Choosing Your Own Digital Camera (2)
If you haven’t read the first part, then you should read it first.
4. FLASH
Almost all digital cameras come with a built-in flash. The real issue is how well the flash works. Check to see what the maximum range of the flash is and if it works when the camera is in macro, or close focus, mode. You might also want a flash with special features like these:
Red eye reduction. This mode preflashes the subject to try to minimize reflected light from the pupil known as red eye.
Force/fill Force or fill flash is used to reduce shadows outdoors or in otherwise adequate lighting when the flash might not fire.
Rear curtain flash. This mode fires at the end of a long exposure. It comes in handy at night so that light trails precede the main subject, illuminated by the flash.
Some cameras also come with sync ports or hot shoes that allow you to connect more powerful,external flash units.
5. SPECIAL EFFECTS
Since digital cameras are part computer, they can be programmed to do some neat tricks that were inconceivable with traditional 35mm cameras. Few of these effects are necessary; in fact, I’d choose a camera based on solid features like the zoom, lens quality, and overall handling before I looked too hard at whether the camera included a video mode or sepia tint. Nonetheless, these are some of the effects you may see:
Panorama mode This feature takes wide-screen-style images either by automatically cropping the top and bottom off an image or by letting you stitch together several pictures to create one oversized one.
Movie mode Some cameras can capture short, low-resolution video clips as well as still images. Don’t confuse this with high-quality digital video, though—the results are strictly for Web pages.
Tint modes With special settings, you can take black-and-white or sepia-tinte stills. Remember, though, that you can achieve the same effect in an image editor on the PC after the picture is taken, so you aren’t losing anything if your camera lacks this feature. In fact, I’d say it’s better to start with a full-color image; that way you can do whatever you like to it later and always have the high-quality original to fall back on.
6. TRANSFER MECHANISM
Getting images out of your camera is just as important as taking the pictures to begin with. If you like to view your freshly shot images on a television or want to record them, slide show style, directly to a VCR, then you should definitely consider a camera with a video-out port. Using an ordinary RCA-style composite video cable, you can connect the camera to a TV, VCR, or some other video display unit.
For computer connection, I recommend USB. USB-capable digital cameras let you transfer images painlessly, especially compared to the more traditional (and now virtually obsolete) serial cable.
Some cameras include even more convenient solutions, like adapters that accept the removable media card and connect to the computer directly. The advantage with these devices is that you can transfer images without draining the camera batteries, and transfers are often easier to do, since you avoid using arcane transfer software and instead just drag and drop images from a folder on the Windows desktop.
