I’m Okay, You’re a Digital Camera

I’ll be the first to assure you that I’m no Ansel Adams, yet I’ve been capturing moments and memories on film for most of my life now, and I’ve slowly worked my way into what most folks would deem semiprofessional photography. (That means I can shoot a decent portrait, I take on a commission from time-to-time, and I have a reasonably well-stuffed camera bag.) Does that mean I’m loaded down with expensive 35mm cameras and a dozen different varieties of film? Definitely not! I’ve never been darkroom material, and film photography no longer excites me. These days, I work entirely with digital cameras, which don’t use traditional film at all. Why digital? My entire portfolio of digital photos which would easily fill up a dozen traditional bound photo albums fits comfortably on a 700MB CD-ROM. I can display those photographs on practically any PC or print hard copies that are almost impossible to tell from film prints. I don’t spend a dime on film processing, either and when you take 10 to 20 images a day, that savings really adds up. I’d like to spend this article introducing you to the world of digital photography. You’ll discover how a digital camera works, why it’s better in many respects than a film camera, and how to move images that you’ve taken from your camera to your PC. If you’re interested in shooting better pictures, I’ll also cover a number of well-worn basic rules used by professional photographers all over the world. You also discover how to download your images from your digital camera (by using the features that are built into Windows XP) and how to catalog your photographs (thus making it easier to locate a specific image).

How Does a Digital Camera Work?

A common misconception surrounds today’s digital cameras: Because they don’t use film and because they produce pictures as data files, many folks think that digital cameras must use a radically different method of capturing an image. Actually, your family film camera and that power-hungry, battery-munching digital camera that you got for Christmas are remarkably similar in most respects. The big difference is the method that each of these two types of cameras uses to record that incoming light. To wit:

-  A film camera uses a strip of light-sensitive celluloid coated with silver halide, which retains the image. The film must later be developed, and the negatives/positives that are produced can be used (reproduced, usually on photographic paper) to make copies of the photograph.

-  A digital camera, on the other hand, uses a grid (or array) of photosensitive sensors to record the incoming pattern of light. Each sensor returns an electrical current when it’s struck by the incoming light. Because the amount of current returned varies with the amount of light, your camera’s electronic innards can combine the different current levels into a composite pattern of data that represents the incoming light: in other words, an image, in the form of a binary file. If you’ve read some other books on CD recording and scanning, you already know about binary, which is the common language shared by all computers. Although your eye can’t see any image in the midst of all those ones and zeros, your computer can display them as a photograph and print the image, if you like, or send it to your Aunt Harriet in Boise as an e-mail attachment. “Wait a second: How does the image file get to my computer?” That’s a very good question because naturally, no one wants to carry a PC (or even a laptop) around just to shoot a photograph. Your digital camera stores the image file until you can transfer (download) it to your computer. Different types of cameras use different methods of storing the image files:

-  RAM cards: Random access memory (RAM) cards (the most common storage method) are removable memory cards that function much like the memory modules used by your computer. In fact, some cards are actually interchangeable with personal digital assistants (PDAs) and palmtop PCs. The most popular types of media include CompactFlash (www.sandisk.com), SmartMedia (www.microtech.com), and Memory Stick (www.sony.com) cards, generally ranging from 8 megabytes (MB) to 256MB or 512MB of storage. When the card is full of images, you either download the images from the card to free up space, or you can eject it and put in a spare empty card.

-  Hard drives: Yep, you read right; some cameras have their own onboard hard drives, and others use tiny removable hard drives that are roughly the same size as a RAM card. Naturally, these little beauties can easily store a gigabyte (GB) or more of your images. (Geez, I’m old enough to remember when a full-sized computer hard drive couldn’t store that much.)

-  Floppy drives: Some digital cameras use floppies to store photos. (Guess what? I don’t like those cameras.) If your camera uses floppies, make doggone sure that you get your images backed up to your computer’s hard drive as soon as possible. Because of the larger images produced by today’s cameras, floppy-based digital cameras are rapidly disappearing from the market.

-  CD-RW drives: Here’s the ultimate: A camera that can burn your digital photographs directly onto a CD-R or CD-RW! Although these cameras

can be a little bulkier than models that use RAM cards, this just plain rocks. As you might expect, you’ll pay a premium price for one of these jewels. If you’re wondering approximately how many images you can fit onto a specific RAM card, remember that most of today’s 2- to 3-megapixel cameras produce images ranging from 1.5 to 2MB at their highest quality mode.

The Pros and Cons of Digital Photography

I mention earlier in this article that I’ve switched completely from my 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) cameras to a (rapidly expanding) collection of digital cameras. However, there’s a lot more to like about the digital revolution than just cutting the expenses of film and processing. Other advantages include the following:

-  Digital prints are versatile. The digital photographs that you take can be enclosed in e-mail messages, burned as CD-ROM slide shows, or displayed as your PC’s Windows desktop and screensaver. Of course, you can also print them; and with today’s special inkjet papers, your images can end up on things like greeting cards and T-shirt transfers. If you’re interested in producing prints from your digital photographs in the shortest time possible, check out one of the latest inkjet printers that can directly accept memory cards from your digital camera. Heck, with one of these inkjet marvels, you don’t need a PC. Some of these printers can even rotate and resize images as well.

