Know your camera well

Know your camera well before started shooting using it.

You have purchased a camera now, happily you open the packing and take the camera out and try to click around. It's a common mistake people does. You see every company gives a USER MANUAL with their products, have you ever seen it before or even after using your new camera?

As we have seen already that every model is different from rest by addition or removal of features. As well there are many adjustment done in already available settings with every new release of product. Have you ever seen the version of your camera software? What does that suggest? Though you already had a camera and handling it with comfort this new camera is different and needs your attention in knowing it well before actual use.

If you go through the user manual many of your confusions and misconceptions will get cleared and you can take better pictures with your camera. As well reading the manual will let you know the exact conditions and use of your camera. This will definitely reduce the maintenance of your camera.

What are the things you should look in the user manual: 

• Different buttons provided on your camera and their use: There are so many buttons on the body of camera eg. On/Off, zoom in/out, mode selection, menu button etc. Every button has some functionality associated to it and there are several consequences. For instance, if you zoom in on an object the monitor will show a zoom range. There are two colors shown in the range box white and yellow.  "W" section is for optical zoom and "T" is for digital. Once you enter digital zoom monitor will show it in digital section and this will cause your image distort digitally.
• The manual will educate you with all of the functions provided in your camera and their usage. Generally auto and semi-auto cameras come with so many preset modes like sunset, beach, landscape, fireworks etc. Understand these modes and remember when you set these modes on camera overwrite manual settings for exposure, WB, flash and uses its own calculated settings.
• Most importantly your manual tells about right usage of battery, recharge and memory card insertion etc. These things need to be handled carefully, they will directly affect the life and maintenance of your camera.
• Check out the places for various settings like WB measurement, exposure setting, self timer. It will help you in making faster adjustment at times.
• There are so many settings with flash as well like red eye reduction, flash on, flash off, auto flash etc. These settings changes the way flash fills the frame. Use it specifically as the flash is the most battery consumable element in photography. If you use flash unnecessary it will require you to charge your batteries earlier than expected.
• There is another element which draws your batteries power quickly and it is the monitor. Many people neglect the monitor turned on when they are setting up for photo or when just looking around for a frame. Better you turn it off when not required and turn on just before taking the photo (point and shoot cameras doesn't allow separate monitor off button, there you need to switch off the camera). You can set the monitor to turn off automatically after certain time interval eg. 30 sec, 1 minute etc. This feature will surely help you taking more pictures in same battery life.
• You can find good information about the photo transfer from camera to PC or view them on TV using cables provided along with. You need to select appropriate  medium of connection in your camera and then connect it to PC. There are two ways to connect and transfer your photos from camera to PC
1. Connect as "Mass Storage" Which allows you to connect to your PC through USB slot and copy paste the image folder or files on desired location in the PC.
2. Through interface provided by manufacturer. It typically allows several features right from simple transfer to burn the pictures to form image disks.
3. It is more convenient to set your camera on Mass Storage mode as it won't require to install the interface software on every PC you connect your camera to. And even it is like simple file transfer from one directory to other.
• There is information about the firmware your camera is using and in case you need to confirm it for compatibility with your PC etc. Though almost all firmwares are supported by available PC motherboards.
• Manual also tells many does and don'ts about the camera. Grasp it correctly and use cameras properly to properly utilize your investments.
• You also need to clean your camera frequently or after using it in typical conditions like dust, seashores (check for any sand particle), Clean your camera with a clean cotton cloth. You can use a wet cloth or even use petroleum base liquids like petrol or kerosene which is a good solvent for carbon or dust.
• Also during shoots its good to check and clean the lenses. Many a times it is covered with small dust particles or thumb prints which spoils your end picture.
• Remember to keep your camera properly in restored position and if there is any cap provided for the lenses put it on. It will preserve the lenses from any scratches or dust particles during restore.

The concluding thing here to remember is know the features in your camera and get used to them so you can take nice and attractive picture using your camera.

Next time we shall see  how to take good pictures. Till then keep clicking.....

Which camera to choose?

Which camera to choose?

In my last post we discussed about what is digital photography and how it differs from traditional film photography. Now we shall focus on which camera you can select to purchase and won't get disappointed for your choice later.

These days there are so many options for digital cameras available in market. They are of various brands like Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Panasonic, Cannon etc. Also each brand provides various models like Nikon provides S-series, L-series; Panasonic comes in Lumix DMC series, Olympus avails E-series, stylus series etc. All the models these brands provide keep on changing time to time. Each brand emerge with new advance models each year.

Typically when you go to buy a camera in market you have heard about certain model from your friends as how good it is and how beautiful snaps he could take from it. And you get impress with it and purchase same model investing few thousand bucks. But when you start shooting with the model you somewhere feel not satisfied with the pictures it produced and you get disappointed with your choice of camera. Actually the camera your friend suggested was good for his requirements and not yours. You may need something very different than your friend.

