Friday, October 12, 2007

Buying a Digital Camera with Video Capture Capability

If you want to create movies with your camera, one important feature to consider is video quality. This is made up of resolution and frames-per-second. It is important to note that the video resolution of a digital camera will usually be much lower than its image quality for normal photographs.

A move with high resolution and plenty of frames-per-second will look a lot nicer and more detailed on a computer screen, but will also use a lot more memory.

Another important feature to consider in the area of video capture, is whether your camera of choice supports sound. Some devices will feature a built-in microphone specifically to enhance this feature, but in many cases, you will need to attach some sort of external microphone if you want to record sound.

Other important components to look for in a digital camera are video length (how long a move can it record?), video format (a standard and easy-to-edit format like MPEG is ideal)Article Submission, and zoom (can you zoom in on things while recording a video?).

It is a good idea to ask about all of these features before buying a new camera for its video capture capabilities.


BOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeremy Maddock is an experienced webmaster and technology enthusiast who owns and operates Camera Reviews.ca.

Buying A Digital Camera: A Beginner’s Guide

For any beginner photographer or a first time buyer of digital camera, choosing and buying a digital camera can become a task. There is so much that goes in to buying a digital camera for the first time. But you need not worry about that. For I provide you a step-by-step camera buying guide here:

Research: Talk to people

As a beginner you should keep certain things in your mind. First of all you should ask yourself, what are the features you need, what type of photos you are going to click with your new digital camera. There are a lot of features in a digital camera such as modes, zooms, lenses, flash, focus, viewfinder, resolution and timer. Decide which features you want in your camera. You can talk to your family and friends and other digital camera features to know their opinions on various camera features. This will help you jot down the basic expectations you owe from your new camera.

Price factor

Set a realistic budget for your first camera and look for cameras in that price range only. Prices of digital cameras have fallen greatly over the years. Still, a digital camera purchase is considered expensive to its 35mm counterparts purchase.

Next, gain a good knowledge about the models of cameras you are considering buying. Dont be a fool by going all by your friends choice. Be a proud owner of a digital camera that suits your needs rather than someone else's.

Satisfy your needs

As a beginner you should look for models that are easy to use and operate. Do not go for flashy models. They may not satisfy your needs.

Now decide on your printing needs. If most of your photos will be uploaded to a website or emailed, you will not need a lot of mega pixels in your camera. But if you are planning to make a lot of larger prints, you need a camera with a lot of mega pixels.

By narrowing down your options as per the needed camera features, you can decide which camera is best suited to you. Visit the stores and handle the devices personally. You should shop around for the best price. Pick up additional warranty if any. Take some great pictures.

Below are some of the great cameras for you:

1.Nikon coolpix 4100: It is a one easy to use camera. The camera is imaging wonder with 4.2 mega pixels and 3x optical zoom features to it.

2.Kodak Easyshare cx7330: This is a decent point and shoot camera that comes with 3.1 mega pixels and a combined 10x zoom features. The camera does not have much fancy features. But for a beginnerScience Articles, the camera is perhaps the best pick.

3.Canon Powershoot S410: This power shot camera from Canon is a four mega pixel camera. The camera is very stylish to operate and indeed offer all the basic functions of an average camera.

I am sure buying a digital camera is no longer a task for you.


http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/entertainment/buying-a-digital-camera-a-beginners-guide.html

Nikon Digital SLRs

Nikon is a camera brand, best known for producing SLR camera. As with the boom of digital cameras all over the world, Nikon joined the bandwagon by producing what they make best, thus the new era of the Nikon digital camera was born - digital SLR

