What Camera should I buy?
Posted by mcwccw2 | Filed under Uncategorized
“Charles, I am thinking of getting a new digital camera.” I hear this a lot from friends. Other times I have the chance to print an order that they have sent to us and I tell them ” You need to get a new digital camera”. I guess since I am on the processing side of the photo industry some of my closest friends think I am a Camera expert, well the Camera experts are gone. You can thank everyone’s thrifty nickel for that. You now are pretty much stuck buying it from a part time clerk at Walmart, or Costco, or trusting what you read from the discount houses online. What I do know now is that all the cameras have improved. A few years ago you could have bought a lemon, but today… I say go with what’s in you budget.
Let’s talk about “point and shoot cameras”, because SLR’s are out of my league and my advice there will always be “go with Nikons ” cause down the road you will be buying lenses and I like Nikon Lenses the most. So what to look for in a point and shoot?
- SIZE If it is not easy to carry with you, chances are you won’t. While at the store slip it in your front pocket (tell the cashier first to avoid an embarrassing situation), and notice I said front pocket, cause if you get accustomed to putting it in your back pocket, I promise you will have a broken LCD screen soon. Don’t go too small (“that’s what she said”) because larger hands have been known for taking pictures of the photographers fingers.
- Mega Pixels. How many? MORE !MORE !MORE! Chances are that anyone reading this Blog (if anyone does) will never use the maximum resolution that a 10 or 12 mega pixel camera gives them. Most point and shoot camera are used to take birthday photos, or Christmas Morning smiles, the kids first swim, the new puppy,…. you get the idea. We are not talking Ansel Adams work. The maximum resolution most will ever need from their point and shoot is for a 4×6 photograph, and since a 4×6 photograph is only around SIX uncompressed megs we are talking complete overkill. A Five mega pixel compressed file straight from my camera will open n Photoshop at 25 megs (or close), so really all we need is a file that is 1/5 this resolution to give a nice looking print. File size is very confusing and you can look at one of our earlier Blogs to read more about it, but the fact of the matter is you a bogging down your computer with files that you will likely never need maximum resolution. If they still made 3.2 cameras I would suggest those , but I think the best camera for a point and shoot is a 5 mega pixel, but since they are all so cheap now, get the 10 mega pixel and lower the setting to medium unless you plan on cropping out large portions or the image.
- Battery Make sure your camera comes with a rechargeable battery and charger. You will go broke feeding it “AA” batteries, especially with the larger LCD screen on today’s cameras.
- Memory Make sure your camera uses an SD card. There is a reason that most brands and models have switched. Go with what they are making the most of, don’t buy into technology advantages other cards promise. How many of you are still renting videos on a BETAmax? SD cards are for sale everywhere, if you lose your card on a trip, walk to the nearest drugstore or hotel gift shop, they also tend to have the best special.
- Video Make sure your new camera has video. Almost of the new models do, and most support avi and mpg files (the standard), but if you can get one with the “YouTube ready” feature I would, it’s great embarrassing friends without having to go to a lot of trouble to do it.
And after you take all these wonderful pictures, please send them to Mastercolor for processing.
C Wright
Tags: Digital Camera, LCD, Mastercolor, New Camera, Nikon, Nikon Lenses, Pictures, Resolution, ROES, SD Cards, SLR, Youtube
I’m Not Old
Posted by mcwccw2 | Filed under Uncategorized
I’m not old. No, really, I’m not.
Recently, I have started telling myself that I’m not old; thinking if I say it enough I will begin to believe it. So far, it hasn’t worked. Suddenly, for me, old age is not something over the hill anymore, it’s just around the corner and I’m wanting to head in the other direction. I don’t want to become my mother. I don’t want to have blue hair. I don’t want to drive slow and need to sit in a car seat to see over the steering wheel. Yet, things keep happening to me that make me feel as though it’s time to move to Florida and start swilling Metimucil. Just the other day, I was looking at all these cute clothes and realized that none of them would look cute on me. Not anymore, anyway. They are designed for women who don’t have wrinkly knees and whose stomach is actually smaller than their hips. That made me feel old. Then last night, my dear friend Katy and I were at a restaurant drinking a glass of wine lamenting that—yes, indeed, we were there for the early bird special. But such a deal—salad, entrée, dessert and a glass of wine for $20! Even with the cost savings, it was hard to forget the fact that we were eating dinner about the time we used to pick our kids up after school. I could feel my roots showing before we ordered dessert. Then, there’s the picture from last weekend’s football game. My sweet Sarah bought a new digital camera: one of those fabulous little Canon Powershots.
“Mom, let’s take a profile picture together.”
“OK,” I said, “I’m ready.”
Shutter snapped. Then a quick look at the back of the camera. Hilarious laughter ensued. “Mom. What are you doing in the picture?”
“I thought you wanted a profile picture,” I said.
“Mom. I meant a profile picture. You know for Facebook.”
Enough said. I am no longer young and cool enough to realize the current cultural definition of a profile picture.
I’m changing my screen name to “Whistler’s Mother.”
R Clark
Tags: Canon Powershot, Digital Camera, early bird special, Facebook, Florida, middle-ages crisis, profile picture, Whistler’s Mother, wine
