| Focus on Digital Cameras |
|
| Written by Mark Webster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 01 January 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Page 1 of 6 NZ Macguide Issue 7 It's summer, the season for digitals. What do you need in a digital camera? Easy download to your Mac for printing on a colour inkjet, ease of use, a good optical lens with optical zoom ('digital zoom' is just like pulling the pixels apart in Photoshop or similar - it will never be as good as real, optical zooming) and long battery life. All the cameras we looked at had built-in flashes unless noted. We decided on three easy at-a-glance statistics for evaluation: Internet, Snapshots and Sophistication. The Internet evaluation describes the camera's suitability for sending photos by email or for using shots on web sites, Snapshots covers suitability for creating good prints on home inkjet printers or via services like Frogprint (www.frogprint.co.nz) to whom you can email your digital files to receive prints by return post, and Sophistication describes how good cameras are at producing high resolution prints for publication in glossy magazines (for example, the three pictures of the Kodak cameras that appear here were shot with the Nikon 4500, others were shot with the Olympus E20P or the Fuji Finepix S602) and also how much power and control they offer. These evaluations are subjective and not in the least bit scientific, with the criteria being the user experience. In almost all cases, detailed specs and features can be studied on web sites or by requesting brochures from dealers. Most of these cameras are available from general electronics retailers, dedicated camera shops and Mac resellers. Also note: digital cameras are designed to shoot low-contrast images to save space and to avoid highlights blowing out - assume that the raw output from digital cameras will need tweaking, so if you're not comfortable with - or don't own - Photoshop, or Adobe Elements or even PixelNhance - all of which can make a power of difference - a Mac software bundle that comes with a camera may be important to you. All prices quoted are subject to change and some were approximate even at time of writing. Focal lengths expressed in millimetres are expressed as equivalents to 35mm film cameras; digitals actually have lesser focal lengths.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Updated ( Sunday, 25 December 2005 ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is one of those feature-packed tiny gimmicks James Bond used to dream about in the '60s. The Ixus is brushed metal with a built-in metal lens cover and it ships with a 16Mb Compact Flash card and a Li-Ion battery plus charger.
The S602 Zoom boasts Fuji's third-generation Super CCD technology, essentially a smarter way of recording digital information so that 3.1 megapixels makes pictures with 6.03 megapixels. With a sensitivity from 160-1600 ISO this camera is particularly effective in low light. It's fast in use with snappy focusing, has a big, clear LCD on the back and a digital viewfinder with diopter adjustment.
A pocketable enclosed silver camera that fits the hand, the Finepix A303 has a 3X optical zoom lens and happily chugs away on just two AA batteries. It can capture 320 x 240 pixel movies, has programmed auto exposure mode and it's really quick.
With rugged metal bodies, the Kodak digitals share the familiar point-and-shoot camera layout of generations of consumer cameras but with an LCD on the back. All three verge on self-explanatory to use with the minimal learning curves and have built in memory with a slot to add more - a really handy feature. The cameras all use Kodak's custom-algorithm colour science technology for finding the white point and choosing exposure, and all use Easy Share for image transfer and automatic picture rotation. Pictures are emailable right out of the camera.
The views and opinions expressed in articles, blog entries, posts and reviews are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of NZMac.com and its readers. Authors are responsible for the integrity of their article's content and must guarantee that its publication does not infringe upon the proprietary rights of others.
