unless one is willing to spend more money by making purchases every six to twelve months.

If the main intention of purchasing a photo camera is enlarging the image, then mega pixel resolution indeed will become the main factor. In this case one might consider a different option, which will keep his product updated for years to come. I’m talking about a used 4x5" film photo camera, together with a high resolution flat bed film scanner. All of this for less than one thousand US dollars. With all of this, one will get over 100 mega pixels in fine detailed film resolution and fine scanned digital images that can be enlarged up to 30x40" in size with professional quality. These 4x5" film cameras have done a remarkable job in general personal and commercial photography such as wedding, portraiture, product, documentary, advertising and landscape for nearly a hundred years.

Where to find 4x5" used film cameras? Since some of these cameras were mostly used in the past, until the 1960’s, it should be no problem in finding them in American auction web sites. Anyway, a good used 4x5" camera with lens can be found for less than four hundred US dollars.

As for the flat bed film scanner, one can find brand new ones for less than five hundred US dollars. Just make sure the scanner is able to scan films.

Whenever purchasing a 4x5" film camera, one should look for the following features: folds into a compact box, flexible bellows, lenses that can be easily interchanged, accepts sheet film, ground glass focusing screen, easily handheld and optical viewfinder accessory.

As for the lenses, there are four main categories: 1 - general purposes; 2 - wide field (mostly used for close up work and landscape); 3 – extreme wide angles lenses; 4 – special effects lenses (telephoto). However, one might use a general purpose 127 or 152mm lens for most of his photograph sessions. In cases where it requires special lenses, such as architecture or macro photography, one will still find lots of them available in auction sites. Used lenses for 4x5” cameras made after world word II have excellent performances comparable to today’s modern lenses.

Whenever making a purchase of a 4x5" camera make sure that: 1 - the bellows have no light leaks, 2 – the lens shutter works accurate at all speeds; 4 – the lens elements have no fungus and scratches of any kind; 4 – the focus is working properly between the ground glass and the film.

The option of using a 4x5" film camera, together with a flat bed film scanner, for enlarging images with professional quality is viable and accessible. Cheaper than top digital cameras, the 4x5" film camera offers better image quality and will always be updated in the future, maintaining its original value.

For those who wishes the very most detailed image enlargement, one can always use the 8x10" film camera. Four times the physical film size of the 4x5", this option offers so much film resolution that it is considered by many as the ultimate step for photo image enlargement.

Sometimes analog products deliver better results that its digital counterparts. If you are doing the job of enlarging photo images, you should give it a try with a 4x5" camera. You might just surprise yourself.

Roberto Sedycias
IT Consultant
This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author´s name and all the URL´s (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.

About the Author

This article can also be accessed in portuguese language from the News Article section of page PoloMercantil
Roberto Sedycias has a bachelor degree in Business Administration and over 20 years experience in systems analysis and computer programming. Currently working as IT consultant for www.PoloMercantil.com.br

CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) Systems

If you are looking for a video surveillance system, then look no further, number of online internet mega stores for all your video surveillance and security camera equipment are found.

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is not the panacea to all security and safety problems that many people believe it to be. CCTV should only be part of an integrated approach that considers all aspects of the security problems being experienced.

CCTV video security camera system will allow you to view recorded images while continuing to record on all security cameras and also offers smart advanced search and easy play back functionality.

CCTV video surveillance systme includes Color security cameras, Day and night security cameras, infrared security cameras, dome security cameras, black and white security cameras, bullet security camera, hidden cameras, pan tilt zoom (PTZ) cameras, zoom security cameras, dummy cameras, IP digital security cameras, and board mini security cameras.

The latest CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) news, including CCTV systems, CCTV security, mono or color camera, bullet or mini cameras, full pan, tilt and zoom cameras, remote monitoring, Digital Video Recorder (DVR), dome, monitor, video security, network security, lenses, controllers, control rooms. New CCTV technology is also covered, with wireless CCTV, internet-accessible/ IP CCTV, low light camera and night vision, computer assisted operation, and motion detection facilities.

