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Cameras
Scrapbooking requires photos, and photos depend on the camera. It’s good to
have a basic understanding of the different types of cameras, and what each can
be used for.
I remember using 110 film – these little cartridges that fit inside this little camera.
You take the photo, hope it was exposed correctly, and then take it to the store to
have developed. It was a way to get pictures.
Then we had a Polaroid Instant Camera – and boy, did we think that was cool! You
take the picture, and it comes out of the camera! You peel off the plastic, and watch
it develop before your eyes! These are still fun and useful for occasions or events
when there isn’t any time to run to the developers.
For a long time 35mm cameras were the most widely used cameras. They produce
images onto film, and the film (in sealed cartridges) is taken to the photo store for
developing. Many people still have and use 35mm, and stores will still develop the
film. One of the advantages of some 35mm cameras is that they can use many
different lenses, filters, and attachment to improve the quality of the photos. Using
these lenses/filters gives one more options for “artistic” photography – making a
green tree orange, for example. There came out a line of “auto focus” 35mm
cameras, but for the most part, the focusing and the shutter speeds are still the
responsibility of the person taking the photo.
The disadvantages have led to a new market swing leaning towards digital
cameras. For one thing, you have to develop the whole roll of film. Now many
developers won’t require you to pay for photos that “didn't come out” (out of
focus, blackened, etc.), but you still have to pay for all the other photos on the roll –
even if you can’t use that photo of Aunt Kay’s knees! And, of course, there was the
initial cost for buying the unexposed film, to begin with. Photo developers have
recently started offering the choice to customers to either have their 35mm film
developed and printed, or put onto Cd, or both.
Digital Cameras
In the past decade digital cameras have hit the market with a boom. They were
very expensive, but they produced an image with more pixels than people were
used to seeing. They had auto focus, and “point-and-shoot” technology. Back
then, getting a 1MP (mega pixel) camera was the best thing for taking family
photos. The advantages were outweighing the cost – you never had to buy film –
ever! You could always buy extra media cards, but it wasn’t required. The pictures
download to your computer, and you can see and edit them before you pay to have
them printed. You can save the pictures on your hard drive, in files, and have them
ready for viewing at any time. The pictures can be burned to a Cd or DVD for
archiving and for viewing on a DVD player! Now, many stores that develop photos
can do so from these Cd’s and you choose only the pictures you wish to print.
Which means you can send Grandma Jane the Cd, and let her decide which photos
she wants to have. Plus, the shelf life of a cd/dvd is pretty long – especially
compared to photos/negatives.
But one of the disadvantages, and certainly a reason many ‘hard-core’ pros using
35mm refused to give up their cameras, is that digital cameras offered little room for
“artistic interpretation”. A photo was taken by the camera, with very few
adjustments allowed from the photographer. It didn't accept the cool lenses (fish-
eye, long-range zoom, and wide-angle – to mention a few). There weren’t any
adaptive devises to color or filter the shot.
Digital SLR Cameras
Manufacturers got busy and tried to marry the two – digital quality and technology
with interchangeable lenses and filters. They now sell Digital SLR (Single Lens
Reflex) cameras. These cameras have all of the advantages of digital cameras, and
now give the photographer more control over his art. Some of these cameras will
accept the older lenses (from the 35mm cameras) others do better with automated
focus feature on the new removable lens. It’s kind of cool – this technology – you
can set up your shot (the zoom, etc.), push the button, and then watch as the
camera finds the best focus and takes the picture! The focus ring on the lens is
actually controlled by the camera. You can override this feature, and take the
picture manually, too.
I suppose I should list their disadvantages, but other than cost – I can’t think of any.
Disposable Cameras
Does it seem anticlimactic to mention the disposables after the high-tech
cameras? Not really – here’s why: There are some very good reasons for buying
and using disposable cameras. Firstly, there’s cost, and I don’t mean the $4.99 for
the camera – I mean the savings involved in using a camera that won’t break the
bank (or your heart) if it’s lost or dropped! Every year I send my children to school
with a disposable camera to take pictures of their friends and teachers for a
yearbook/scrapbook. It would be wrong of me to hold them responsible for taking
the digital camera, and think it wasn’t going to get abused – on the playground, in
gym, or at lunch! Then there was the time in NYC, we were on vacation, and had
given each child a disposable camera to shoot whatever they thought was
important and needed to be preserved. Well, my youngest left hers in the taxi.
There are lessons about responsibility at stake here, but no vacation was ruined,
and there was no ensuing family drama.
Even disposables have come a long way. There are now digital disposables, and
waterproof disposables (for taking pictures underwater)! Almost all developers will
offer you a choice of having the pictures from your disposable cameras put on disk
– which then gives you the advantages of reviewing them in your photo editing
software on your computer.
