Characteristics of a digital camera.
There are many characteristics associated with digital equipment. Nowadays 35mm photography is using nearly all digital equipment, including hobbyists, amateurs, professional, news and sports, and specialist photographers. This is mainly due to the ease with which the image can be viewed immediately and therefore easier to capture the correct image, even in the heady worlds of news and sports. The action can be immediately sent via the internet to where the images are required. Digital imagery has taken off due to the equipment having a great variety of types and prices, so is accessible to everybody one way or another, including some fairly decent mobile phone cameras these days.
It is also very easy to edit the digital image at leisure or immediately, and can be done in a very small space, even out in the open eg with sports photography, via a laptop eg. There is a great deal of computer software to enable the images to be edited, the favourite being Photoshop, although there are several others that are just as good.
Digital images can be stored in several ways; an internal non-removable type of storage (normally reserved for video), a floppy disk(now almost redundant), a compact flash card(can prove expensive),a smart media card, a USB memory stick, an external hard drive attached to a computer, or on computer, either at home or what is known as on-line storage on a remote server, or uploaded to a web site, either your own or another source. The images can be downloaded via a cable to the computer, or in some instances by wireless technology. These types of storage replace film, either negative or slide, and are known as the storage media. I myself tend to keep 2 copies of my images on separate hard drives should I have a problem with my computer or one of the hard drives.
The larger medium format cameras and above are still mainly of the film variety. These are used mainly for internal fashion shoots and for large poster size prints, but the digital medium format camera is gradually being introduced.
Print costs are an issue with digital images. Most people tend not to get them printed and just leave them on their hard drive (as I do!), but I have invested in a digital photo frame and use this to look at my photos. It so serves as a means of viewing my images prior to printing or editing. It may take a while to study and look at my images, so this is a good way of viewing them over a period of time.
The current crop of Photographic magazines, both amateur and professional, are very informative with regard to reviews of many types of camera, and also give tests of new equipment on the market. As is the internet. Here you can find all sorts of information, including quite important information from the manufactures. Their websites give all the necessary information to enable you to make an informed opinion for you own needs and type of images you take. You can also see here all sorts of reviews and comments, but you have to use your own judgement for these.
Looking at some of the individual characteristics then;
Resolution – Digital cameras store images in pixels. Each pixel has its own information, colour and brightness. The more pixels the image has the more detail is contained within that image. To view the image on an external monitor, eg a computer, then the resolution must match. The viewing of images is determined by the resolution of your viewing medium, be it computer screen or TV eg. Pixel density in your camera of choice would be an important consideration. You also need to be aware that the camera uses a compression algorithm .There are various forms in use, the most popular is jpg, but there is also tiff, and more commonly RAW, which gives a lot more latitude when editing. The computer however needs to uncompress this information to enable viewing of the image, so your computer needs the software to do this. Many computers include a picture viewing software package as standard on the hard drive, which means all you have to do is select an image to view it. You do need specialist software to view RAW images though usually.
When printing your image you will concerned with two things: the number of pixels across and down in your image; and the number of pixels per inch in your image. You would therefore have to match your printer requirement with your camera choice to the size of print you would want. However, with printing I use an on-line printer outfit to produce my images. Various software packages allow to insert images into documents, so you do not have to always adjust your image to fit, a very useful bit of software indeed.
Exposure- There are many different setting for exposure depending on your choice of camera. Most have Auto exposure(except the top end cameras eg Canon D1range)and many have the means to select a manual exposure of many varying sorts. The exposure will depend on the light, and the photographers preference to the image he is trying to create eg. The quality of the lens used, the aperture of the lens needs to match the lighting conditions encountered, preplanning will be necessary to achieved the best combination. Price of some of the lenses will dictate the use and of the image making. The different shutter apertures will also need to be considered when deciding which equipment will be needed on any particular shoot. Some examples are noted here.
Lens-these are a very important consideration to how your intended image are to be produced. Some cameras have fixed lenses, such as the modern compact camera, but the SLR does have interchangeable lens, which enables you to capture the image you intend. Consideration has to be taken as to the time of day, location, intended image, and also whether to have to carry the equipment any distance. Choice of lens before you set out is very important. There is such a wide variety these days. EG landscapes may require a wide angle lens, whereas a portrait might require a 105mm lens. Zoom lens are excellent these days and you can cover a lot of assignments with just two very good zoom lenses.
Viewfinder-There are two types of viewfinder, the LCD display and the optical viewfinder. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, but the modern cameras now mainly now come with both. Some of the smaller compact cameras may only come with an LCD display. Some of the latest DSLR’s now have a vary angle LCD display screen that rotates, which can be very useful in some instances, care needs to be taken though not to damaged it. See pros and cons below.
Video output- many of the DSLR cameras include a port and a cable that can connect to the RCA jack on television monitors. This allows the photographer to show the images directly on large screen display without ever having to pass an image through a computer. Some cameras now have a “slide show” option, where the camera will show individual images advancing at a specific time increment, or by a touch of a button on the camera. An example of this use would be in teaching, sales pitches, and could cover a wide variety of subjects.
Power supply-Since all cameras are mainly portable then a portable power source is required. This is usually by battery, and there are many different sorts. Some cameras require a special power source to that type of model. It is also advisable to carry a spare charged up battery to suit your camera at all times. When in the studio for instance though and the subject matter is compatible then an AC to DC adapter may be used as an alternative.
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