Thursday, November 1, 2007

In Defense of Digital Photography

The room is small, silent, damp and without light. The interior air is heavy and laden with chemicals, some of which could cause early death. The person inside receives no visitors. It is isolation.

Have I described a 19th century prison cell or a 21st century photographer’s darkroom ?

Those of us who have spent many hours in the agonizing yet captivating atmosphere of a photographic darkroom recognize the scene. We are compelled to witness --and direct-- the birth pangs of each of our graphic creations. Yet all of us know it is contrary to human nature to confine oneself to such isolation and environmental danger. Such is the allure of the muse.

This is serious stuff. We wonder how many present-day darkroom photographers are short-cutting their longevity by continuing to engage in this archaic working method. Are we subjecting ourselves to Alice-in-Wonderland dangers similar to those faced by the Mad Hatter? (A reflection of the hat makers of a couple of centuries ago, who used arsenic in the fashioning of their beaver skin hats and frequently were gradually poisoned as a result.)

To put this in perspective, if digital photography had been discovered first, and then film photography, would any of us have opted for the latter?

Today’s digital photography offers the promise of safe imaging, once the prices come down. (Only the very costly digital cameras currently produce the reproduction quality demanded by the printing industry. The $200- $800 digital cameras aren’t yet at that level. For now, film photography is still the medium of choice for publishing use.)

Digital photography gives to all of us the luxurious shooting style of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the renowned French photographer of the mid-century. He never stepped into a darkroom. “No, I have never done my own printing,” he told Charlie Rose in a recent interview. “Why should I spend my time in a darkroom when I could be out shooting?”

Most film photographers, because of the high cost of film and the processing delay, are conservative regards the number of pictures they shoot. However, as Cartier-Bresson is famous for saying, “I want to capture the precise moment.” Such moments escape the average photographer who is stingy with film.

Not so with digital photography. One shoots with a freedom to not only capture the “precise” moment, but to also self-educate and experiment. Digital “film” is cheap.

The world of digital photography is easy to enter. Medium-quality images, ease of processing , enhancing, and transmitting, are now available to the average photographer. Digital results are readily acceptable if your work is Web-based, or for buyers who only expect to use the image quarter-page size. At present, as you are reading this, the cost for serviceable digital is well within the budget of most.

Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and best-selling author of “Sell & ReSell Your Photos” and http://www.sellphotos.com has helped scores of photographers launch their careers. For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, and to receive this free report: “8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer,” visit http://www.sellphotos.com



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rohn_Engh

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Best Digital Camera for You!

Frequently in life, we want the genuine available product of a particular type. Maybe we want to buy the fastest computer or the one that has the largest storage capacity. For specific events, we may purchase the most raveled tuxedo or gown that money can buy.

Likewise, after retiring and settling all of our debts, we might be interested in buying the fastest or most luxurious automobile on earth. Furthermore, when in the market for a camcorder, we may seek the best digital camcorder on the market.

Best Is Comparable

While finding the best digital video camera may seem like a measured task, it will involve some subjectivity. For example, it is probably unthinkable to find a unit that all electronics experts would consider the best digital camcorder. It is wiser to categorize camcorders, and then evaluate the best digital video camera for each category

One way to sort the best digital camcorder is to first rank the models by price range. The line of digital camcorder's stretches from a few hundreds of dollars, to many thousands of dollars. The distinction is typically linked to their functions.

Most video professionals primarily use the expensive models, while beginners usually use the cheaper, more basic models. Seeing that most amateur camcorder users often shop on a budget, we will focus on finding the best digital camcorder for those users.

Three price ranges

The first price range for the superior digital camcorder includes those that cost near a thousand dollars. These video cameras are perfect for shoppers who want to utilize their camcorders regularly. They can be used for unusual situations, such as vacations. Nevertheless, they provide quality that is also perfect for simple video projects or independent filmmaking.

Another price scope for the best digital camcorder has a price tag of $700 or less. They offer a moderate number of features and frequently include hard drive and DVD models, as well as those with a ample image sensor, known as a charge-coupled device (CCD).

Lastly, for those on a tight budget, you can still find the best digital camcorder for $450 or less. These models oftentimes include a feature for taking still photos, though the resolution is typically poor. A $450 video camera is suited well for those who will seldom use their camcorders, and mostly for personal use. It is also perfect one for new camcorder users.

