Cyberlily -- Digital Camera Notes

Link Topics: Daylily & Garden | Technical Info | Digital Cameras

- Digital Cameras -

Camera and Related Links

Digital camera reviews:

Digital Photography Review - my favorite, long and highly technical reviews
Steve's DigiCams
CNET - short and sweet ratings and easy sorting

General Information:

Ron Parr's Digital Photography FAQ
Photo Resource Guide - Where to host your online album.
PC World information about the JPEG file format.
Kodak's Tips for great pictures
Kodak's Digital Guide
Kodak's Guide to Films

Rebecca's Comments and Opinions

I've sent some private comments regarding digital cameras to a few folks, but they might be useful to others so I'm putting the more generic ones here. These are just my opinions, of course, but those are something I generally have in abundance. ;-)

Resolution:

If you want to use your digital images for a professionally printed catalog, and the biggest image in your catalog is 4x5 inches, and your printer prints at 300 dpi, then a 2 megapixel camera should produce a 1200x1600 image that just meets your needs. The is also enough for 4x6 photo prints and even 5x7 in most cases. To be safe and allow some room for cropping, you may want to go with a 3 megapixel camera. The only reason to go higher would be to convert the images to slides or make 8x10 prints or to get features that are not available without getting a more expensive camera. More pixels than you need is a waste of disk space. A 1 megapixel camera is more than enough resolution for email and webpages, though there many be other features you want that are not available on these low-end cameras. Even a 2-3 megapixel camera can put a huge drain on your hard drive -- and you may need to get a bigger disk if you save everything like I do. You'll want to be able to burn CD's for backups of the most promising images - don't count on any hard drive to survive forever! I've spend more on disks and camera accessories than on my camera itself.

Color:

Overall I find that color on my digital images is more accurate than slides or film, but it's not perfect. My biggest complaint is that yellows and greens (especially in the throat) tend to be more saturated than other colors. My scanner does the same thing when scanning a print and I've observed this problem on many images I've been sent. For casual use, this is probably not a problem, but the images for a catalog may need to be touched up. Most cameras seem to have tolerable color for average use these days, but watch for comments about saturation or for multiple settings in the camera reviews. My camera has a "neutral color" setting that seems to work best for flowers. I'm finding that the same lighting that produces the best film images also works best with the digital. I'm testing several prints from digitals services, and will comment on their color quality in that section below.

Image/File Size:

JPG is a more flexible format than most folks realize. At high quality settings you have a very large file size but enough quality to send to your printer. At low quality settings the same image size will produce a much smaller file suitable for email but _not_suitable for printing. How one adjusts the quality varies by software package. Be aware of both image size and file size and know that they are separate. Save images in the highest resolution and quality you reasonably can if you plan to print them or edit them in the future.

Memory Format:

Floppies don't hold enough data, CD's are cumbersom (better to write the good ones to CD later after purging the bad shots), Memory sticks seem fine but are proprietary which concerns me but only slightly, compact flash is good and additional bigger cards are available at good prices, smart media is about the same as compact flash but is more expensive and has a few other bells and whistles that most cameras don't need. A 2-3 megapixel camera should be fine connecting to your computer with a usb cable, but for larger images I would want a faster way to download the images, such as a flash card reader. Whatever the format, you will want spares or more memory than comes with the camera.

Durablity:

Most digitals feel flimsy to me, but I'm used to hauling a big SLR around. The camera I chose is small but has a metal housing which is makes it heaver but also makes it feel better balanced and sturdier in my hand. This is one of the top few reasons I chose mine. Many of the higher end digitals have a metal body, but not all! Some of the otherwise nice Nikon's are plastic, which is suprising to me since Nikon has one of the better overall reputations. Any model purchased for use in the garden must have a lens cap, but this is standard on all but the cheapest ones.

Optical versus Digital Zoom:

Don't be taken in by a digital zoom. I keep mine turned off. This is essentially just cropping the image in the camera instead of doing it in photo editing software after downloading it. The image may look fine on the little LCD screen, but you will have lost resolution in the process. I highly recommend a camera with an optical zoom. This will let you zoom in on your subject without losing resolution. Doing so will also affect the depth of field if you don't have a direct means of controlling this. I like my 3x zoom, but for most occasions a 2x would be enough.

Problems:

Biggest complaints about the digital - these are specific to mine, but probably true for many that are on the market:

I'm not happy with the depth of field - I'd like the foliage to be less focused. A camera with a better macro setting might concievably do better out of the box, as would one that had more manual adjustments (for those who care to play with such things). The optical zoom lens on my camera helps some.
The SLR viewfinder emerses one into the shot and makes it much easier to spot flaws that should be corrected first. Little things like small bugs are just hard to see on the LCD viewfinder, and the dinky little viewfinder is unreliable for framing in macro mode as well as being very unsatisfying after using an SLR.
My flash doesn't work well indoors unless the batteries are fully charged. True of the SLR as well, but it's battieries last longer. (A spare battery is another must-have.)
The memo record function on mine is a little more awkward to use than I'd like, but still better than carrying a pencil. (I highly recommend finding a camera with a memo function.)
If you forget to set the macro mode correctly the shot will be totally out of focus, but it's hard to tell that on the LCD screen due to the small size. I've done this, and I've seen it done on a different brand expensive 5 megapixel camera too.

