Back to Start PageDigital Photography
PRE-PUBLICATION DRAFT
STAGE DIRECTIONS
COPYRIGHT 1999
AUTHOR: Patrick Finelli, Ph.D.
TITLE: Digital Photography
Lately there has been a lot of excitement about digital cameras. Most of us are familiar with standard film photography, but wonder about the advantages and disadvantages of digital photography. The most obvious advantage is that digital cameras do not use film. Instead, the images are saved on some sort of storage medium such as a floppy disk or special memory card (we’ll explain more about this later). They are lightweight and easy to carry. Digital cameras have many design features you will recognize if you are familiar with conventional photography. You’ll find built-in flash, optical zoom, autoexposure and viewfinder (the little window that you look through in order to see what you are about to shoot). Many digital cameras have a familiar optical viewfinder, but some use LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). LCDs are flat displays enabling you to view your shot on a small screen. The display may also show menu options including the choice to ‘save’ or ‘delete’ each snapshot or review all of your pictures.
You’ll also discover other features that are unique to digital cameras. There are memory cards, time and date set-up, settings for resolution (sharpness), serial ports for connection to a PC and software to print out and process the image. With digital cameras there is no need to run down to the 1-hour photo shop to develop the pictures, a time-saving possibility since the advent of Polaroid’s instant photography. You can do your own photofinishing right away, crop and frame, then send the shot via e-mail to your director, newspaper (or agent) and post the best pictures in a gallery on your web pages.
There are many familiar product names marketing digital cameras ranging from traditional photographic companies like Kodak, Polaroid, Nikon, Minolta Pentax, Canon, Konica, Olympus and Vivitar; consumer electronics firms like Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Casio and JVC and computer equipment vendors such as Epson and Hewlett Packard.
Digital cameras are generally more expensive than standard 35mm film cameras. The price can range from $150 to $2,500. Most cameras are advertised between $300 and $600.
We are accustomed to the rich detail and brilliant colors of printed snapshots, but can you get the same result from a digital photos? If you are ready to take the plunge into digital photography, how do you decide which features are important and which camera you should buy?
Most systems require a computer (or television) to view and print pictures. Since few cameras allow you to print out snapshots without a PC, you might wonder whether it is worth the trouble to get pictures out of the camera and into the computer. The good news is that as technology advances, the performance of digital cameras is improving.
A digital image is made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny dots, called pixels. The resolution of the camera is equal to the number of horizontal pixels multiplied by the number of vertical pixels. The sharpness of the picture taken with a digital camera depends upon the resolution. The higher the resolution, the better the picture. Some cameras have resolution as high as 2000 x 1600 pixels, equivalent to a standard 3½" by 5" film print. Other cameras may only have a low resolution capability of 320 x 240 pixels, or 540 by 370, the same as a television picture. Many cameras allow you to select from among several resolution settings. We recommend a resolution of 640 by 480, the sharpness of the average computer screen. The photos aren’t as rich and detailed as regular snapshots, but you can get higher resolutions that are very crisp and colorful. The trade-off is that higher resolutions require more pixels, therefore more memory is needed for each image. Cameras that use floppy disks for memory storage use lower image resolution in order to hold down the size of the images so they fit on a floppy.
Digital cameras store their images as electronic files, like the files on the hard drive of a computer. The more storage space, the more images the camera can store. Like computer memory devices, digital camera storage is measured in megabytes (MB). The digital camera records the image directly in JPEG format, a file type that is recognized by most image processing and web applications. Since the pictures are saved as JPEG files, you can edit, crop and add special effects using image processing software such as Adobe Photoshop or Micrografix.
When I visited my local megastore there were only two models available, which attests to the digital camera’s popularity. The salesman told me they usually carry up to five different brands, but demand was high and they couldn’t keep them in stock. The two models I saw used two different modes of memory, offering an perfect opportunity for a comparison test. I experimented by taking some shots around the store.
The Kodak DC210 used a compact flash card with 8MB of storage capacity, enough to store about 40 snapshots at high resolution or up to about 100 at lower ratios. You can reuse the flashcard with a new set of pictures once you print out the ones you want, or you can buy another card. Memory cards for the Kodak come in three sizes: 8MB ($80), 4MB ($60) and 16MB ($120). The drawback is that memory cards can’t be popped into a PC. You have to use tricky cable connections for serial compatibility and special software to get the photos over to your computer. This model features a relatively high maximum resolution of 1174 by 884 (equivalent to one megapixel). It has a 2X zoom focus (tight/wide) and a 1.8" color LCD display. The DC260 has a greater resolution of 1.6 megapixels and enhanced Zoom functions. One of the clever features in both models is a trash can icon superimposed on the LCD image. A simple click erased the shot so you can clear memory and try again It is bundled with Picture Easy 3.0 photofinishing software, all for $500.
The Sony Mavica MVC FD71 had a maximum resolution of 640x480 with a 10X digital zoom and focus-free lens. It had two of the best features in our opinion– a relatively large 2.5" color LCD and it is one of four models that stores images on a removable floppy disk instead of a memory card. You can save between 5 to 40 shots on a floppy in JPEG format. If you want to take more pictures, just bring extra floppies, an inexpensive alternative to memory cards. Images can be viewed on virtually any computer, without the need to connect the camera to the computer with a special cable. The memory capacity of a floppy is 1.4 MB. The fun part is that all you have to do is put the floppy in your computer and you’re ready to crop and print. It also has an e-mail mode and claims to be compatible for both Mac and PC. Battery life is over an hour.
Some of the fancier models such as Sony’s new digital Mavica MVC-FD81 ($800) let you record up to a minute of video and audio, or you can use the Voice Memo feature to "dub" 5-second narration to still images. There is an optional printer for the FD81 that doesn’t require a computer to print out your pictures (Mavica FVP-1 Photo Printer, $500). It is capable of producing glossy snapshot photos or copying pictures from other sources. The printer also hooks up to a TV set so you can capture still frames direct from the television. Unfortunately, the printer can’t crop or edit and prints only snapshot-sized photos.
What can you or your theatre company do with a digital camera? You can do just about anything that you can with regular photographs with more flexibility in processing the result. You can save, edit, print, e-mail or incorporate pictures into documents. Our media specialist has placed production photos on our fax cover sheet sidebar to promote upcoming shows. You can save steps in preparing images for placement on the web by eliminating the need to scan a printed photograph in order to convert it to a digital file. You can take portfolio shots for scenic designs or prepare publicity photos. A digital camera might be just what you need to finally archive your property inventory. You could save the pictures in an indexed database, making it very convenient to search for a particular prop with a hyperlinked digital picture archive at your fingertips.
© Copyright 1995-1999 by Patrick M. Finelli. All rights reserved. These pages are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Copying or distribution by any means is strictly prohibited. Please send e-mail to finelli@satie.arts.usf.edu