To find the best digital camcorder is definitely a challenging task that is greatly based on how "the best" is defined. Notwithstanding, when you locate a digital video camera that meets your filming needs and budgetary constraints, you can certainly classify that as the best one for you. When you find the one you like and the pictures and videos look great keep it and be happy.


http://www.articlecube.com/Article/The-Best-Digital-Camera-for-You-/179858

Choosing Your First Digital Camera

Digital cameras are no longer a luxury these days, with high resolution mega pixels and sophisticated features coming within a very appealing price range. And thanks to many comprehensive digital camera reviews, it’s easy to pick the most sought after features and qualities and still stay within a budget.

Most people turn to digital photography because they like the ease of printing and sharing the photos on the web. Business owners choose the digital quality for their product catalogues or brochures, students employ digital cameras for their projects and with digital cameras in most recent cell phones, even a child can take a snap and publish it instantly on the web. And thanks to the newest lens and zooming qualities, you don’t have to be a seasoned pro to shoot close-to-professional images with modern digital cameras.

You can hardly find a digital camera today with resolution lower than 2 megapixels – two million color dots per picture. This is a decent quality for most uses, including printing the photos for the home or school use. The higher the megapixel rate, the bigger photos you can print without sacrificing the quality. However, if you are not a professional photographer or a graphic professional who deals with upscale images all the time, you don’t really need a digital camera that produces more than 8-megapixel camera – and these rarely become available for less than $1000. Plus, if you seek to print large detailed photos, make sure you have a high-quality printer that can reproduces all the tiny details that make a difference.

When you pick a digital camera, you should also pay attention to the zoom number. Digital cameras have two different kinds of zoom. Digital zoom enlarges all pixels digitally, while optical zoom enlarges the image with the lens magnification. Since you can always enlarge the image later, on the computer using the Photoshop or other image manipulation program, you would be better to concentrate on higher optical zoom rate. The average optical zoom for midlevel digital cameras is 2 to 4x.

There are a few other options to consider: whether a digital camera uses a rechargeable batteries (zoom and LCD screen consume a lot of energy); whether the digital camera has a standard flash memory (you may need to buy a few more flash memory cards in future), and if the menus are easy to understand. If you travel a lot, you may want a digital camera that is lightweight and compact.

Even if you decide to pick the least expensive digital camera to serve your basic photography needs, you will still enjoy all the benefits of digital photography: no film rolls to buy, no wasted photos to dispose of and best of all, no waiting time to get them printed. New models of digital cameras are constantly launched, and the older ones are becoming less expensive day by day. Know your priorities, check the most recent digital camera reviews, and there should be a digital camera to perfectly suit your needs.


http://www.articlejoe.com/Article/Choosing-Your-First-Digital-Camera/1670

Get Digital At Cheap Prices, Purchase Cheap Digital Cameras

Do you want a digital camera for yourself but do not want to spend much money on it? There is no need to loose heart.

Gone are the days when digital cameras were the gizmos for rich and classy. The ‘digital’ need not be very expensive always. There are many cheap digital cameras in the market today.

So, following the digital technology for your photo hobby or professional photography is not a tall order at all. The Internet is the best place to gauge for all kinds of digital cameras at cheap prices. Just browse the web and you will get the grand choices for picking up an affordable digital camera.

Still, at doubts? Just read on this article and you would know how easy it is for you to find the digital technology at low rates today.

First things first, you must always know your budget and camera specifications you are looking for very well. The low budget should not be a hindrance to your preference. Just keep that in mind. In fact the advantages of having a cheap digital camera are many.

The range of cheap digital cameras starts at prices as low as £30. With such cost-effective price range, there is no need for you to be bothered about giving them to your young kids for photo explorations as well. Today’s cheap digital cameras also make for a great birthday gift or Christmas Day present for your friends and the members of your family. Moreover, a cheap camera is always utilized in a much better way than any of those expensive high tech gadgets. The reason is simple-- you feel more at ease with them.

In fact, if it is seen logically, the digital cameras are basically cheap gadgets. The main cost is of buying them and that is for once and all. Later, they will not make you spend your dollars on film rolls like the traditional cameras. This is because digital cameras mean no intake of films, no printing, no processing and thus no continuing costs.

There are many kinds of cheap cameras available in the market. Many of them are made on ‘use & throw’ basis. They are disposable cameras, which are rated quite inexpensively by the companies. Moreover, there are chances for you to get them at much less or bargained price even. As they are very cheap and affordable, people buy them on an urgent basis, or when they need them at once, for a family function, wedding or any other occasion.