Classes of Digital Cameras

There are what I would consider to be several different classes of cameras available. Here's how I would group them, though I'm sure other folks would group them differently. There is no one best camera. It all depends on which features you and you alone need.

Digital SLR with optical lens:: These are the best of the digitals - suitable for professional use. If you like the feel of an SLR camera, there are several on the market from $1500 to $3000 now, though prices go up to many times that for specialized professional ones. Some of the entry level ones have fixed lenses while others will share lenses with their film counterparts. If I had the money, this is what I would buy.
Pro-Am: These cameras cost $700-$1000, have 4-6 megapixels of resolution, and come loaded with buttons and options that will be familiar to those used to a 35mm SLR. They also tend to have a tiny lightweight camera body than feels like a point-and-click film camera and shots must be framed using either a tiny little viewfinder or the LCD screen. Most will have the full set of controls you'd expect on a 35mm plus most of the features from the mid-range feature list below. Some extra features to look for are macro lenses suitable for extreme closeups, good optical zoom range, the ability to make longer movie clips, and good bundled software packages for image editting and filing.
Mid-Range: Basically these are the cameras that don't fall into the category above or below. They have fewer options and megapixels than the pro-am cameras, but more features than the basic cameras -- but which features a given camera will have varies quite a bit. Expect things like optical zoom lenses, macro settings, short movie clips, voice memos, 2-4 megapixels, color effects options, nice software, and/or extra small size.
Basic: These cameras have up to 2 megapixels and few bells and whistles. Prices for this category range from "free gift" with some other purchase up to say $200. Some of these are good cameras. Look for something that feels solid in your hand, has controls that are easy and natural to reach, and a lens cap.

Prints from Digital Images

I've been testing out on-line services that make prints from digital images. The most important thing I've learned so far is to pay attention to the cropping method. Digital images have a different aspect ratio than film. A film print fits nicely into a 4x6 print, but digital image proportions are closer to 4x5.3. If you order 4x6 images from a digital print without performing any manual cropping prior to upload, one of the following will happen. Some sites let you choose which.

the image will be made to fit on the long axis and cropped on the short axis. That is, on a landscape shot the top and bottom will be cropped around 1/4 inch on each side.
the image will be made to fit on the short axis and a white border will be added to the long axis. The border may be symmetric or only on one side.
a white border may be added all the way around the image. The border will be wider on the long axis than the short axis.
the prints will be printed as 4x5.3 images instead of 4x6.

The files I uploaded for printing were 1200x1600 jpeg files created by my 2.0 megapixel camera with the jpg quality set to maximum. Most of the prints I ordered were 4x6, and the resolution/grain was acceptable. If you shoot MAX speed film you will be very happy. If you shoot 100 speed or better, I recommend running the image through Photoshop's unsharp mask prior to upload. I've only had one 5x7 made from an image which I sharpened first, and I found it acceptable.

With respect to the print quality, here's what I've learned so far. Note that I've only tried each of these services once (with the same group of shots), so I'm assuming that their results are consistent from one group of prints to the next - probably not a safe assumption.... Most places will give you the first few prints for free, so I recommend trying several as I did.

Shutterfly: probably my favorite so far in terms of color and options. One can have the short axis cropped or choose a border all the way around a print. Their preview shows which part of the image will be cropped. Image color was very good, and they provide the option of automatic color correction or not. Price is a high $.49 per print, but that can come down to $.29/print if prints are pre-purchased in bulk. They offer a lot of decorative borders, cards, and doo-dad options I'll probably never never use but were kind of impressive in their variety. Glossy prints only, but on Fuji paper which I understand to be superior to the Kodak paper the other sites use.
PhotoWorks: Only $.29 per print (up from $.19). On-line albums, but few options. The site is pretty lean, but I kinda liked that. Both people shots and flower shots were just slightly off compared to Shutterfly (a little too light on some test shots and too dark on one). Probably my second choice so far.
Snapfish: Most of the colors were over saturated, but a few prints were washed out with an overexposed look. Site seems geared for folks who care more about making coffee mugs than how the pictures look. Cost is $.39 to $.25/print depending on quantity. Kodak paper, matte finish and heavyweight paper available.
Club Photo: These folks spammed me, which is not the right way to make a good first impression. I decided to try them anyway, and they've been sending me email ever since. Prints had the worst color yet - a hideous gold wash that appeared to be an attempt to color correct the oversatuated greens. Cost appears to be $.25/print.
Sam's Club: Been told these folks do a good job, but I can't seem to get the website to work quite right. Perhaps it's just a bad connection. Will try again later.

Perhaps something here will help, but probably not. Cameras seem to be a surprisingly personal decision.
--Rebecca