Buying Guide: Digital Camera With Zoom

Buying Guide | Makers of digital cameras love to advertise their features to attract buyers. They present a wide range of offerings such as large megapixel values and ease of use. Buying Guide | Of all the features that these camera manufacturers offer, probably none is more confusing to the buyer than the zoom feature. Buying Guide | There are many things to consider when buying a camera with zoom.

Buying Guide | The first thing to consider is the type of zoom. Generally, there are two different types of zoom. These are the optical zoom and the digital zoom. The optical zoom is the traditional zoom that uses refractive lenses or optics to magnify an image. Buying Guide | These lenses can either be part of the body of the camera or they can be bought separately and attached to more expensive digital models. Generally speaking, optical lenses have good quality and can be used for prints larger than 4 x 6 inches. The other type of zoom is called digital zoom.

Digital zoom simulates the magnification effect of the optical lens, only it achieves this magnification in a different way. Buying Guide | Instead of using optics to magnify an image, digital zooms digitally crop the image and increase the size of the pixels in the image. This is very similar to how one would crop and edit a photo using editing software, only this is achieved with the camera itself. Digital zooms are a good choice if a person intending to use the camera for prints 4 x 6 inches or smaller. Buying Guide | Digital zooms are also good for those that prefer to edit photos with the camera itself instead of expensive photo editing software.

It is also important to know a little about how the zoom measurement is presented. Buying Guide | For both optical zoom and digital zoom, the zoom magnification is presented as a number and an "X". For example, a camera with five times magnification would be presented as 5X. A very significant detail to know for a camera buyer is that not all camera zoom numbers are comparable. The reason for this is that magnification is presented as a multiplier of its lowest zoom setting and this may be different for each camera. Buying Guide | For instance, a camera with a 35 mm minimum magnification and a 5X zoom would result in 175 mm maximum zoom. However, a camera with a 28 mm minimum magnification and a 5X zoom would have a 140 mm maximum magnification. Read the specifications carefully when trying to determine the minimum and maximum magnification. Buying Guide | 

Another factor to consider when purchasing a zoom lens or a camera with a zoom lens is the negative effects of the zoom. While zoom features can create some great photos, they can also cause problems. The first problem is shakiness. As you use more magnification, images are much more difficult to keep still. This can result in blurry photos. Buying Guide | The second problem is shutter speed. As more magnification is used, especially in low light, it takes longer for the camera to focus and this can result in either a missed shot or blurry photos.

Buying Guide | To summarize, buying a digital camera with zoom is a good idea if you understand the basics of camera zoom. Use the above information when buying a camera with zoom so that you can make an informed decision. There is plenty more information regarding buying a digital camera, and I encourage you to keep learning about this important topic.

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Digital verses Optical Zoom | What is Optical Zoom & Digital Zoom?

When buying a digital camera in today's market one of the factors that you will undoubtedly be looking at the power of the zoom function. Unfortunately people who are not so experience in this field are starting to be a little mislead. Manufacturers are claiming a zoom function called digital zoom, or they are adding up the total zoom of there optical zoom and digital zoom for a total zoom function. This however is a little unfair on the consumer as you will begin to see in this article.

What is Optical Zoom?

Optical zoom is what I like to call true zoom. This function of a camera uses the lens within the camera to draw the image closer. Using the optics of the camera the image is bought forward much the same way as a magnifying glass, binoculars and other such instruments. When using optical zoom quality remains the same and the full resolution of the camera can be used on the zoomed image.

What is Digital Zoom?

Digital zoom on the other hand is not a true form of a zoom function. The image itself doesn't actually come any closer as the optics in the camera stay the same. The way the digital zoom works is much the same way as it does on your PC at home. The idea behind digital zoom is that it takes a portion of the image and expand that image to the full size of the image. What happens here is that the section of image that you are looking at becomes bigger, not closer. The image does look closer because it has been expanded however all that has happened is that the image quality has been reduced.

There is nothing a digital camera can do that you can't do on any standard art package at home. You may as well take the picture like you would a normal camera and then alter the zoom to exactly the way you want it at home. It will be no better or worse doing it this way that it would using a digital zoom function.

Why use Digital Zoom?

So why would you ever want a digital zoom? Well there are some occasions when this may be useful. Firstly for those of you who don't like computers or are unsure about using photo editing software then the digital zoom function will enable you to get an accurate shot of the specific area you wish to photograph.

The second reason may be that you don't wish to print the pictures out. If this is the case then the digital zoom may not affect your image quality as much as a it would on a printed image. One final reason for digital zoom is that you may be able to see what the subject is doing through the camera a little easier while looking at the screen through digital zoom. Unfortunately with digital zoom, what you see on the screen is usually a little better quality than the final image.

How would you compare digital cameras

If you are comparing digital cameras in the shop or on the internet ready to make a purchase then in terms of the zoom function its only really worth looking at the optical zoom. Comparing digital zoom is a little bit of a waste of time as like I stated before you can alter the amount of digital zoom in any major art package after the photo has been taken very easily.