Now, where you can find the cheap digital cameras? You can go and visit your nearby digital camera showroom to have a look at their collection of cheap digital cameras. You can get them in all sorts of brands, from renowned to local dealers. If you want to buy them online, there are many Internet sources as well to buy these cheap digital cameras, say Froogle or eBay.

One way to get the best price for each camera is to purchase them in bulk. For this you can contact the retailers who offer some particular discounts and packages to sell the digital cameras. The rule—the more the quantity, the lower the price—follows the camera trade, if you want to buy digital camera at low price.

Just remember that a cheap digital camera may or may not have all those features of a standard digital camera. It may not have a flash, good resolution or an effective zoom lens. But they certainly serve the simple photography purposes well. So judge all the pros and cons before making the deal.

If the price is the thing most important for you, a cheap digital camera is undoubtedly the best deal for you.


http://www.articlejoe.com/Article/Get-Digital-At-Cheap-Prices--Purchase-Cheap-Digital-Cameras/940

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

What Is The Best Digital Camera For Me?

There is so much to consider when looking for the best digital camera to suit your needs. It is important to decide what features matter the most to you. The main factors, apart from cost, in assessing which is the best digital camera for you are as follows:

• Size and weight
• Resolution
• Level of Control
• Options and features

The size and weight of the best digital camera for one person varies greatly to that of another. If you want a camera that is lightweight and will slip into a pocket or purse then a ultra-lightweight cameras will probably be the best digital camera for your needs. These are often the least complex of the digital cameras as they offer point and shoot simplicity and are the best digital camera for beginners. At the other end of the size and weight scale comes a bulky 1? pound SLR camera for the ‘serious’ photographer who wants the best digital camera with all of the accessories to take the perfect shot.

The resolution you need can narrow down which is the best digital camera for your requirements. The resolution affects the detail of an image for printing quality and the higher the resolution the greater the detail. The best digital camera for printing standard size pictures has a lower resolution than if you want to create oversize prints.

The best digital camera for being able to edit and manipulate your images is one with a resolution of 5 or 6 mega pixels so that you can crop the images with photo editing software and still print them out full size.

The amount of control that you have available will also be an issue in finding the best digital camera. Some people think that the best digital camera is one they can use in an automatic mode and let the camera do the work. Others choose the best digital camera that allows them more input in the creative process by manually adjusting the focus, speed, aperture and other settings. A simple point and shoot camera is the best digital camera for people not wanting to make any setting changes but the range of manual controls available on other cameras varies with make and model. The latter will require more research to find the best digital camera to meet your requirements.

The next part in deciding which is the best digital camera to buy is to assess what, if any, additional features you would like. Here are some suggestions:

• Audio annotation to add commentary to your images.

• Burst shooting which allows you to take multiple pictures in rapid succession for fast moving action shots.

• Macro photo capability that focuses on extreme close-up detail for images of flowers, insects, etc.

• Movie mode with audio to take short videos.

• Panoramic stitching function, often included in a camera's software package, which joins individual images into a multi-photo panoramic picture.

• Weatherproof casing

The most important aspect in choosing the best digital camera for you is ensuring that you are comfortable using it and have some fun taking pictures.

About The Author


Steve Gargin is the administrator of http://digital-camera-reviews.helper-guru.com/digital-camera-kodak-easyshare-ls753/index.html which is a great website dedicated to giving free advice on Digital Cameras.

Digital Camera Storage Media

When someone buys a new digital camera for recreational purposes, they rarely look at the type of storage media the camera supports. How important is the storage media, exactly? Well, it's where your pictures are stored, so it must be pretty important! Someone doesn't want to be in a another country before they figure out the camera blinks "Memory Low" in red. A new digital camera usually comes with a means of storage, but the storage media is, most of the time, not sufficient enough to hold the slighest amount of pictures. The average stock digital camera may come with 16MB, 32MB, and maybe even 64MB worth of memory media. A memory card with at least 512MB-1GB storage is highly recommended to replace the stock memory card the camera packaging includes. The most common types of digital camera storage media are CompactFlash, Secure Digital, xD Picture, Memory Stick, MicroDrive, and SmartMedia.

Most of the current digital cameras use CompactFlash cards. The two types of CF cards are Type I and Type II(slightly thicker). The Type II CompactFlash card is also known as MicroDrive, which will be discussed further down this storage media list. SanDisk describes their CF cards as "size of a matchbook and only weighs half an ounce". There is a controller card that allows for faster transfers. These cards are the most popular because of the decent price and the support throughout many digital cameras.

