Digital Camera Special Features
What are some helpful features my digital camera could have?
Well, for me, one of the best ones is multi-point auto-focus, so that you can have the ability to choose different parts of the scene to have the camera focus. That's cool. We talked about image stabilizer before. That's a really hot feature. The other things you might want to consider: can you add an additional flash to it? We talked about flash for red-eye. If you can add an additional flash to your camera, you can eliminate the red-eye or shoot farther. Some of you want Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on your digital camera. Realistically, in the camera business, that's been a non-issue; people don't really care about that, because you're going to hook the camera into the computer, or take the memory card out and put it into a card reader to download it. But if you want to shoot wirelessly in an environment, the Wi-Fi capability is pretty cool. There's all kinds of features on your digital camera. For my customers, most of the time, an average digital camera has 8-10, features. The average customer uses 4. That's it. Turn it on, zoom in, zoom out, and take the picture.
How do the "scene modes" on my digital camera help me take better photographs?
The scene modes on your camera are probably the easiest ways to improve your picture quality, of anything we've talked about. When you set the camera in automatic or the green idiot proof mode, the camera doesn't know what kind of pictures you want to take. I recommend to my customers that they use three scene modes. The first one the landscape scene mode. If you're taking a picture of a scenic or a broad vista you use the landscape. Generally de-noted by the mountain with a tree or a person in front of it. That give you a good four round background focus. It gives you a slow shutter speed, some things moving are going to blur be aware of that. The second scene mode that I would recommend would be the portrait. It's usually de-noted by a face or a head, so that's to isolate a subject for a person or some person that you want to isolate. Try to put the background out of focus. Landscape, portrait, the third one is the action stopping, or running guy mode. That's for stop action, for moving subjects. Those are the three scene modes that I recommend that you use each and every time, for those of you who are afraid to get off of the idiot proof. Landscape, portrait, action/scene mode . Get used to those, use them, and you'll take better pictures.
What is a "histogram"?
The histogram is a graphic display of the exposure, generally displayed in the playback mode of most SLRs. General in the preview mode of some of the compact cameras. It's this funky-looking graph that you see that shows the exposure. Now, in the camera, I find the histogram to be of moderate importance. In Photoshop later on, when we're editing our pictures, the histogram is huge. You have to live and die by the histogram. What you need to know about the histogram is an ideal histogram is a bell-shaped curve. You'll never see that in real life. When you take pictures, what you want to make sure on the histogram is that there's very little touching either edge. The left edge of the histogram is your black areas. The right edge of the histogram is your white areas. You want to keep the image in the middle and not touching either edge. How do you adjust the histogram? By adjusting exposure compensation, or "plus-minus" exposure. That's how you'll shift the histogram left or right on the scale.
What is an "AF Illuminator"?
With special features of a digital camera, the AF illuminator, or autofocus illuminator allows the camera to focus in low light. Remember we talked about with focusing; the camera needs light to see. So, if there's no light or low light, the camera sends out a red, white or orange beam to allow the focus engine in the camera to see the subject and take the picture. When you're using the autofocus illuminator it could take a little bit longer for the digital camera to focus; if you want to shoot further distance and in lower light, adding an external flash to your digital camera increases the power to the autofocus illuminator, this will allow you to shoot better in low light or at distances with more light.
What is "multi-point autofocus"?
Standard autofocusing cameras focus in the center of the scene. You'll have either a cross or a box in the middle of the picture. That tells you where the camera's focusing. One of the cool, new features on the camera today is called multipoint or flexpoint auto focus. And, that's where the camera has three or five or six or nine or fifteen or twenty-two different boxes where the camera can focus. And, it's really cool – because you can set the camera to automatically pick the focus point or I, the photographer can manually through a thumb wheel adjust which of the points I want to put my focus. The whole point for multipoint auto focus is - I don't have to have the subject in the center of the camera anymore. I don't have to have the subject in the center of the picture to make the picture come into focus. If you think about – I'm gonna take a picture of you and your girlfriend, you're sitting there, and if I put the center of the picture – Where's the center of the picture? – right over your shoulder and how many times have you seen pictures of the wallpaper clear and the two people in the foreground are out of focus because the focus was in the center? With multipoint auto focus the camera will automatically find you, or I, as the photographer, will manually put the focus point where? – On my main subject – so that you're always in focus – and that's what we want.
