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Digital
Corner
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As
Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar: "There is a tide in
the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in
miseries." |
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So
let's begin with some summaries and this good advice; I will be discussing
other digital cameras of lesser resolution in future columns, but if
you're serious about going digital, you won't really be happy with cameras
having any less resolution than these. And, selling for about $850 each,
they're a bargain for what they can deliver. .
Olympus D600L...A Winner and Still Going Strong If you're comfortable with SLR cameras, you'll love the D600L, which, though conventional in looks and design, is a really digital powerhouse. It's especially good for portraiture because it balances nicely when shooting verticals and, with the addition of a off-to-the-side pistol grip, you can hold it rock-steady when long exposures are required. It's also the only camera of the three with a 43mm threaded lens mount that can take readily-available auxiliary lenses. There have probably been more glowing reviews and impromptu web sites singing praises of the D600L than any camera in history...conventional or digital. Yet, for all its virtues, it has one small vice: occasionally, under extremely low lighting conditions, its autofocus becomes disoriented and it starts to hunt around like a cruise missile seeking its target. I took the picture of "Bubba" using only dim, early evening window light and the camera's autofocus didn't like that at all. Still, it finally got a fix on his eyes, homed in, and fired. To its credit, it produced a far brighter picture than I was able to see. Please click on the picture to see an enlarged version This camera is also notorious for gorging on batteries but rechargeable NiMH's will assuaged its appetite. In Super High Quality (SHQ) mode the D600L's compression ratio of 1:2 is the best of the three but you'll rarely need to choose it since High Quality (HQ) delivers beautiful artifact-free images as well (see Resolution and Compression, below). Still, it's nice to know it's there and, with the new 16MB SmartMedia cards arriving in a week or so, you'll be able to store 16 SHQ or 48 HQ photographs per card. The
D600L (and its siblings) comes from house whose optics are second
to none, and for that reason it will produce higher quality images
than many other cameras at the same resolution and compression settings.
If you want to make an easy transition from film to digital photography,
this is the camera that will make it painless. Nikon CoolPix 900...Superb Metering and Beautiful Color Being first isn't always best. Being best is best. And because new technology encourages new design, I'm sure that when Nikon analyzed some pivoting cameras already on the market, they realized that with film no longer needed, they could literally "get out of the box." Adding some technical refinements, they came up with the CoolPix 900...and a cool camera it is. The lens and LCD preview screen of the CoolPix 900 rotate independently to let you shoot at high and low angles that previously would have challenged your physique. You can tilt the screen at a convenient angle for viewing while keeping the lens aimed at the subject. And Nikon has wisely included an optical zoom viewfinder to give you a choice; if the sun wipes out the LCD image or the batteries start to expire, you can view scenes the old-fashioned way. Beware, though, the viewfinder not as accurate as previewing images on the screen...the camera captures about 15% more picture area than you actually see. Despite the fact that it has a lower ISO equivalent than the others (64 vs.100), the CoolPix 900 thrives on low-light conditions and produces better pictures without flash than most cameras using it. It also has the closest-focusing macro setting (about 1.5" by 2") of any digital camera on the market today. And of course, it goes without saying the Nikkor optics are excellent, color is right on, and the matrix metering system produces perfectly exposed images. The shot
of "Possum" was taken under one of those impossible lighting
conditions...all brightly backlit with just room light providing front
fill. You just can't ask much more from a camera than what the CoolPix
900 delivered. Now all Nikon has to do is find a way for the lens
to swivel in the vertical plane. A ball joint, perhaps? If you want
a digital camera that will give you great shooting versatility and
brilliant images, this is it.
Please click on the the image to see an enlarged version
Kodak DC 260...It's a Camera! It's a Computer! It's a CAM-PUTER! This is definitely not like any camera you've ever used; in fact it's really a digital cross-breed of camera and computer. Yet it might be just what you need for the tricks it performs that the other two can't. Don't buy it just because it has the highest resolution; the image dimensions are such you'll have to crop top or bottom or both to get a decently proportioned print (unless you routinely shoot pictures of basketball players) so you lose the resolution advantage right from the start. For example, printing an 8"x10" image drops the resolution from 1536 by 1024 to 1280 by 1024, which is the same as the D600L. But the DC 260 the only one of the three that has external flash synch with a range of user selectable f-stops from f-3 through f-22. In the "Garden" picture I taped a Sigma .45 ultra-wide auxiliary lens to the camera's lens barrel and used a very weak Morris bare-tube strobe to give some subtle fill-in. Using the built-in flash would have blown out the foreground and rendered the statue pasty white. If you do studio work with strobes and want to test the digital waters, the DC 260 will let you get your toes wet without the risk of drowning in debt.