Scrapbooking requires photos, and photos depend on the camera. It’s good to
have a basic understanding of the different types of cameras, and what each can
be used for.
I remember using 110 film – these little cartridges that fit inside this little camera.
You take the photo, hope it was exposed correctly, and then take it to the store to
have developed. It was a way to get pictures.
Then we had a Polaroid Instant Camera – and boy, did we think that was cool! You
take the picture, and it comes out of the camera! You peel off the plastic, and watch
it develop before your eyes! These are still fun and useful for occasions or events
when there isn’t any time to run to the developers.
For a long time 35mm cameras were the most widely used cameras. They produce
images onto film, and the film (in sealed cartridges) is taken to the photo store for
developing. Many people still have and use 35mm, and stores will still develop the
film. One of the advantages of some 35mm cameras is that they can use many
different lenses, filters, and attachment to improve the quality of the photos. Using
these lenses/filters gives one more options for “artistic” photography – making a
green tree orange, for example. There came out a line of “auto focus” 35mm
cameras, but for the most part, the focusing and the shutter speeds are still the
responsibility of the person taking the photo.
The disadvantages have led to a new market swing leaning towards digital
cameras. For one thing, you have to develop the whole roll of film. Now many
developers won’t require you to pay for photos that “didn't come out” (out of
focus, blackened, etc.), but you still have to pay for all the other photos on the roll –
even if you can’t use that photo of Aunt Kay’s knees! And, of course, there was the
initial cost for buying the unexposed film, to begin with. Photo developers have
recently started offering the choice to customers to either have their 35mm film
developed and printed, or put onto Cd, or both.
Digital Cameras
In the past decade digital cameras have hit the market with a boom. They were
very expensive, but they produced an image with more pixels than people were
used to seeing. They had auto focus, and “point-and-shoot” technology. Back
then, getting a 1MP (mega pixel) camera was the best thing for taking family
photos. The advantages were outweighing the cost – you never had to buy film –
ever! You could always buy extra media cards, but it wasn’t required. The pictures
download to your computer, and you can see and edit them before you pay to have
them printed. You can save the pictures on your hard drive, in files, and have them
ready for viewing at any time. The pictures can be burned to a Cd or DVD for
archiving and for viewing on a DVD player! Now, many stores that develop photos
can do so from these Cd’s and you choose only the pictures you wish to print.
Which means you can send Grandma Jane the Cd, and let her decide which photos
she wants to have. Plus, the shelf life of a cd/dvd is pretty long – especially
compared to photos/negatives.
But one of the disadvantages, and certainly a reason many ‘hard-core’ pros using
35mm refused to give up their cameras, is that digital cameras offered little room for
“artistic interpretation”. A photo was taken by the camera, with very few
adjustments allowed from the photographer. It didn't accept the cool lenses (fish-
eye, long-range zoom, and wide-angle – to mention a few). There weren’t any
adaptive devises to color or filter the shot.
Digital SLR Cameras
Manufacturers got busy and tried to marry the two – digital quality and technology
with interchangeable lenses and filters. They now sell Digital SLR (Single Lens
Reflex) cameras. These cameras have all of the advantages of digital cameras, and
now give the photographer more control over his art. Some of these cameras will
accept the older lenses (from the 35mm cameras) others do better with automated
focus feature on the new removable lens. It’s kind of cool – this technology – you
can set up your shot (the zoom, etc.), push the button, and then watch as the
camera finds the best focus and takes the picture! The focus ring on the lens is
actually controlled by the camera. You can override this feature, and take the
picture manually, too.
I suppose I should list their disadvantages, but other than cost – I can’t think of any.
Disposable Cameras
Does it seem anticlimactic to mention the disposables after the high-tech
cameras? Not really – here’s why: There are some very good reasons for buying
and using disposable cameras. Firstly, there’s cost, and I don’t mean the $4.99 for
the camera – I mean the savings involved in using a camera that won’t break the
bank (or your heart) if it’s lost or dropped! Every year I send my children to school
with a disposable camera to take pictures of their friends and teachers for a
yearbook/scrapbook. It would be wrong of me to hold them responsible for taking
the digital camera, and think it wasn’t going to get abused – on the playground, in
gym, or at lunch! Then there was the time in NYC, we were on vacation, and had
given each child a disposable camera to shoot whatever they thought was
important and needed to be preserved. Well, my youngest left hers in the taxi.
There are lessons about responsibility at stake here, but no vacation was ruined,
and there was no ensuing family drama.
Even disposables have come a long way. There are now digital disposables, and
waterproof disposables (for taking pictures underwater)! Almost all developers will
offer you a choice of having the pictures from your disposable cameras put on disk
– which then gives you the advantages of reviewing them in your photo editing
software on your computer.
Cameras