Here main thing you need to keep in mind is cameras are manufactured keeping certain specific shooting purposes in target. Like amateur photography or professional photography. There is huge difference in these two approaches. Considering these two aspects, cameras can be divided in main two categories; TLRs (Automatic, Semi-automatic cameras) and SLRs.

First thing to understand is what is the meaning of automatic in the context of cameras. As you may have heard people talking about White-Balance (WB), Aperture, Point-Of-View (POV), shutter speed or f-stop etc. All these terms are nothing but the setting you can make in a camera to suit the photography needs. Now if these settings are handled by your camera on its own without your interference then you have an automatic camera. If few of these setting can be managed by you then you own a semi-automatic camera and if you can fully control these settings without having the camera override them on its own calculations then you have a manual camera.

Generally all cameras available in market are semi-automatic where you can manage the settings for WB, Exposure or flash etc. and shutter speed, aperture etc. are managed by the camera on its own by calculating the lighting conditions or presence of flash etc. Typically when we talk about SLR cameras, those cameras you can put on either settings i.e. manual or automatic.

When companies manufacture semi-automatic or manual cameras the costs are definitely going to be extremely different. If you go for a Nokia S-series camera it will cost you from 7-8 thousand rupees to 12-14 thousand rupees. Whereas if you opt for SLRs like D-80 or D-60 etc it will cost you upto 30 thousand rupees that to only the body and default lenses which is upto 10x optical lens. We shall see what is meant by optical lens in later post.

If we focus on semi-automatic cameras for now, then too you will surely be confused about which camera or model to choose? The answer is simple "purchase a camera to suit your needs."

First you need to identify your shooting needs. For this you can ask few questions to yourself...

1. What exactly you mean by taking a snap or shooting a picture?
2. Where you think you will be shooting the most, outside or inside?
3. How many times in a year you generally need to take pictures?
4. Finally the most important, how much money you wish to invest in a camera?

Taking above question in mind let's discuss on them and sort out the myths or misleading thoughts.

1. What exactly you mean by taking a snap or shooting a picture?

• Generally most of the people want a camera to shoot at a family function like wedding/reception or on a trip. These guys don't wish to try on multiple modes of shooting and even don't see themselves shooting like a professional or wish to turn or take interest in professional photography. All they want is just clicking the camera button and capture the moment for later reviews. These people can go for a basic semi-automatic camera with minimum of the optical lens range like 3x or so. Which will cost them upto 7-8 thousand rupees only. Don't waste too many bucks for the features that you don't need at all like a manual mode or so.

2. Where you think you will be shooting the most, outside or inside?

• Cameras need to have different settings for indoor and outdoor shooting. Generally these days all cameras provide different modes inbuilt in the camera for indoor and outdoor shooting. But if you think about taking pictures like a pro take for instance a beach photo shoot or event photo shoot like reception; it will require different and more advance accessories like external flash and extended lenses etc. So if you are not going to shoot like a pro as mentioned you need not to choose a camera which provides a facility to add and external flash or extended lenses. Which will again save a lot many bucks for you.
• Shooting indoor won't require you to have a higher range of optical lens as you hardly need to zoom in inside a party hall or at reception. For this a 3x optical zoom is more than sufficient.
• For outdoor shoots like on a trek or so, you may need to have higher range of optical zoom capability or need a wide angle lens to take a picture from a distance or take larger width picture than normal.

3. How many times in a year you generally need to take pictures?

• Check the frequency of your shoots. Based on it you can think about your investment in camera. Many a times people decide to purchase a camera when they have some events like marriage, reception or while going out on a trip. They purchase a good camera investing hefty amount in it and once they are done with their event their camera stays restored for a year or so. Remember every instrument has a specific life after which it starts requesting for maintenance. So if you are wasting your camera's life on shelf you will be ending investing so much in the purchase and maintenance than you got repaid by actually using it.

4. How much money you wish to invest in camera?

• Always keep your figure in mind when dealing with the vendor. Normally I have seen people decide to purchase a camera in the range of 7-10 thousand and when they visit a shop they come out purchasing one with 12-14 thousand or so. Remember the more the price of a camera the more features it provide. So when you are adding 2-4 thousand more on a camera check for the features it is adding and also see whether it is suiting to your shooting needs or not.

• Typically the features adding extra bucks are...

1. Optical lens capacity. Normally it is measured as 3x, 5x, 10x and so on. Where 'x' stands for 'times'. So when your camera has a 3x optical capacity, it means you can capture something thrice closer than normally it appears. So if you want a camera for general shooting purpose you might not need one with higher optical ranges.
2. Megapixels. As discussed in previous post it signifies how big picture you can capture without affecting the quality. So if you are going to view your pictures on a PC screen you might be satisfied with 6-10 MP and not more than that.
3. Number of features your camera provide.