One of the best in DSLR, the Nikon digital camera called Nikon D70 is 6-mega pixel Nikon digital camera. Coated with polycarbonate over its stainless steel chassis, this Nikon digital camera is furnished with a 50mm AF Nikkor lens that can combine with an 18-70mm kit lens and still be portable enough to be carried around. It has a 200-1600 ISO effective speed range, great for taking pictures both in the shade and under the sun. and why won't it be?! With its three frames per second continuous shooting rate and its 1/8000 second shutter speed, taking pictures is as easy as clicking away and having fun. this Nikon digital camera is supported with a Flash card.Another SLR from Nikon is the Nikon Coolpix 8800. An 8-mega pixel Nikon digital camera, the Coolpix 8800 has a compact body. Furnished with a 1.8 inch flip-out and swivel LCD, this baby is surely first rate SLR. This Nikon digital camera features an image stabilizer system to reduce camera shakes particularly on long shots since this gadget can zoom up to 10x (optical zoom) and can focus to up to 3cm in macro mode with its 35-350mm lens. Key controls are very user-friendly, with modes such as sensitivity, image size/quality and white balance - found directly with the mode dial. The image output quality is the middle name of this Nikon digital camera, with great detail rendition, color fidelity and saturation. a rather exceptional feature of the 8800 is the continuous shooting modes, where users can choose 1.2 or 2.3 frames per second. A bit bulky to carry around, the 8800 is perfect for shooting action and sports shots. The 8800 works with a Compact Flash card for storing up your images. Another digital SLR from Nikon is the Nikon D50. A 6.1 mega pixel Nikon digital camera, this gadget has 7 varied modes to shoot from using its AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-55mm lens. These modes are Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Close Up, Sports, Night Portrait and Child. To see the images that you took, this Nikon digital camera is furnished with a 2.0 inch LCD screen. How fast can this camera shoot? It has 2.5 frames per second and with uninterrupted shooting of up to 137 frames per second. This Nikon digital camera is not too bad, especially for novice photographers. This package also includes a software for touching up, editing and sharing your pictures. The software even enables you to burn your images to VCD or DVD format. One of the first point and shoot Nikon digital cameras is the Nikon Coolpix 4800. A four mega pixel Nikon digital camera, the old school designed 4800 is equipped with a 1.8 inch LCD screen for viewing your pictures. The 4800 is an 8.3x zoom Nikon digital camera with 6-50mm Nikkor Ed lens that zooms quickly and has continuous auto focusing (a feature where your lens is always trying to keep your pictures sharp). It also allows users to shoot, record and playback short movie clips with its assist and excellent scene modes - meaning that includes providing outlines for portraits (for tweaking purposes), exposure and sensitivity settings. These features are very helpful especially for novice photographers that want to try their hands at photography. Along with thatArticle Search, it comes with a 13.5MB SD card and the Li-on battery pack. Remember to check out Nikon's website at nikon.com or nikonusa.com to see the latest Nikon digital cameras.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Kodak Easyshare CX7430 Digital Camera Review

The Kodak EasyShare CX7430 is an excellent point-and-shoot digital camera that is currently selling very well. Just consider its features: 4 megapixel resolution, 3x optical zoom, 16MB of memory, as well as a movie mode. Given it’s low price (around $190), it’s an amazing deal. This camera is most suitable for beginners – it has all of the basic functions you need in a simple digital camera. Let’s have a look at its various features:

Design and Construction
Like all point-and-shoot digital cameras, the Kodak EasyShare CX7430 is designed to be compact enough to fit in your pocket. It’s silvery finish will certainly attract lots of attention too. Its dimensions are 4.0 inches by 2.6 inches by 1.25 inches (weight-height-depth), and it weighs only 6.3 ounces. There is a little 1.6 inch LCD screen behind the camera for viewing images. Initially, I found the LCD screen a tad on the small side, but I got used to it after snapping a couple of photos.

Optics and Resolution
The Kodak EasyShare CX7430 is equipped with a Kodak Retinar lens and offers with a 4 megapixel resolution. There’s also a 3x optical zoom for taking subjects faraway. What is interesting about this camera is its wide range of scene modes. Most point-and-shoot cameras have a handful (maybe 5) scene modes for photography under different conditions: macro, landscape, night photography, etc. The Kodak EasyShare CX7430 has 9 scene modes to choose from, which is much more than the competition.

I didn’t expect much in terms of manual control in the camera’s optics. If you’re looking to play around with shutter speed, aperture, white balance and other photography options, then this camera is not for you. Sure, there are some basic exposure controls but they are nowhere near the fine settings allowed in advanced digital SLR cameras.

That being said, the quality of photos taken by the Kodak EasyShare CX7430 were nothing short of outstanding. The photos, when printed out, were of extremely high quality. So if you’re the type you just whips out a camera and takes quick shots, with a minimum of fuss, then this camera will be great for you.

User Controls
The user controls in the Kodak CX7430 are located on both sides of the LCD and also on mode dial at the top surface of the camera. Those more accustomed to Canon or Sony models will find that the controls take a little getting used to. However, I did not have any problems reaching commonly used functions like flash control or image viewing.

Movie Mode
If you like to shoot some spontaneous movies with your digital camera, then you’ll be glad to know that the CX7430 comes with a movie mode. You can capture video at 13 frames per second (fps) at VGA size 640 x 480. The movie mode is continuous, meaning that the camera allows you to record movies up to the memory limit of your memory card.

Storage and Transfer
In terms of storage, the Kodak CX7430 comes with internal memory of 16MB. You’ll certainly want to purchase a SD or MMC memory card to add on to the amount of memory available. In terms of image transfer, the camera supports USB 1.1 ports. This is enough for fast image transfers between the camera and your computer.