A CCTV project that doesn’t show the viewing areas of each camera and their functions in different regions of space cannot be considered a professional one. Of course the real sequence of actions can differ, but in general one can see, that the process of designing a CCTV system is getting clearer for both the designer and the customer. The most important is the result one gets; an efficient CCTV system that fulfills its functions in full measure. Who knows how many crimes can be prevented and uncovered with the help of it? Now it’s up to you to discover the best video surveillance system for you.

About the Author

This article has been published by editorial staff of New Orleans Internet Marketing firm Search Influence on behalf of Shortagecontrol.com. For more information about CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) Systems, please visit http://www.shortagecontrol.com to view “Shortage Control, Inc ". Please direct any feedback on this article to marketing@searchinfluence.com.

Digital camera batteries

Every device needs a driving force to operate, just as every living thing needs a heart to keep it alive! Basically electric power does this job for any kind of devices nowadays. Similarly for any digital camera too, a good battery is necessary in order to ensure an excellent performance from it as long as possible. Being such a crucial task as if searching for a good heart for a human being, perhaps the most tedious thing about digital cameras is the quest for their battery consumption and thereby finding a suitable one for any particular one. Yet a basic overview regarding this so important component of a digital camera makes the ventures of the users somewhat less complicated and makes life easier with a proper selection of the battery!

Leaving aside the ever power thirsty LCD screens and flashes, the digital cameras themselves exhaust batteries much faster than film cameras, due to their state of the art electronic designs and intricate circuitry. Many digital cameras run from AA cells, around 4, and can even drain a set of alkaline cells in less than 1 hour of working! For example, the Kodak DC120 draws about 210mA during start or switch ON, but progresses to around 1.3A with the association of the LCD fully working and can go ahead to about 2.1A while picture taking and after it too.

With all these nightmares regarding the batteries of the digital cameras, it is worthwhile to analyze and reveal some of the available batteries for the digital cameras in an effort to explore area of power consumption in this fantastic device. Coming to first one of these, like its great name suggests, it is the Li-ion (Lithium Ion). It is one of the latest cell types available to digital camera users. This has many advantages to its credit. It is light in weight and currently available for many commercial uses and thus being so the Li-ion (Lithium Ion) battery type is becoming quite popular. This has an added advantage of being able to endow with more power than any of the other main cell types available. It is also free from the problems of memory effect, hat some battery types do have, and maintenance is least in this type of battery. These are but real goodies about this Li-ion (Lithium Ion) battery. Yet it has one major disadvantage, that is, the price is usually significantly higher than conventional batteries, due to its sophisticated design and technology.

Coming to the next one in the line, the NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride). This is a battery that is perhaps the most frequently under use for not only digital cameras, but also for other sophisticated devices like laptop computers! This has the advantage of being cheap in price due to the fact that it incurs cheap manufacturing costs, and thus a choice for many users! But this does have the problems of memory effect, and much more maintenance and care is required while handling this kind of battery.

Another such battery is the NiCAD (Nickel Cadmium) Battery. This is perhaps belonging to one of the older cell types generally available for older laptops and electronic devices. These batteries or cells have an aptitude for handling high power loads, and therefore is more frequently found in handy power tools and devices that require more amounts power to work efficiently and perfectly. Yet again, these batteries too have the problems of memory effect, and much more maintenance and care is required while handling this kind of battery.

Apart from the different batteries themselves, the selection should be based upon the charging techniques and the different charges available for all these digital camera batteries. Latest batteries come handy with charging free techniques too! So care needs to be taken in this area also, depending upon the requirements of the user.

With all the vivid conversation regarding the hearts of the digital cameras, their batteries, it is expected for every person going through the lines to have grabbed a significant amount of information in dealing with the intricacies of the purchase, and thereby also augment the ability of the person in using such a sophisticated device as a digital camera with a proper battery!

About the Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.comVisit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.