• Vibration Reduction (VR): This feature tries to reduce vibrations caused by shaking of hand while taking pictures. The previous models of Nikon were not VR embedded. The first camera introduced by Nikon with VR was Nikon Zoom 700VR QD in 1994.
• AF Assistance: Auto-Focus assistance allows to focus properly on focus area in poor lighting conditions as well.
• Auto face detection: Detects faces and focuses on them. This feature is helpful when taking group photos to get all the faces clearer.
• Smile detection: This is a newly added feature. It releases the shutter when you smile.
• Self timer: Delayed shutter release. You can mention the delay in seconds so that you can join the rest of the team in a group photo. This is helpful in lower ISO settings and poor light conditions, where you want to introduce blur due to shaking of your hands.

There are enormous number of features being provided by camera manufacturer. You need to select the required feature and find a camera which provide your required features and go for it instead wasting thousands of rupees in non required features.

Finally you really need to search the market for compatibility among your needs and available features in model. For that the best thing is to

• Search and compare your model based on user reviews on internet. You can visit the manufacturers sites to get most reliable feature knowledge.
• Visit the user reviews to get trusted reviews and finally search a place to purchase a camera.
• Don't go for a remote or foreign retailer because if you are not willing to pay for company warranty or international warranty (which costs another 10 thousand rupees or so than the camera cost) you may need to visit the retailer personally with the camera in case of faulty piece or repair.

So choose wisely and go for a happy shooting.......

We have seen about how to choose a camera today, in the next post we shall think on various camera features in detail. Till then keep clicking......

Basics of Digital Photography

The Basics of Digital Photography

This is a quite often discussed subject "The Basics of Digital Photography". But really there are so many simple things that we miss out while thinking about it. So lets try to focus on them first before we go in the depths of Digital Photography terms.

The very basic thing to know in Digital Photography is that it is "Photography" after all. So all the rules applied to film photography also applies to it. Only the difference it has from old film photography is the way it captures the images.

In film photography the light is allowed to enter from the shutter and drops on the photosensitive film. The film reacts to the light falling onto it and the image is this way captured on the film. And in modern digital cameras the light is allowed to pass the shutter and it is dropped on the photosensitive cell in the camera and this way the images are captured inside the memory chips. Then why this advancement and how exactly it affects the quality of pictures we capture?

The very first thing here to know is that it is digitally captured, the word digitally means, pixel by pixel it is imprinted on the memory card. So the end pictures are resulted in sharper edges. Secondly we can alter the image size as per the requirements. This is what we typically know as pixel size of the camera (remember the imprinted word Megapixels on the camera you purchased?) It signifies how large pictures it can produce without affecting the overall image quality. Generally we take images which fit to the PC screens i.e. of resolution 1024 x 768 px. For this requirement a camera of 6 Megapixels is sufficient. To know more about the Megapixel and how much MegaPixel camera you require visit this page.

There are lot many other settings as welll; that we can fiddle with e.g. ISO, white balance, color schemes, shooting mode like landscape, night portrait etc. We shall talk about these in later posts. But generally these are so useful for different scenarios like shooting in a party hall, marriage/reception, firework shoots, couple photos etc.

The great advantage a digital camera provides over film camera is that we can see the effects of the setting change right then and there and keep taking shots until we are satisfied with the results. It is really a good and useful practice to view the image just captured so that you don't get disappointed with the pictures at the end while creating an album or uploading them on net. Many a times people get disappointed with blur effect due to shaking of hand or overburn effect due to wrong settings of white balance or introduction of noise in poor lighting conditions etc. This you can avoid by simply reviewing the images after you capture them and change the setting to get a better picture.

Key differences between a film camera and a digital camera :

1. Film camera uses photosensitive film to capture the image whereas digital camera uses photosensitive cell to capture the image.

2. Pictures captured by digital camera are sharper than film camera.

3. Development cost is higher in case of film camera where digital camera allows to reuse the same memory card again and again also number of photos that can be captured without replacement of memory card is much much higher than number of photos can be captured on a film.

4. Transfer and maintainance of photos between camera and storage (either on PC or net) is easier in case of digital camera than film camera where the photos are stored as either printed photos or slides.

5. Reviewing the just shooted photo is imediate in case of digital camera which will ensure a right and better capture.

We have seen the basic differences between digital and film photography. The thing to consider is "What exactly I should expect from my camera?" and if you are about to purchase a digital camera you must have been wondering which camera to go for as there are so many brands and models available in market. We shall discuss on this in coming post.....