Battery Life
The Kodak CX7430 uses AA batteries. The ones that come in the box are alkaline batteries – I’d recommend that you get some NiMH rechargables. They will pay for themselves very quickly. The support for AA batteries is a great bonus because AA batteries are easily found in any convenience store, even when you’re overseas.

Shortcomings
The bad points about the Kodak EasyShare CX7430? Well, here’s a few shortcomings I’d point out – Kodak would sell many more units if they were corrected:

* Videos taken by the camera are at very low frame rate
* The door covering the memory card slot doesn’t latch strongly
* The bundled software isn’t very impressive



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site at www.basic-digital-photography.com. Read his tips on digital photography and learn to shoot better photos with your digicam.

Photography Poses – The Missing Ingredient

You've read all the "best digital camera" articles, got the best price on your first digital camera, and even glanced at its owner's manual. Are you itching to take some shots of your family, or what?

Slow down, soldier. Before you take 200 shots that seem great at the time, but then upon review of the final picture are less than what you expected, let's prepare. Prepare?!?! I'll bet you thought charging the battery was the hardest part of taking great photos, didn't you? Sorry to disappoint you, but if you want to improve your photo results 50% in 2 minutes, let's review some basic advice of the pros.

There are two categories of GENERAL ADVICE which applies, regardless of whether you're using a digital camera to take family portrait poses, baby pictures, pet portraits, group pictures, funny photos, or even maternity portraits. The first category is...

"Good Planning" Advice for Photography Poses

1) Prepare For The Event

Prepare for the event by thinking about every photograph you want to take and what kind of photography pose or poses you would like to capture. Consider who, where, how, and the type of environment.

2) Take Multiple Photographs

Take multiple shots of each pose (remember, digital memory is reusable, a.k.a. "free"). Regardless of what you say or do, people will blink. And don't count on spotting small problems on the tiny camera LCD screen (even on full magnification); which leads to...

3) Check LCD Screen

Check the digital camera's LCD screen for general framing of the picture, any movement, visibility of faces, and the histogram. Note that you can think up a fantastic photography pose; arrange everyone perfectly; and, have the photograph "frozen" (no blinking, and no shaking of the camera)...but, when you check it out in the LCD, you see 2 drunks fighting in the background! And, my favorite...

4) Funny Phrases

Have some funny phrases handy to use just before you take the photo. Don't use it when setting up for the shot. And, don't use the same phrase all the time. Throw in funny anecdotes, phrases, names, words that you know your family will find more amusing than "cheese." A natural smile looks four times better than a fake one. The second category is...

"Location" Advice for Photography Poses

Taking indoor family photography, is very different than outdoor family photograph (duh!). For INDOOR pictures...

1) Wide Angle

You will tend to use the wide angle more often than your telephoto setting. Pay particular attention to your "end people" (those farthest to the right and the left in your viewfinder), and verify there is enough space in picture, so that if cropping is required, the end people don't have to lose a limb.

2) The Flash

Flash considerations are critical. Do not be outside your "flash range." For example, if at ISO 100, your flash can properly illuminate 12 feet, don't attempt any photography pose that requires anyone to stand at 14 feet (unless, of course, it's evil cousin Ira who you want to appear in darkness).

3) Plan "B"

If you need to be further away than your flash allows, here are 2 things you can try...First, increase the ISO setting (but not so much as to produce to much noise), or second, move to a significantly brighter location.

4) Watch Your Background

If there are distracting features, change your settings to blur the background (see the Techniques page). The best photography pose in the world won't look right with a distracting background. And finally...

5) Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

If there are mirrors or reflective surfaces in the background and you can't find a different location, only take the picture in such a way that the flash is not perpendicular to the surface, but at an angle (unless you want a nice photo of your flash).

Outdoor family photography has completely different issues. For OUTDOOR photography...

6) The Sun

Avoid photographing in direct sunlight, or in mixed light and shade, especially faces. Optimal lighting results from a slightly overcast sky.

7) Shade

When photographing in shade, use fill-flash (see terms) when necessary. And, really finally...

8) Beauty

If practical, take the picture at one of the beautiful natural settings near you. Imagine the result of a creative photography pose captured in a stunning environment. Can you say: "Over the mantle!"?

To see 5 different categories of poses with tips, scroll to the middle of Photography Pose.

Article courtesy of Best Family Photography Tips.comComputer Technology Articles, where you can see some sample pictures including more photography tips.


http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/hobbies/photography-poses-the-missing-ingredient.html