The use of digital cameras has greatly boomed in the market of photography where more and more people prefer to keep their photo albums in their own computer. They do not want to experience once more the troubles of having their photos printed using costly photo papers and file it manually. Photos shot using digital cameras can be easily filed into a folder according to occasion, date, and other specifications. Specific collection of photos can also be arranged by folders.
Digital cameras are the latest break through in the technology of catching images. Still, many are confused regarding the similarities and differences of digital cameras from traditional cameras. Learning something about digital cameras will erase any confusion.
- The process of capturing the image is similar. Both traditional and digital cameras have a shutter, an aperture and a lens. The lens is used to focus on the image to be shot, the light passes the shutter and then its intensity is controlled by the aperture. However, in digital cameras, photographs are electronically captured and stored using an electronically image sensor while traditional cameras uses an ordinary film for capturing pictures.
- There are different types of image sensors which include CCD or Charged Coupled Device which is popularly used because of its displayed efficiencies, Foveon, and CMOS. The sensors are made of electrodes and photosites capable of measuring light intensities. The number of light intensity becomes the pixels or mega pixels which produces the shapes of the captured image. Take note, the resolution of the camera is measured according to the number of pixels and mega pixels.
Light is then converted to electrical signals through the image sensor which then passes on to a converter which converts analog signal to digital signal or the A/D converter, later on the converted to binary numbers data ends in the memory card. It functions like a mini-computer installed inside the camera.
The colors are supplied through the filters since photosites works only to measure lights. The filters consist of the 3 primary colors giving more amounts to color green, which is more sensitive to the eye followed by colors red and blue. Image sensors already contain these pre-arrangement of colors. The picture takes its shape after analyzing and calculating the color of each photosites having only one color by considering the colors of the surroundings. The process is referring to demosaicing.
The image passes through different camera settings including color, contrast, and light which are stored in the memory card using the JPEG format. JPEG are compressed formats which deletes excess data. Some cameras are storing pictures as raw data. Before passing the demosaicing stage, these data are also stored. This procedure is very important if you are going to transfer the pictures in your computer then edit it using the appropriate editing software. You then have the power to control your pictures.
- Digital cameras have different shooting modes for capturing images. There are 9 modes including automatic, manual, portrait, landscape, macro, sport, night, aperture priority, and shutter priority. Some of these modes might not be present in your camera. It will also depend on the brands. These modes are set through the menus displayed on the LCD of the camera or rotating the dial when choosing the visual mode of the icons.
If you have a digital camera, you have the freedom to experiment. Take pictures as much as you want and use different modes and study what works best in every scenario.
The basics of a digital camera revolve around terms like pixel, pixel count, white balance, sensor, sensitivity, optical zoom, or digital zoom. These improve your understanding of what digital photography is all about, and will help you become a more efficient photographer.
For example, one important term is digital sensor. A typical digital camera may have a digital sensor element that is as big as a small finger nail. Most 5MP digital cameras use a sensor that is 7mm x 5mm in size. This is much smaller than the size of the negative of a 35 mm camera. However, high-end digital cameras have large sensors, and generate superior images. These are important things to know, to see how pictures can be better or worse.
Digital cameras also have sensitivity settings similar to ISO ratings on film. Most digital cameras will have settings for sensitivity equivalent to ISO 100 and ISO 200. Many also have a setting for ISO 400. A few expensive digital SLR cameras with large sensors have settings for ISO 3200 or even for ISO 6400.
Most digital cameras have an optical and a digital zoom. An optical zoom lens works by changing the focal length and magnification while the zoom is being utilized - with the image quality remaining high. Digital zoom works by cropping the image to a smaller size. The cropped image is enlarged to fill the frame, causing a significant loss of quality.
The manufacturers of digital cameras use the term "pixel count" to describe their camera's image properties. The word pixel originates from "(PIC)ture (EL)ement"- with the use of phonics added for emphasis. It represents a single point in a graphic image - not a dot but an abstract sample that can be reproduced in any size, without a dot or square appearance.
A pixel is important to understand because it is the basic unit of measurement, used to define a digital photograph. The more the number of pixels per square inch, the higher the resolution of a digital picture, increasing its clarity. Some examples would be 2,400 pixels per inch, 640 pixels per line, or spaced 10 pixels apart. Designers, artists, and photographers sometimes interchange the pixel terminology, such as dots per inch (dpi) with pixels per inch (ppi). The dpi is used when it refers to the printer's resolution for the printing density. Each pixel is made up of three color channels - red, green and blue -- and has a numerical value of between 0 and 255.
The pixel count also decides the size of a print in case you want to print photographs. A 3MP camera can provide excellent 4x6 inch prints, while a 4 or 5MP digital camera can deliver high quality 8x10 inch prints. With a digital camera you can pick the white balance to suit the light source. This is meant to ensure that white looks white, and not yellow or blue. Normally, your digital camera will do this automatically. You can also set the white balance yourself for better effects.
Since each pixel generates three bytes of data, a photographer using a 3MP camera will need a storage space of 9 million bytes or 9MB to store a single image. This is a huge amount of space. Camera companies therefore allow for a compression of image using a format called JPEG. This reduces the file size significantly but while doing so a lot of data is lost. To overcome this problem companies have come up with different storage formats. Canon calls it RAW while Nikon calls it NEF. The data loss is less in these formats.
The low end cameras used by beginners can shoot images whose pixel count is one million is categorized as 1 MP or one million pixel camera because the intensity of each pixel is variable, with each pixel having three or four dimensions of variability - such as red, green and blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The high-end cameras used by professionals, can range from 14MP to 22MP with a pixel count as high as 14 million or 22 million per image.
The thing to remember is the higher the resolution, the more realistic the image is, matching closest what the actual image is. So take your time, do some research, and talk to people who know cameras. Otherwise, a lot of money will be spent on something that is barely adequate for what you want.
Both Bill Urell & Mike Singh are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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