Camera Oasis

Had a day to play with a Kodak M583 camera, described in the previous post. A quick summary: Image quality: pretty good, edge-to-edge. Nice handling of low-light/twilight images at 28mm wide-angle. At 224mm full zoom, however, subjects looked softer. OK for general snapshots and travel images in bright daylight. In very low light, the camera could not lock focus on a table candle. Image stabilization (optical) worked well. Camera selected a moderately low ISO 125 for a portrait shot in twilight, and didn't fire its flash, making for nice skin tones and no blowouts. Menus are now so heavily layered that you're really forced to choose your settings in advance, because there's no quick-set beyond the basic "Smart Capture" function. Camera uses a micro SD card, which big-fingered hands will find hard to load and unload. For me, the most challenging feature were the microscopic buttons on the right side of the LCD screen (see the red camera, above). They access menu ...

Can you spot the difference between these two digital cameras? The black camera is a new Kodak M583, a 14-megapixel compact with a Schneider lens, 8X optical zoom. The red camera is a GE Power Series E1680W, with 16 megapixels and an 8X optical zoom. To me, they appear to have come off the same assembly line, someplace in Asia. Their prices are nearly identical, too. At the moment, Kmart is offering the GE camera at $20 under the Kodak. On the other hand, 16 MP on a 1/2.3 sensor will probably result in less than satisfactory images. GE is one of those drugstore brands that hardly any camera review website takes seriously. Kodak, on the other hand, said earlier this year that they would re-strategize their camera business to sell only profitable cameras. I'm thinking this meant sourcing some cameras from GE's General Imaging business, just as Hewlett Packard appears to have done.

You shot some pretty decent digital photos in the Bahamas in 2004. In fact, they might be useful in a book on travel photography. Can you use them? Maybe, maybe not. If you used a Nikon D70 -- one of the leading digital SLR cameras sold at that time -- you have some pretty sharp files. Six megapixels isn't bad. However, if you went back to Marsh Harbor in 2011 to shoot additional photos, you'd be using a 12- or 14-megapixel camera, likely with a better image processing algorithm. Your 2011 photos will have more detail. And your 2004 photos will pale, in some ways, when compared with your new photos. Documentary photographers who spend years capturing images for a project frequently encounter this issue. Digital advances turn their earlier digital photographs into, well, yesterday's photos. But photos captured on film in 2004 have exactly the same resolution as those captured on film today. Negatives and transparencies from years ago can be scanned into high-resolution digit...

I'm a sucker for stretching the limits of 35mm negatives. And, with a little creativity, I get some nice rewards. This week, I'm shooting with a rarity: the Canon Multi-Tele, a 35mm automatic film camera that captures either full-frame or half-frame images. Depending on how you set the selector, you can grab either 24 x 36 or 18 x 24 mm pictures. So a 36-exposure roll of Kodak Portra VC 400 becomes a 72 exposure roll. Why do this? 18 x 24mm is roughly the same size as the sensor in digital SLR cameras, and I'm curious to see if the half-frame images come out with any more clarity or detail than the same-size JPEGs from a Nikon D60. Besides, I get the added satisfaction of driving the photo lab a little bit crazy, as the half-frame adapter required to print "normal-size" prints from the smaller negatives is rarely found. (You can easily create acceptable prints by editing a scan or digital negative). Downsides: the Canon Multi-Tele uses a loud, spring-loaded lens t...

Point-and-Shoot vs. SLR Cameras: What Are the Real Differences? Problem with this article: it's written for idiots. The biggest difference between point-and-shoot and digital SLR cameras? DSLRs have larger sensors that capture more light. They'll capture great photos in dimmer light, too. DSLRs also have more processing "horsepower," while p/s cameras ask one chip -- the same one that captures the image -- to do all the computer-type data management and processing. That's why small cameras have shutter lag. All the other differences are aesthetic. If you don't want to carry a four-pound camera, choose a smaller one. Unless you enlarge your photos to fit on the side of a building, you'll probably be pleased with the results from the camera you have with you, rather than the bigger camera you left at home.

For a few hours, Woot.com offered the Samsung HZ30W camera today for $129.99. It sold out fairly quickly. But I read with interest the comments left by Wooters trying to decide whether to buy the camera. About half pointed to online comments from previous buyers, many of whom complained that the camera's images were too noisy. I'd guess those users probably did the following: They charged the battery and added a memory card. They turned the camera on. They shot their photos on Auto, and got poor results. "Auto" is the de fault mode on many cameras. The camera makes all the decisions: shutter speed, aperture, flash, and ISO (or sensitivity to light). More often than not, cameras left in Auto mode select a higher ISO (200 or 400) so the flash reaches further. The higher the ISO, the more likely their will be digital noise in your photos. The way around this? Learn how to use the camera's "Program" mode. It's similar to Auto, but it should allow you to...

This photo had little to do with the model of camera I used, or the lens, or anything very technical. It had everything to do with the calendar and the weather forecast. November, 2009 saw a small hurricane called Ida wander across the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes leave a trail of clouds. A quick consultation of a good calendar told me when the sunset would take place. A few minutes with the Weather Channel told me where the worst of the storm had gone. All I needed was a camera and a wristwatch. And a boardwalk to shoot from. The camera was a Canon Powershot A630 , one of the great underrated Canons that uses AA batteries and lets you manually adjust shutter speed, aperture, and other settings. The current A-series Canons don't offer this level of control. (The camera itself is no longer made, but used models may be found at online auction, or maybe www.KEH.com .) Exposure details: handheld, 1/1000-second exposure at f4.0, with a -0.67 underexposure to deepen the clouds a bit. Tip:...