The only zoom to compare is optical zoom of one camera to the optical zoom of another. You will probably find a price bracket difference between the cameras with the different levels of optical zoom.You should also watch out for the manufacturers who advertise the total zoom. Although these cameras have an optical zoom function its only part of the total and you should research the camera more thoroughly to get the optical zoom value.

How to Use Wide Angle Lens|How to Take Wide Angle Photos

Perspective | How to Use Wide Angle Lens

How to Use Wide Angle Lens | One of the most interesting features of wide-angle lens is the capability to stretch perspective. What do I mean by that? I mean that when you look through a wide-angle lens, it seems that the distance between objects has extended. How to Use Wide Angle Lens | The objects that were not so distant could appear too far away. And the proportion of objects dramatically increases, so the one that close to the camera look enormous, but those, which are father away almost disappear in the distance.

The wider the angle the shorter and stronger the difference in the sizes of the elements in the photograph. If we think of two parallel lines that stretch out away from the camera, these two lines will visibly merge at some point. This is a point, which I would call perceptive vanish point for wide angle lens. How to Use Wide Angle Lens | What do I mean by that? Well, theoretically at this point and beyond (at this distance from the focal plane) all elements would be represented as a dot or not visible at all. For normal lens (of in reality) this vanishing point is somewhat farther from the focal plane then for wide angle lens.

How to Use Wide Angle Lens | What do those two vanishing points mean (for normal and wide angle lens)? They mean that the wide angle lens reduce the actual (visible) distance to the vanishing point. Which results that our brain, when judging the distance and sizes of the objects in the photograph, assumes that the distance to the vanishing point is the same as with normal lens (i.e. reality). But this assumption makes it to stretch the perspective recorded in the image to the normal one.

Making it big | How to Use Wide Angle Lens

Let's take for example a simple situation, where we have two kids, which should be of similar size. The girl is playing closer to the camera while the boy is watching several feet farther. We make a shot with a wide angle lens. What effect the lens would bring here? First of all compare the size of the girl and the boy. The boy probably would be two-three times smaller than the girl, while in reality their somewhat of the same height. OK, the perspective added its effect and make the boy seem smaller. How to Use Wide Angle Lens | But in the reality the boy is not that far away. On the photograph I it could seem as 15-20 feet (5-7 meters) between the boy and the girl, actually only a few feet separated them at that moment. So here you see the first effect of the wide angle lens - stretching perspective. How to Use Wide Angle Lens

And I should say that there is additional benefit for a photographer in this. Because the girl appear to be bigger than the boy she becomes the main subject without any doubts or additional thinking, we just assume it by judging the relative sizes of subjects/objects in the frame. How to Use Wide Angle Lens | It means that with wide angle lens its much easier to focus viewer's attention on the primary subject - the size matters. If we consider the relative sizes and how it reduces the significance of the objects/subjects that farther away from the camera, we can say that the other elements of the photograph (not the primary one) easily become the background for our primary subject. And this trail of thought leads me to a conclusion that by using wide angle lens we can separate the subject from the rest of stuff in the image by making all other elements to become the background. It looks like we push all other elements farther away from the camera and pull the subject much closer to the camera. How to Use Wide Angle Lens

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Though there is one side thought, it may not always be possible to get close to the subject and enforce that distance between elements in the photograph. It only works when you are very close to the subject, otherwise the use of wide angle lens will have the opposite effect - it will blend your subject in with the rest of the elements of the photograph. How to Use Wide Angle Lens | And sometimes it may even worsen things, such that some insignificant object on front plane becomes almost huge and draws a lot of unwanted attention. That's why there are limits to this technique, as always.

Seeing a lot | How to Use Wide Angle Lens

So, by pushing the subject farther from the camera we blend it with background. But what if we need to include a lot of the scene? What if there is no single subject? Let's say there is a vista or a big room full of people (some kind of event) and we want to get everything into the frame. Well, again the wide angle lens could be your choice, because the name of that range says it all. Wide angle means that you can fit a lot of stuff into the image. How to Use Wide Angle Lens

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Though when you put a lot of stuff into the image everything becomes small and less significant. And then the emphasis shifts to the overall "wow effect". When the quantity of elements and their relation to each other play more importance, than qualities of a single element, this mix of many elements becomes the primary subject. How to Use Wide Angle Lens

Wide angle lens help when there is a limited space and you need to jam a big subject into the picture. One of the examples is the interior design photography. Let's say we have an assignment to take photographs of a kitchen, which I had some time ago. In my case I had plenty of room to move around, the kitchen was for a show, not for real purposes. But there are times when the space is a great issue, then the only choice is to use a wide angle lens, if you are not focusing on the details and need the overall view of the room.

