So we bought a Digital Camera!

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2005-11-24 08:30am

Darth Wong wrote:I never understood the point of digital zoom. What's the difference between digital zoom and simply blowing up the middle of the picture?

Not a hell of a lot. Digital zoom is basically the same as asking photoshop to blow up a small section of an image. You're only using a part of the CCD instead of all of it for optical zoom.

Gil Hamilton wrote:
Braedley wrote:Actually Gil, (and Mrs. Kendall), digital zoom is only to be used when needed. Digital zooms use recursive (or sometimes just looping) algorithms to fill in as many as 3/4s of the pixels. This means that conceivably 75% of the picture is an approximation of what is really there. This leads to decreases in sharpness, which in turn leads to blurry edges. However, with optical zoom, no pixel is approximated, and as long as the lenses are in focus, the image remains as sharp as a tack.
If, Gil, you are not refering to digital zoom, but instead auto focus (which you don't seem to be), then by all means, take advantage of it (you usually don't have a choice, as looks like the case for this camera).
It depends on how much you use the digital zoom. The trick is to make up the difference in a close up that is lost due to not being able to get within 45 cm or whatever the minimum focal length of the camera lense is, because if used judiciously, the amount of approximation is more acceptable than the effects of being within the minimum focal length. Those digicams don't tend to go over the equivlent of 105mm - you can't get a close up without that little boost, since sticking a telephoto lense on the front of them isn't an option.

If you're close to the subject (ie less than 10m (33ft)), then you're never going to need more than 2x or 3x zoom, which is easily handled by the optics. If the subject is far away (ie more than 30m (100ft)), then some digtal zoom may be necessary, and will add to the picture. As you said, judicial use is needed to get the best results.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2005-11-24 11:11am

A x3 zoom might not be enough for a really tight close up, even when standing pretty close. If you want in really close, you need more telephoto than a digicam can usually provide.

You are right, though, optics can mostly handle it. No argument there.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2005-11-24 11:15am

Darth Wong wrote:I never understood the point of digital zoom. What's the difference between digital zoom and simply blowing up the middle of the picture?

There isn't really, but since it's done in-camera, it can be handy for people without photo editors and/or are intimidated enough by computers that they don't know how to drag a little marquee box around something, crop, and blow it up. Such people exist.

Mrs Kendall · Post by **Mrs Kendall** » 2005-11-24 10:57pm

Yeah so the batteries died on us today. We bought a charger with some NiMH batteries for it shortly after we found out how fast it ate up the regular kodak batteries that came with the camera.

If only I had known

Oh and we bought a 512MB sd card for it too

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2005-11-24 11:13pm

Mrs Kendall wrote:Yeah so the batteries died on us today. We bought a charger with some NiMH batteries for it shortly after we found out how fast it ate up the regular kodak batteries that came with the camera. If only I had known Oh and we bought a 512MB sd card for it too

Even NiMH batteries can still drain quickly even though they last up to 3 times as long as alkalines. One way to make the batteries last as long as possible is to keep the camera's LCD screen off except when you really need it.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-11-25 12:11am

Remember: batteries are a woman's best friend.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2005-11-25 12:18am

Mrs Kendall wrote:Yeah so the batteries died on us today. We bought a charger with some NiMH batteries for it shortly after we found out how fast it ate up the regular kodak batteries that came with the camera. If only I had known Oh and we bought a 512MB sd card for it too

That's the problem with digital cameras. They are power whores and even the good ones can only take a few hundred shots before they run out of power. Hopefully your camera comes with a cord for you to recharge when you aren't using it.

Mrs Kendall · Post by **Mrs Kendall** » 2005-11-26 11:42am

Ma Deuce wrote:Even NiMH batteries can still drain quickly even though they last up to 3 times as long as alkalines. One way to make the batteries last as long as possible is to keep the camera's LCD screen off except when you really need it.

Yeah, we have 4 batteries and we'll always keep 2 charged for when we're out and stuff (also the charger we bought can be used in the car as well as the home) so this shouldn't be a problem really and since we plan to buy more batteries in case we're not as organised as I think we'll be

we should be good. Also with this camera you can use regular AA batteries if we're in a pinch. I'm really not sure how to turn the screen off but I'll look that up and see how to do it, thanks for that advice

Darth Wong wrote:Remember: batteries are a woman's best friend.

Thanks for that laugh Mike

Gil Hamilton wrote:That's the problem with digital cameras. They are power whores and even the good ones can only take a few hundred shots before they run out of power. Hopefully your camera comes with a cord for you to recharge when you aren't using it.

Well, like I said above we did buy a charger that will work in the car or a house so no matter where we are we should be able to charge batteries and make sure at least 2 of the batteries we'll have are charged at all times

We'll even be able to do it when we go camping in the summer

Anyhow, we took a really cute picture of our kitten sitting on my shoulders like an animal scarf (with this camera) so I thought I would share