Please click on the picture to see an enlarged version
The LCD preview screen doesn't deliver a full 30 fps, so its image is jerky when you move the camera, but you can use it to frame static objects precisely and the camera also has an optical viewfinder for tracking faster motion. The DC 260 has a great repertoire...time lapse, camera-to-camera image transfer, watermarking, placing pictures in separate albums within the camera, burst shooting at higher resolutions than most others, and sound annotation of each image. And on
the way are new scripts, downloadable to the camera...oops, cam-puter...which
will provide even more menu options. You have to give the Rochester
Gang credit for pulling out the stops on this one. The DC 260 boldly
goes where no digital camera has gone before. And Now, For The Main Act... I´ve gone into a lot of detail that buyers new to digital cameras don't normally think about but which can make or break your love affair with the medium. Bear in mind, though, that specifications do change and the camera you buy may not perform exactly like the one I tested. I've also included a list of web sites where you can find additional information and download sample images from all three cameras. Incidentally, the photographs displayed in this column are squeezed to death (1:60 compression or more) so they can download reasonably fast. You may notice some artifacts... pixelization in whiskers or image unsmoothness in large areas of the same color...that result from this torture. The Epson ink-jet print-outs do not exhibit any of these aberrations.
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS Cameras are listed in order of their appearance on the market; Check additional specification at the manufacturer's web sites for standard features common to all, such as self-timers, built-in flash, and so on.
RESOLUTION AND COMPRESSION As I mentioned in my last column (Part 1) digital cameras give you choices of shooting at different resolutions and then having the resulting pictures compressed in the camera. Why compress? Because if you didn't, only a few uncompressed high resolution pictures could fit on the camera's removable memory card...one or two per 8Mb. Achieving the right balance between the resolution and compression determines the ultimate quality of the image. Resolution indicates the total number of pixels on the imaging surface and is a good indicator of how big you can enlarge the picture before it starts to fall apart...or pixelate. Compression also affects image quality because some color and detail information is lost in the process. A compression ratio of 1:2 is better than 1:16; however compression ratios from 1:2 to 1:8 will usually yield high quality photographic prints that are virtually indistinguishable from each other. Unless
you're shooting only for the Web, choose the highest resolution and
then vary the compression depending on how many images you want to
fit on your memory card. You can also mix images taken at different
resolutions and compression ratios on the same card...which is (very)
roughly analogous to mixing pictures exposed at different ISOs on
the same roll when shooting with a film like Kodak MultiSpeed.
CAMERA OPERATIONS All camera operations were timed with a stopwatch —at least three times each — and then averaged, if necessary. I make no claim to having done this under "laboratory" conditions and since manufacturers' tolerances do vary from camera to camera, there may be a fraction of a second's difference here and there. But I ended up with a very sore wrist from all the button pressing so you can rest assured I was extremely diligent.
OTHER COMMENTS AND FINDINGS These are subjective findings based on shooting similar subjects with the three cameras. I liked them all, and although the DC 260 is not my personal cup of tea, it may very well be yours. Since I shoot a lot of portraits of cats (you guessed that, huh?) and people, the Olympus D600L would be best for the kind of work I do. But the Nikon CoolPix 900 is reminiscent of shooting with my beloved old Rollei...where I could get great low angle (camera on the ground) and high angle shots (camera upside down, over my head) with ease. In fact, if Nikon ever came out with a 1536 X 1536 (2.4 MegaPixel) square format camera in the CoolPix 900 body style, I think it would be a smash hit.
WEB SITES AND OTHER RESOURCES The locations of pages on web sites change as often as the weather, so please don't complain if some of these have changed. I try, whenever possible, to bypass the home page and get you directly to the information but that's not always possible. So if you can't connect, keep backing up in the directory until you can and then go forward from there. And
remember, if you are going to download image samples to print out,
make sure you don't print them from your Web browser because your
output will be locked into the screen resolution of 72 or 96 ppi.
Instead, download them as files and then open them in an imaging program
of your choice. From there, print the samples at different resolutions
and sizes to see for yourself how they'll look. Web Sites For Digital Camera Specifications http://www.olympusamerica.com/p.asp?s=12&p=16 http://www.nikonusa.com/products/products.taf?department=imaging http://webs.kodak.com/US/en/digital/cameras/dc260/ Camera Image Samples You Can Download http://www.olympusamerica.com/p.asp?s=12&p=16 http://www.nikonusa.com/products/products.taf?id=128 Other Digital Camera And Imaging Web Sites Both
Digital Camera Resource and the Imaging-Resource go
into great detail on digital camera industry news, specific cameras,
technical glitches and fixes, reviews, forums, and other good stuff.
PC-Photo Forum is an ambitious and well designed site with
detailed digital camera comparisons, reviews, and a search engine
to find the best camera prices. Other good sites are Steve's Digicams
(non-commercial) and a site devoted solely to the Olympus D600L
camera. Finally, Hylas is a new search engine specializing
in digital imaging. http://www.imaging-resource.com http://www.steves-digicams.com http://www.leesoft.com/d600l/OlympusFAQ.html
There's
also a newsgroup devoted to digital cameras at "rec.photo.digital"
in which information, questions, and answers are posted regularly.
And there are other magazine sites which cover digital photography
and imaging such as Photo District News and Photo Electronic
Imaging. COMING
UP...In
my next column I'll tell you everything you never even knew
you wanted to know about removable memory storage cards for digital
cameras and how, for just a pittance, you can transfer images to your
computer so fast it'll make your head spin. I'm also going to spotlight
a few digital camera accessories that are just hiting the market...and
which will make life in the digital lanes a lot easier for all of
us. Stay tuned.
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