Dynamics and distortion

How to Use Wide Angle Lens | Sometime ago I've taken a shot of a man sitting on a car. It was taken with "a hidden camera", I just pointed the camera at the man from the waist level at pressed the shutter. How to Use Wide Angle Lens. The lens, of course, was the wide angle one - at its widest angle. The legs of the man were closest to the camera, and the head is most distant. How was it represented in the photographs? My first answer would be the disproportion of the man, his legs seem much bigger in relation to his whole body than a person usually would have. That is one of the the distortion effects which I wanted to point out. It relates to the "Making it big" issue covered earlier in this article. The body parts of the man, which are closer to the camera (in our case those are the legs) appear to be bigger than his other limbs, which are farther away. Such a distortion sometime may add a funny look to a portrait or highlight specific features of the subject. How to Use Wide Angle Lens? You probably have seen many images taken with a fish eye lens - the lens that cover 180 degrees and with most distortions. The first example that comes to my mind is a picture of a dog, which is sniffing the camera. The nose of the dog has the size of the dog's head, which makes it so funny.

How to Use Wide Angle Lens? The other effect of distortion is that straight lines that cross the frame may appear not that straight. The farther from the image center the line crosses the frame the more it will be bent by the optics. Sometimes with fish eye lens it seems like a couple of lines create a circle around the lens. That's how strongly a distortion can affect the scene in the photograph.

But we have not talked about the dynamics. Where are the dynamics in the photograph created with a wide angle lens? In my mind the dynamics in all aspects described above: the stretch of perspective, the differences of the subjects, which are on different distances from the camera, the unreal proportions of known shapes and forms and the distortion of the straight lines (or any other usual and known graphic elements).

Getting personal | How to Use Wide Angle Lens?

Among those technical aspects of the wide angle lens, there is one, which adds its own appeal to me. Considering that you are using the lens to take photographs of a person, you are bound to come closer to the subject. Coming closer, huh? It means that most probably the person would notice you and your camera, which will almost touch him or her. How to Use Wide Angle Lens. And if your are noticed by the subject, then the attention will be turned at you and all the activities or interests that kept that person busy and made him/her interesting for you will be forgotten for a little while. And the scene, which you were hunting for, is gone. It seems like you are losing the advantage of a candid shot and are left with a posed one.

Not at all, if you stick just for a few more minutes and spend some time around the subject, the person would be bored with you and shift his attention to some other, more interesting activities or objects. That's the moment we have been waiting for - we are close and unnoticed. And the time which we spent waiting for that we made an invisible connection with the subject. We learned about some personal side and probably made some impressions and conclusions. All those small things count, they will appear in the photograph, it will create that personal touch and add the mood to the photograph, which is based on the photographer's understanding and impression of the subject. How to Use Wide Angle Lens. I consider this side-effect of the wide angle lens one of the important aspects. And even if the subject is a simple rock laying in the grass, we will have to pay more attention to the rock and by doing so we cannot escape a deeper impression. This personal connection makes as think more about what subject we select to include into the frame and what we know about it, what we want to express, which is the core of photography.

Technical stuff

There are a few technical things that you may need to know when using the wide-angle lens. Here is the short description of those (I am not that much into technicalities): How to Use Wide Angle Lens

• Lens Hood and Flare - because the lens covers a very wide area there is a great chance that the sun could mess with your image. To overcome this small problem most of the lens are supplied with a lens hood. The hood creates a protection from the sun, but there are two things that collide: the lens is created to allow view as much as possible and the hood tries to provide a protection from the sun. These two concept are somewhat contradictory, so one of them should give in, and that's why the hood for wide angle lens is not such a good protection after all. So, it's your job to watch for the flare and it may be useful to use some other objects (such as a sheet of black card) to protect the lens from the sun rays.
  
  
• Polarizer - with polarizer you have two concerns. One of them is that the simple thickness of the metallic rim around the glass may cause vignetting. The other one is the unevenness of the effect, which is partially depends on the all those various reflection angles that these lens will let through. If we take for example the sky, the best effect will be when the sun and the camera are at 90 degrees to each other. Though the lens cover a lot more of other angles, where the angles will vary from 45 to 135 degrees. As well I noticed that even without the polarizer the lens saturates the sky more than any other type of lens. How to Use Wide Angle Lens
  
  
• Depth of Field - the design of the wide angle lens and its optical constraints make the DOF wider than with any other lens. It's very hard (almost impossible) to have a shallow DOF with such lens, so look for other ways to simplify background (such as framing).
  
  
• Sharpness - if you have a wide angle zoom lens than you may notice slighter less sharpness at the very wide angle, especially with the widest aperture. That's another design constraint, which very hard to avoid as I understand (almost any wide angle zoom lens has this drawback, even the best lens). How to Use Wide Angle Lens
  
  
• Vignetting - some lens (especially of cheaper price range) may have dimness in corners at the widest angles and apertures. You may want to check this issue before buying the lens.

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