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Digital Photography

Digital Photography. …a little understanding goes a long way. By Stuart Hasic. Introduction. Are Film Cameras Dead? Positives and Negatives of Digital Still Cameras The minimum stuff you need in a digital camera The Megapixel Mystery Photo capture memory Optical Zoom vs Digital Zoom

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Digital Photography

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  1. Digital Photography …a little understanding goes a long way By Stuart Hasic

  2. Introduction • Are Film Cameras Dead? • Positives and Negatives of Digital Still Cameras • The minimum stuff you need in a digital camera • The Megapixel Mystery • Photo capture memory • Optical Zoom vs Digital Zoom • Why are you taking these photos? • Printing your digital photos • Editing your digital photos • Permanent storage of digital photo files

  3. Are Film Cameras Dead? • You can still buy film cameras • The biggest film camera market by far is the disposable type, but even that is declining • Kodak is closing its only Australian film, photo paper and chemicals manufacturing plant in Melbourne on 26/11/04 – a loss of 600 jobs • Worldwide, Kodak is shedding 20% of it’s staff – some 15,000 people • You can still buy LP turntables today. Film cameras are heading the same way

  4. POSITIVES Instant viewing of photo Simple reviewing / deletion Not restricted to 24 or 36 shots Various memory capacities Various picture quality settings Some can take 1,000s of shots Can also capture short movies Can apply photo effects - B&W Easy transfer to computer If you don’t print your photos, there is almost zero on-cost NEGATIVES More expensive to purchase Shutter lag bad for action shots Speed shot cameras are costly Personal printing costs are high Can’t do long exposure shots Film cameras last longer Digital cameras are fragile Obsolescence is rapid Battery-life is an issue Memory cards can fail The Positives and Negatives of Digital Cameras (pun intended)

  5. The Minimum Stuff you need with a Digital Camera • Don’t buy any camera that uses disposable batteries or has in-built, non-removable memory • Your camera should have a built-in flash and battery charger • It should take various memory card capacities • It should offer an absolute minimum of 2MP • Buy at least one extra rechargeable battery • Buy at least one extra memory card of 128MB+ • Buy an external USB memory card reader • Buy a collapsible tripod

  6. The Megapixel Mystery * JPEG Compression at fine quality

  7. Photo Capture Memory • Several different and incompatible types: • Compact Flash (CF) • Secure Digital (SD) • XD – Developed by Olympus/Minolta • Memory Stick – Developed by Sony • Type of memory is dependent on camera • No real difference in speed • You can get “clone” cards at cheaper prices • You should have minimum of 128MB cards • Most cameras only come with 16 or 32MB cards

  8. Optical Zoom vs Digital Zoom • Optical Zoom means the lens physically moves in order to producing zooming effect • Digital Zoom means the camera uses a processor to increase the size of pixels and smooth the image to produce the zoom • Digital zoom can be applied to any photo using a computer, making it useless on a camera

  9. Why are you taking these photos? • When taking photos, think first about what you want to use the photos for • If you (ever will) want to print your photos in high quality (rivaling film quality), they should be taken with the camera set to at least 2MP quality • If you only want to use the photos on a computer (Powerpoint, webpage, Word etc) or on a TV, then anything more than 1MP is wasting space • REMEMBER: You can decrease an existing photo’s quality, but not increase it • Schools should aim at keeping photos in digital form

  10. Printing Digital Photos • You can print photos yourself, but be aware of the costs associated • Inkjets using photo paper produce the best results, but may cost well over $1 per print • Paper jams and faulty ink cartridges add to the cost through wastage • Take your memory card to Big W or Harvey Norman and get 4”x6” prints for 38c each • Photo printing is a very competitive market and prices will continue to drop – but not necessarily in the DIY space

  11. Editing your digital photos • Free software for editing/manipulating digital photos: • Most cameras and scanners come with OEM photo editing software • GIMP - http://www.gimp.org(Mac OSX & Win) • iPhoto (bundled with Mac OSX) • IrfanView – http://www.irfanview.com (Windows) • PhotoPlus 5.5 - http://www.freeserifsoftware.com (W) • Commercial software: • Adobe Photoshop / Photoshop Elements • Macromedia Fireworks

  12. Permanent storage of photo files • Many people save their photos on a hard disk • If the hard disk fails, photos are lost forever • CDs and DVDs are the best media for long-term storage of photos • They can then be catalogued for future use • “MemoriesOnTV” is excellent because as well as making a “movie” of your photos, the original JPEG files are also stored on the CD or DVD – http://www.picturetotv.com

  13. A Great Camera for Schools 5.1 Megapixel 32MB Mem Stick Video mode 2.5” LCD 3x Optical Zoom Built-in Flash Exposure setting Shutter setting Long battery life RRP $699 (11/04) SONY Direct offers education pricing: Ph. 8873 9230 for government sales inquiries SONY DSC-W1

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