Ender100@aol.com
Date: 06/26/03-10:58:30 PM Z
Some random thoughts on digital cameras
Nikon, Canon, & Olympus all make some very nice digital cameras. You have
to decide your price range, features you want, and how many megapixels you will
need. If size of the camera is not too much of a problem, the Nikon Coolpix
5700 is a nice camera with over 5 megapixels and all the control you would
want on a camera. I would also look for flash synch that is not proprietary in
case you have studio lights or a flash system you wish to use with it. I
also like being able to set my F-Stop and Shutter Speed. It's interesting, I
can use a shutter speed on my digital camera of 1/5000 and still be in synch
with my studio strobes. In fact, I can go higher and start to "slice" the
strobe duration.
Look at the true optical zoom of the camera. Digital zoom is just that—
interpolation and you can do that better in Photoshop.
As important as the number of pixels, is pixel depth. If the camera does
more than 8 bits per rgb channel, you have more to work with. Or if it is
capable of "RAW" files that is great—they give you the most information of any
file possible with the camera. Adobe has a new plug-in called, oddly enough,
RAW for processing RAW files from most cameras that are capable of creating
them. Look up this plugin because it lists the cameras that it is compatible with
—that might be a hint for which cameras to evaluate for purchase.
All the cameras come with either USB or Firewire connection for downloading
images, or you can use a card reader.
Usually some sort of software is included, but Photoshop will out perform any
of them. Mac's iPhoto is compatible with most, but usefull more as an
archiving than processing.
You can search online for the best price. Look for rebates too—I think the
Nikon Coolpix 5700 currently has a rebate.
I am using a Nikon D1X along with a Nikon F5 35mm (which I always scan with
an Imacon at up to 8000 ppi. My memory cards are a lot smaller than Sandy's
film holders.
If you are looking to make digital negatives and the camera only does 8 bit
images, you can convert the 8 bit file to 16 bit as your first step, use
channel mixer to adjust to a grayscale with values you like and leave it in 16 bit
while you do the rest of your work—this gives you a rich monochrome file to
work with and a better file to make your digital negatives.
Digital capture with a camera has a benefit in that the file seems to allow
upsampling proportionately more than scanned negatives, but you want to test it
and see just how much more til you reach the yucky threshold. If I have a
file that is 150 pixels per inch with a print size of 8 x 10 inches, I upsample
to 360 pixels per inch and 8 x 10 inches. This brings the file up to the
optimum size for the printer. More often though, I am downsampling my RAW
files or my scans to print them.
If the camera allows, sometimes it is best to turn off in-camera sharpening
and in-camera contrast, or set contrast to the lowest amount and do these
things in Photoshop—you'll get better results.
There are online reviews of most of the cameras available for you to read.
Hope this is helpful,
Mark Nelson
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