Archive for the ‘Digital Camera’ Category
April 17th, 2011 | 
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These days, it seems like just about all consumer electronics include some sort of digital camera. It’s never been easier to take pictures and share them online, but when it comes to digital photo printing, there may be a few issues that you should know about ahead of time. The quality of the prints you receive will depend largely on the type of camera that you use. It is important to know this ahead of time, so that you can be assured that you will be happy with the finished results.
Although camera phones are popular and are certainly capable of taking decent enough images, these usually are not suitable for digital photo printing. This is due to various different reasons, which we will explore later in this article. If you are planning on using your camera photo to take pictures that will later be processed by digital photo printing, here’s what you need to know.
First, the image quality for camera phones is usually much less than a traditional Digital Camera. The majority of these phones use 1.3 megapixel resolutions, but you may be able to find phones that go all the way up to 3 megapixels. This may look like a strange word, but it refers to how many pixels go into a standard size image. 3 megapixels equals roughly 3 million pixels per inch.
The more pixels you have per inch, the higher the quality of the image. Using this example, a camera that uses 1.3 megapixels for a resolution will produce images of lesser quality than one that uses 3 megapixels. However, even that may not be enough for quality digital photo printing. It is best to use a camera that has a high resolution and typically, camera phones just don’t have this capability.
This is due mainly to their small size and limited capacity. Unaltered digital image files can be quite large, and camera phones will have a small amount of useable memory. If you were to store high quality images on your phone, you would probably be limited to around one or two. This is inconvenient, so most manufacturers use a lower resolution. While this does allow for more images to be stored on a phone, it does affect the results of digital photo printing.
This is the number one reason that camera phones just can’t produce images that are of high enough quality for digital photo printing. Typically, a 4×6 print that was taken with a camera phone will be blurry and virtually unusable. That same size print that was taken with a regular digital camera will typically be much more clear and of higher quality.
While camera phones are great for everyday photo taking and quick sharing online, they really are not well suited to digital photo printing. It is best to use your regular camera if you want to take photos that will be printed later. You’ll be assured of much better results if you do.
CJ Thomas
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Especially in today’s troublesome economy, with the high prices of Digital Cameras, rechargeable batteries, tripods, filters, and other accessories, you might be tempted to save some money by purchasing cheaper, generic digital camera media. And why not? Photos taken with cheaper media should look just the same as those taken with more expensive media, as long as the files get written correctly. Your JPG images will not come out more pixilated, and uncompressed TIFF and RAW files will contain the same Information.
However, “saving Money” has a few potential downsides:
* Brand name digital camera memory cards may be faster than their generic equivalents. If your digital camera supports the faster write speeds, you can take photos quicker by not waiting as long for your digital camera to store information onto the media. This is especially important if you wish to use drive mode and take multiple images in quick succession, useful for sporting events, wildlife photography, and other situations involving fast-moving subjects.
* Brand name digital camera memory may prove to be more reliable. On some generic memory I have used, even though the media did not outright fail, if you shot multiple photos quickly the memory card could ‘hang’, causing some photos to be lost. Since the photos were never successfully written to the media, they were unrecoverable.
* Brand name digital camera media may have limited warranties. If the media proves to be defective within a certain period of time after the purchase, it might be possible to get a replacement memory card. Some warranties may provide replacements at no charge; others might require modest shipping and handling charges.
Even with limited warranties, however, any lost photos on the defective media may remain lost. In some instances, media recovery applications may help. While I don’t vouch for any particular software package, publishers include DataRescue, Jufsoft, and MediaRECOVER.
* Brand name digital camera memory may be rated to handle better in extreme conditions (hot and cold environments), useful if you plan on mountain climbing or shooting photos at a beach or desert. Of course, in such environments you may deal with other weather-related problems such as faster-draining batteries and condensation forming on the camera lens.
* Even if you want to purchase brand name digital camera memory, you may be tempted to purchase such media from lesser known stores, online outlets, or auction sites. After purchasing items at some establishments (though certainly not all), you might find yourself with counterfeit memory, generic memory repackaged as brand name! Such memory may increase the chances of data corruption, perform slower than advertised, and quite possibly damage the camera as you insert or remove the media. Plus, counterfeit memory lacks any true warranty, even if the fake packaging claims one is offered. As the adage goes, if a price is too good to be true, it just may be.
(Note that if this scam happens to you, you cannot always blame the store for the sale. It may have unknowingly purchased this memory from a fraudulent distributor.)
I am not recommending always buying the most expensive media at the most expensive retailer – the choice is yours. Some of the above potential downsides may not apply to your digital camera or your shooting conditions. You might not require faster shooting, and certainly not all generic memory will corrupt your data. However, for those truly concerned about their photos being written correctly and transferrable to backup media without incidents, paying a few extra bucks may prove to be money well spent.
Copyright 2008 Andrew Malek.
Andrew Malek
Especially in today’s troublesome economy, with the high prices of Digital Cameras, rechargeable batteries, tripods, filters, and other accessories, you might be tempted to save some money by purchasing cheaper, generic digital camera media. And why not? Photos taken with cheaper media should look just the same as those taken with more expensive media, as long as the files get written correctly. Your JPG images will not come out more pixilated, and uncompressed TIFF and RAW files will contain the same information.
However, “saving money” has a few potential downsides:
* Brand name digital camera memory cards may be faster than their generic equivalents. If your Digital Camera supports the faster write speeds, you can take photos quicker by not waiting as long for your digital camera to store Information onto the media. This is especially important if you wish to use drive mode and take multiple images in quick succession, useful for sporting events, wildlife photography, and other situations involving fast-moving subjects.
* Brand name digital camera memory may prove to be more reliable. On some generic memory I have used, even though the media did not outright fail, if you shot multiple photos quickly the memory card could ‘hang’, causing some photos to be lost. Since the photos were never successfully written to the media, they were unrecoverable.
* Brand name digital camera media may have limited warranties. If the media proves to be defective within a certain period of time after the purchase, it might be possible to get a replacement memory card. Some warranties may provide replacements at no charge; others might require modest shipping and handling charges.
Even with limited warranties, however, any lost photos on the defective media may remain lost. In some instances, media recovery applications may help. While I don’t vouch for any particular software package, publishers include DataRescue, Jufsoft, and MediaRECOVER.
* Brand name digital camera memory may be rated to handle better in extreme conditions (hot and cold environments), useful if you plan on mountain climbing or shooting photos at a beach or desert. Of course, in such environments you may deal with other weather-related problems such as faster-draining batteries and condensation forming on the camera lens.
* Even if you want to purchase brand name digital camera memory, you may be tempted to purchase such media from lesser known stores, online outlets, or auction sites. After purchasing items at some establishments (though certainly not all), you might find yourself with counterfeit memory, generic memory repackaged as brand name! Such memory may increase the chances of data corruption, perform slower than advertised, and quite possibly damage the camera as you insert or remove the media. Plus, counterfeit memory lacks any true warranty, even if the fake packaging claims one is offered. As the adage goes, if a price is too good to be true, it just may be.
(Note that if this scam happens to you, you cannot always blame the store for the sale. It may have unknowingly purchased this memory from a fraudulent distributor.)
I am not recommending always buying the most expensive media at the most expensive retailer – the choice is yours. Some of the above potential downsides may not apply to your digital camera or your shooting conditions. You might not require faster shooting, and certainly not all generic memory will corrupt your data. However, for those truly concerned about their photos being written correctly and transferrable to backup media without incidents, paying a few extra bucks may prove to be money well spent.
Copyright 2008 Andrew Malek.
Andrew Malek