Digital Cameras

Digital ImagingFall 2009

When you buy a digital camera, consider:

• Megapixels• LCD screen• Memory sticks (cards)• Recycling time (lag time)• USB port• Battery life/type

– Rechargeable type– Standard type

• Editing software (bundled with the camera)

Digital Image Size

* Please note that resolutions given are ballpark figures, there are slight fluctuations between brands and models. http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/choosing2/

Megapixels vs. Resolution and Print Sizes

Megapixels Resolution* Print 300PPI Print 150PPI

1.2 1280x960 4.3x3.2" 8.7x6.4"

2 1600x1200 5.3x4" 10.6x8"

3 2048x1536 6.8x5.1" 13.6x10.2"

4 2272x1704 7.6x5.7" 15.2x11.4"

5 2592x1944 8.6x6.5" 17.2x13"

Monitor Resolution• Determined by the number of

pixels in each row and column.

• 640 pixels horizontally and 480 vertically = A 640 x 480 resolution monitor

• Other common monitor sizes: • 800 x 600

• 1,024 x 768

• 1,280 x 1,024

What will you get?

Number of Images per Memory Card and Megapixels

Card size 1.2 MP 2 MP 3 MP 4 MP 5 MP

16Mb 23 14 9 6 4

32Mb 46 29 18 13 9

64Mb 93 59 36 26 18

128Mb 187 119 72 52 37

256Mb 374 238 145 104 74

http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/choosing2/

Camera Settings• Picture

– Color– Black and white– Sepia

• WB (White balance)– Daylight– Fluorescent: corrects for the greenish cast of

fluorescent lighting. – Tungsten: corrects for the orange cast of light bulbs. – Auto setting

• ISO (Light Sensitivity)– The higher ISO, the less light is needed– The higher ISO, the more noise – Auto setting

Tips for taking digital pictures

• Have your audience close to you / try for a close-up shot

• Use Rule of Thirds http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/John_Longenecker/Rule_of_Thirds.htm

Tips for taking digital picture (continued)

• Do not cut natural cutoff lines of the body: neck, elbows, waist, knees and ankles.

• Check the background

http://www.atomiclearning.com/freerules.shtml

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=317&pq-locale=en_US

• Privacy issues

Cameras can. . .• Creating stories with pictures • Taking pictures

– What is this picture telling you?

– Sharing the information with others (virtual filed trip)

• Documenting learning process (visual journals)• Publishing newsletters and flyers• Developing presentations• Exploring visuals

– Taking objects with the same color

– Taking a part of the objects

• What else?

Image SizeTIFF

(uncompressed)

JPEG(high

quality)

JPEG(medium quality)

640x480 1.0 MB 300 KB 90 KB

800x600 1.5 MB 500 KB 130 KB

1024x768 2.5 MB 800 KB 200 KB

1600x1200 6.0 MB 1.7 MB 420 KB

Storage

• To make the most of storage space, almost all digital cameras use some sort of data compression to make the files smaller. Two features of digital images make compression possible.

• No matter what type of storage they use, all digital cameras need lots of room for pictures.

• They usually store images in one of two formats -- TIFF, which is uncompressed, and JPEG, which is compressed. Most cameras use the JPEG file format for storing pictures, and they sometimes offer quality settings (such as medium or high).