What is a "hot shoe"?
One special feature on digital camera is a hot shoe. A hot shoe allows you to add an external flash. Most of our compact digital cameras today don't have that hot shoe special feature. However, virtually all of the SLRs do. Hot shoe is a great special feature to enable a big flash to be added, to shoot the flash a further distance, or to eliminate the red-eye.
What does the "wi-fi" feature of a digital camera do?
The wi-fi feature on a digital camera today allows you to wirelessly connect to a digital, wireless network. Whether it's on your laptop or your home network, it allows you to send your pictures through the air to the computer, so you can shoot directly to the computer, you can shoot directly to the printer, if you like. It's really cool, 'cause some of the new cameras actually have a built-in e-mail function. So you can to a wi-fi hotspot, like at a Starbucks or places like that, and through the back of the camera, e-mail your pictures directly. Now, what's the downside of a wi-fi? It only works if you're taking pictures next to or near your computer. So if you're out on vacation, does wi-fi really matter? Not really, but it's kind of a cool techy gadget, and a lot of my high-tech people really love to have the wi-fi feature built into their camera.
What are features of some digital cameras that I don't need?
A lot of the digital cameras have hundreds and hundreds of features that you'll never use. My favorite unusable feature is digital zoom. I always recommend you turn the digital zoom off because it makes bad pictures. Some of the other features are the ability to change the pixel size to a lower quality picture. Some of the cameras have you know, sepia tone, and blue tone, and all kinds of crazy color modes. Some of the cameras have all kinds of things like - it'll take the background and allow you to put two people in the...you can shoot the picture and put two people in the same picture. Don't be fooled by all that stuff. You're not going to use it. You're going to turn the camera on, you're going to take beautiful pictures. You want crisp, clear, sharp pictures. That's all you care about. Look for the good solid features: good lens, good mega pixels, good viewfinder, the camera feels good to you, not all the mumbo jumbo. That's just in there because electronically they can do it, so a lot of the camera companies just do.
What is the difference between an "optical zoom" and "digital zoom"?
On a digital camera, there is a choice of two kinds of zoom. The first zoom is digital zoom. That's what you read about on the packaging. Twelve times digital zoom, wow! But that can produce bad pictures, because it's electronically blowing up the pixels. What you want to consider is the optical zoom, or how the lens moves. The optical zoom is the lens changing the focus, the lens bringing in, making things closer. So in the set up mode on your camera, number one, turn off the digital zoom. Number two, when you're buying a camera, ignore whatever digital zoom they claim to have and just look at the optical zoom. Optical zoom equals good pictures. Digital zoom euqals bad pictures.
Why should I not use "black and white" or "sepia tone" features?
One of the questions a lot of people ask me about digital cameras is whether it has black and white mode and whether is has sepia. Most cameras do. But I never recommend shooting with black and white mode on the camera. You're throwing away data, you're throwing away all the color data. I recommend shooting in color. In photoshop later on, use the desaturate or channel mixer to create sepia. It's easier, it gives you better pictures, and you capture the color beforehand so you have it later on. If you shoot in black and white, you never have the color. It's gone forever. Once again, shoot in color, make it black and white with your computer.
What are some non-photographic features added to some digital cameras?
A lot of the digital still cameras they have, have cool features, like the ability to shoot movies. It's a great feature to have for just taking a snippet, they have voice recording, and then voice recording came to us through the journalist side. In the old days, the photo journalist used to have to bring a note pad and paper when he took your picture "ok Mrs. Smith, 222 Applebee Lane, and this is her dog that just got rescued by the police", Now the voice memo mode is very cool, you hit the voice memo mode on your camera and you can record seven seconds of voice and say "this is Mrs. Smith and I just took her picture cause her dog got rescued", whatever, that's a cool stuff, there's all kinds of features in your digital camera, it just depends on what you wanna do and how you wanna use it. I personally don't use any of that stuff, I take my pictures, I print my pictures, I enjoy my pictures. All that other stuff if you're a techie guy, knock yourself out, but its just for you.
