Image Source: ecx.images-amazon.com

Somehow after you have utilized the capability of your personal digital camera, you will come to a point that you will be compelled to upgrade to a Digital SLR camera. An SLR camera or Single Lens Reflex camera is quite more costly but it will works best for you when you have mastered the skills in photography. It has interchangeable lenses, this turns out to be a very important feature of the SLR camera. Every shot is affected greatly by what type of lens you use. So in buying your first ever SLR, try to look for the best quality lens. by this i mean optically and mechanically high caliber. Consider the focal length ranges also. Some lens manufacturers are best known for their quality lens for telephotos but are much lower quality in wide angle lenses.

The Exilim Zoom EX-Z250 is the newest 9.1 megapixel digital camera. It boasts of its 4x optical zoom lens that shoots wide 28mm shots. The Exilim is a compact model, and it sports a stylish and durable metal exterior. To do away with camera shaking, the EX-Z250 employs an anti-shake feature that alleviates the blurring effect. It doe this by actually moving the imaging element or sensor-shift. The Exilim incorporates high sensitivity anti-blur feature that helps reduce blur by raising the camera’s sensitivity and increasing its shutter speed. The new Auto Shutter function can automatically take a photo at the instance of hand shake or if the subject moves. The Exilim Zoom EX-Z250 uses the H.264 video standard. It employs the AAC audio codec and a wide format of video with resolutions of up to 848X480. In connection with videos, it has a Movie Shutter release button to make recording movies much easier.

To take the best picture and to optimize the life cycle of the digital camera, you should always make it a point to clean it, clean and clean it. Its not as if it’s a daunting task to undertake. It just takes 10 minutes of your precious time. You should always keep the camera away from all sorts of dirt, dust, grime and oil. If for some reason you would want to perform detailed camera cleaning, it would be wise for you to take it to the experts. They know how to operate and disassemble these gadgets so your camera is safe. Make sure your batteries have no leaks. The lens is the key part of your digicam. Avoid touching it unnecessarily. As this can accumulate oil from your hands and render a much blurred focus. If you know you are not going to use your digicam for a period of time, you clean it thoroughly and store where it is free from condensation. remove the battery and place it in its carrying case or bag.

The new Sony Cybershot H10 uses a great Carl Zeiss 10x optical zoom lens with great SteadyShot optical image stabilization to capture action. The lens yields sharp, high-contrast images and reduces color fringing, even when shooting in telephoto ranges.

It has 8.1 Megapixels, 10X Optical zoom, 2X Digital Zoom, 3 inches LCD, and it uses Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo, Memory Stick Duo, or Memory Stick PRO Duo to store images.

Its improved shooting mode now employ a system to apply higher shutter speeds, up to 1/4000 of a second, more frequently than on previous models. This mode combine high shutter speeds with predictive continuous auto-focusing so you can quickly focus and capture fast-moving subjects with minimal shutter lag - fundamentally the time it takes for the camera to focus and shoot.

The large, bright 3.0″ Clear Photo LCD Plus display, and an anti-reflective coating provides for brilliant visibility to help you create, view, and share photos with outstanding clarity and color reproduction, even in bright sunlight.

Automatic Mode–a feature of all digital cameras.� It sets the focus and exposure. All you need to do is frame the image then push the shutter button. This is a great feature, as it lets you relax, focus on your subject and not on your camera. Find below a brief guide.

- Get ready. Turn ON the camera and set it in the automatic mode. To conserve batteries, turn the monitor of. Compose the images using the optical viewfinder if your camera has this feature. Turn the camera on and set it to automatic mode�usually spelled out or indicated by a camera icon. To conserve your batteries, turn off the monitor and compose your image through the optical viewfinder if your camera has one.� Most digital SLR cameras will not let you do this. Remove the lens cap, if your camera has one.

- Frame the image. You will find the scenes that you will capture through your viewfinder. Use the zoom buttons when needed. If you are using an SLR, you zoom by turning a ring on the lens.

- Autofocus. Digital cameras have one or more focus zones, indicated in the viewfinder with boxes, cross hairs, or brackets. How close you can focus depends on the camera and lens.

- Autoexposure. The exposure system measures the light reflection from the scene you are shooting. Use these readings to set the best possible exposure.

-� Autoflash. The autoexposure system will cause the camera to flash automatically if the ligth is very dim.

- Automatic white balance. Your camera will automatically adjust white balance so that the white objects in a scene are white in the photo. Other colors are free of a color cast.

Although JPEG is the most common method of compressing image date, there are other methods such as TIFF and RAW (the latter being highly non-standardized across brands and even models of a brand). Most cameras include Exif data that provides metadata about the picture. Such Exif data include aperture, exposure time, focal length, date & time taken, and camera model. -Wikipedia

When rockclimbing or doing anything outdoorsmanish, you can’t help but say, “Gee…I wish I could take a picture of this now. Unfortunately I got my hands full; if I let go of this rope to take a picture or video, I’ll fall down to my death.” It’s a good thing then that GoPro produced a hands-free camera called the Digital Hero which you can bring while mountain climbing, rowing, etc. The good thing about it was that it was light and can be attached either to your arm or helmet.

We found a review on the said gadget; and it’s not all that good:

…the Hero, when mounted on a helmet, is very difficult to aim. This may be a problem all helmet cams share, but at least with larger traditional units you get a view screen to check your composition before shooting and to double check afterward. With the Helmet Hero, however, you can’t tell if you got the shot you wanted until you get it back to a computer and upload the files, and by then it’s too late.

According to the article, the company is planning a Mark 2 of this gadget and hopefully, they’ll learn from past mistakes.

Source

We always seem to be looking for the newest, coolest, and feature-filled digicam we can find, but let’s take a break and look to the past. Yes, folks it’s retro time here and thanks to Wired Magazine, we look at one of the oldest digicams in the world the Kodak Digital Still Camera from circa-1975.

Here’s how the old thing works:

Dubbed “Film-less Photography”, the prototype camera records images and plays them back on a television set. Sasson hacked together the camera from spare parts: the lens is from a Super 8 movie camera, the image is captured by a CCD (Charged Coupled Device, an array of capacitors which convert light into an electrical signal) and the resulting image is recorded onto a cassette tape. The whole thing is powered by 16 nickel cadmium batteries.

The portable electronic still camera takes 23 seconds to record a 100 line image to tape. To view the picture, you pop out the cassette and slip it into the custom-built playback device. This uses another cassette player and a frame store to boost the image to 400 lines and outputs a standard NTSC signal for use on any television.

Ahh, there’s nothing more than looking into past gadgets to appreciate the one you have now.

Source

The best and most functional camera accessory is the carrying case. Unlike in the past when carrying cases came mostly in black and unflattering designs, today there is a variety of carrying cases to choose from.The carrying cases today come in different designs, colors, textures, and sizes. There is always one suited for a designer camera. Some designers even have exclusive patterns to fit a camera model, make or brand.Try checking out the new wave of case designers Golla, Case Logic and Maloparro. They are durable, padded well and fun. More importantly the cases are reasonably priced to suit everyone’s budget.

The Sony Cybersot DSC-T2 comes in five new exciting and vibrant colors that surely attract attention. This new 8.1 Megapixel camera from Sony comes in black, white, blue, green and pink. Definitely this digital camera is the hottest fashionable gadget around.
Do not be fooled by the funky design though because this candy colored Cybershot is as lethal in taking great pictures. This is to be expected from the Sony brand. It has a huge 2.7” LCD monitor that allows for better focusing. It also has great storage space of 4GB memory. Taking pictures has never been more fun and fashionable.