Re: venturing into digital photography

skidog@xxxxxxxx wrote:
(I posted this as a reply but some might not see it there, so I'm
posting it here as well)

I have some older cannon lenses. my
favorite, the one that is always on my cann T-70, is a zoom FD 28 to
85. Since I still want to use film, I will not use that lens on a
digital camera, so I suppose i'm staring over with digital equipment.
So, I will not be using my lenses as a base.

I am not sure I understand what is meant by 'full size sensor' I'm
gussing that this means an SLR, which is definately what I want.

As far as cost; I am not a professional, merely an intrigued amature.
I am taking a three week trip to Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and St.
Petersburg, and want to take lots of pictures, probably into the
thousands. I intend to use slide film in my T-70. However, want to
supplement with digital technology. One reason I'm looking at digital
is not the cost of the camera, but the cost of the film, which of
course is zero for a digital camera and can be pretty high for a film
camera.


With my first digicam, I carried it and two film cameras to Alaska. That was an early digicam, with only 0.8 Mp and poor color rendition. Once I got a 3 Mp camera, I haven't bothered with a film camera. My wife and I now both have digicams, and on a trip last year to Viet Nam and Cambodia, we took over 900 photos between us. We never printed most of them, but put many on our Web site.


What about pixals? Do digital cameras take the same quality of color
that film does?

Digicams with 12 Mp or more match the resolution of 35 mm film. The color depth of a digicam is better than for color film. The accuracy of color representation depends on the camera, as it also depends on individual films. An advantage of digital photogrpahy is htta it is easy to adjust the color rendition by software, once you have set up the monitor to show colors accurately. In fact, I enjoy image editing on my computer as much as I do taking photos. With good software, you can be very creative.

Is using a digital camera different than a film camera in some way? Do
these cameras have a automatic feature for exposeure?

As with film cameras, point-and-shoot models set the exposure automatically. Others have the option to make manual settings. The ability ot see the result of a photo immediately helps in making manual settings.

I know these questions seem ingorant, but that describes my knowledge
of digital photography. I've been to review sites for Cannon cameras,
and don't understand the terminolgy so it's hard for me to make a
decision.

What about storage memory for a digital camera? Is this like loading
a roll of film? I mean, one 'memory stick' has the potential for 500
pics? These can be changed out, right?
You can change memory cards more easily than changing films. You can re-use memory cards, which you obviously can't do with film. In fact, even if you couldn't re-use the cards, it would sttill be cheaper than film. on long trips, if you fill all of your memory cards, you can get the image files copied to a CD in many camera shops, even in 3rd-world countries. On a tour to Viet Nam and Camodia last year, one of the people in our group had this done in Ho Chi Minh City. You can also get devices with mini-hard drives to store images from cards.

Thank you for your reply.

This is a good time to switch to a digicam. The capabilities are good, and prices have drpped. I just bought a Panasonic LZ3, with 5 Mp, a 6x zoom lens, image stabilization, sound annotation of photos, and video with sound, for only $220.

dpreview.com, and stevesecamera.com are good sites to compare cameras. You can also use google groups to search for user comments on particular cameras. I suggest you don't get hung up on debates on the relative merits of digital and film photos. Think of them as different media to express yourself.

Robert
.

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