Secure Digital Cards are the smallest digital camera media cards in the storage media market. The cards can store up to 4GB of memory as of now, but new technology will soon increase the max size to 8GB. A high level of protection is guaranteed against illegal copying. This means that Secure Digital Cards offer more data security.

xD Picture Cards can be used in CompactFlash supported cameras with a CompactFlash adapter. The maximum capacity of xD Picture Cards is a gigabyte of space. The cards offer fast read and write capabilities for digital cameras.

Memory Sticks were created by Sony for their Cybershot line of digital cameras. They aren't supported by brands of digital cameras other than Sony which decreases their digital camera's support of Memory Sticks severely. Many of Sony's other products, besides digital cameras, support Memory Sticks. The Playstation Portable(PSP) uses Sony's Memory Sticks as well as Sony's Vaio line.

MicroDrives are the hard drives inside of Type II CompactFlash Cards. They have better value and are better priced than flash memory, but flash memory has more space and storage. You may have heard that hard drive MP3 players fail over time due to their moving parts. The same concept can be applied to these cards because they have moving parts as well. This is why you may have heard that MicroDrives are unreliable and low in quality. Many of them would break due to the mishandling of the card.

SmartMedia cards are being replaced by the new flash card technology. The cards are still available, but the modern digital cameras usually don't support this type of storage media anymore. The card is cheaper than all the other types of storage media mentioned above.

Storage Media for digital cameras is constantly evolving and improving in quality and capacity. Years ago, the maximum storage capacity for an average memory card was 128MB or 256MB at max. They cost way too much, probably 300% more than they cost right now. The prices of digital camera storage media gets lower every year as the technology gets better. The types of storage media provides diversity and choice for the average consumer with a digital camera.

About The Author


Charlie Vuong is the webmaster of DealOverflow, http://www.dealoverflow.com/, a site that offers deals on technology. Features computer deals, pda deals, laptop deals, digital camera deals, and coupons.

Things You Should Know Before Buying Discount Cameras

Taking photographs has always been considered an enjoyable pastime. Photography is one of the best ways to capture a moment in time. It seems now the world has become obsessed with taking pictures. Everywhere you look there are advertisements for cameras. Probably one of the most significant innovations in the Digital Age has been the digital camera. At one time these cameras had one thing in common with their non-digital counterparts—an expensive price tag. In recent years the cost of digital cameras has dropped considerably; so much so that you can easily purchase a digital camera for less than $200. To find the best deal you will need to do some comparison-shopping. By arming yourself with some information about digital cameras, you will better prepare yourself for buying discount cameras.

As most of the innovations in digital technology, digital cameras are considered more complex than they really are. When you shop for discount cameras, price should not be your only guide. It is a good idea to understand some of the basic features of digital cameras so that you can effectively compare the various models available on the market.

If you’re interested in buying discount cameras, you undoubtedly are familiar with at least one buzzword associated with digital cameras: megapixel. Megapixel, which refers to the number of pixels per one million or how fine an image’s resolution is, is important to consider when buying discount cameras because megapixel directly relates to the image quality you are able to obtain. When you shop for discount cameras you will notice that there are a wide range of megapixels. At one time, a digital camera with 1.3 megapixel was standard and a camera with 5.0 megapixels was considered top-shelf. With the recent introduction of digital cameras with 9.0 megapixels, the standard in megapixels is changing.

Buying a digital camera with the highest number of megapixels is not necessarily the best method of selecting a digital camera. Since megapixels relate to an image’s resolution, you should first determine your plans for the digital camera. If you want simply to take images for personal use, a median number of megapixels such as 3.5 may be sufficient. If on the other hand you intend to enlarge and crop images, you may want to shop for digital cameras with a higher number of megapixels.

The number of megapixels that a camera uses is the primary selling point for digital cameras. However, it is the additional features that will have the greatest effect on price. Optional features that you may want to consider include video recording capabilities, an optical zoom lens, and a histogram. Most cameras include a zoom lens, but it is usually a digital zoom lens. This type of lens only appears to enlarge the image. An optical zoom lens is an ideal option if you will use your digital camera to shoot distant objects. Creating a digital movie is another popular option. If you want a digital camera with this feature, be sure to note the maximum recording time. A handy feature that is not used often, but is very handy if you are serious about digital photography is histogram. Once you snap an image you can use the histogram option to analyze the exposure. If an image is too bright or too dark you can reshoot the image.


http://wealthsmith.com/camera-articles/digital-camera/things-you-should-know-before-buying-discount-c.html