-  Look, Ma, no developing! With a digital camera, you have practically instant access to your photographs. Save yourself the trip to the photo store even a one-hour photo lab can’t match the five minutes that it takes to connect your camera to your PC (with a Universal Serial Bus [USB] or FireWire cable) and download your images to your hard drive. (And you’ll also avoid the ravages of a misaligned development machine or a clumsy operator.)  

-  Easy editing with your PC. Imagine everything that can go wrong with a picture: a bad exposure, a case of red eye, or perhaps a tree sprouting from someone’s head. With a digital photograph, you can reduce or eliminate these problems altogether; with the proper editing, a bad picture becomes mediocre, and a good picture can become a work of art. Bonus: After the images are on your PC, you can edit or print them immediately.

 -  Manage your photographs on location. Imagine being able to review a shot as soon as it’s taken. With a traditional film camera, you’re stuck with what you’ve taken, and you won’t see the results until that roll of film has been developed. A digital camera, however, gives you the freedom to actually manage your images. For example, you can view each image on a memory card and delete the ones that you don’t need to free up space. Using the camera’s liquid crystal diode (LCD) screen also allows you to review a photograph as soon as you’ve taken it. Don’t like the way a particular photograph turned out? If you review each shot as soon as you’ve snapped it which I always do you can try to retake most pictures immediately! (Of course, this feature won’t help you if the UFO has already zipped over the horizon, but it’s darned handy on vacation.) Many digital cameras on the market these days can also do double-duty as simple video camcorders at least for 30, 60, or 120 seconds using a feature called movie mode. Some cameras can even record audio along with the video; the amount of time that you can record depends on the amount of storage available, so a digital camera with a 128MB memory card can capture many more seconds of video than a camera with only a 16MB memory card. However, all is not perfect in the digital world . . . not yet, at least. Film cameras aren’t doomed to share the fate of the dinosaurs because traditional film photography still has these advantages over digital photography:  -

 Film cameras are still less expensive. Although digital cameras have dropped considerably in price over the last few years, film cameras still provide better resolution and image quality for a lower initial price. In fact, at the time of this writing, any inexpensive film camera under $100 can still take a better photograph than a $300 digital camera. Of course, if you’re willing to spend more, you’ll narrow the quality gap . . . but not for long. While digital camera prices continue to drop, an average digital camera will eventually be able to take a shot that’s as good as a film camera. How can you tell which digital cameras produce better images? While shopping for a digital camera, keep the camera’s megapixel rating in mind that’s the number of pixels (or individual dots) in an image that the camera can capture. The higher the megapixel value, the better the image quality, the more expensive the camera, and the larger the photographs that you can print. As a rule, a 2-megapixel camera is suitable for most casual photography, but amateur photographers will prefer at least a 3-megapixel camera. Cameras in the 4- to 5-megapixel range can match a typical 35mm camera in quality.  

-  Film cameras are better at capturing motion. Most consumer digital cameras in the 2- and 3-megapixel range still have trouble taking shots of subjects in motion, such as sporting events. (This is because of the longer delay required for those photosensitive sensors to capture the image.) Today’s more expensive, higher-megapixel cameras are much better at motion (stop action) photography.

 -  Man, do those digital cameras use the juice! Unlike a film camera, a digital camera relies on battery power for everything, including that powerhungry LCD display. If you’re in the middle of shooting a wedding and you haven’t packed a spare set of batteries, you have my condolences. A film camera is far less demanding on its batteries.

 -  You need those ports. If your PC doesn’t have USB ports (or, for a more expensive camera, FireWire ports) handy, you’ll have to add an adapter card that provides the correct type of port for your camera. As you might have already guessed, many photographers have chosen to carry both traditional film and digital cameras, which allows them to use whatever best fits the circumstances (depending on the subject and the level of control that they need on location). For me, the long-term savings and convenience of my digital cameras and the ability to review my photographs as soon as they’re taken makes them the better choice. So what can you do with digital photographs? A heck of a lot more than a film print, that’s for sure (at least on your PC and in the online world)! Common fun that you can have with a digital image includes  

-  Printing ’em. Today’s inkjet printers can produce a hard copy on all sorts of media (everything from plain paper to blank business cards and CD/DVD labels), but naturally you’ll get the best results on those expensive sheets of glossy photo paper.

 -  Using them on your personal or business Web site. Jazz up your Web pages with images from your camera.

 -  Sending them as e-mail attachments. I get a big kick out of sending photos through e-mail! As long as you add a total of less than 2MB of images to an e-mail message, the recipient should receive them with no problem. (And then the attached files can be viewed, printed, or saved to the recipient’s hard drive.)

 -  Creating slide shows. Check your camera’s software documentation to see whether you can create a slide show on your hard drive (or on a CD-ROM) to show off your digital photographs.  

-  Using them in crafts projects. Plaster your digital photographs on T-shirt transfers, buttons, greeting cards, and all sorts of crafts.