Digital Cameras

[Ross Koning]

At 9:01 AM -0500 3/18/98, Jeffrey Kirby wrote:

>I'm personally interested in the possibility of a digital camara I can use
>my SLR lenses on for a few reasons:
>	1) Instant picture preview save/delete options - if you biff a
>picture you know it when you can fix it.
>	2) Filmless - not only saves money in the long run but is
>environmentally happy (lots of chemicals are used in photo processing,
>including gold in Kodachrome, silver in most other slide films)
>	3) Scanning takes up a lot of time and adds cost not involved in a
>digital camara - even higher costs for a slide scanner.
>
>In the little bit of looking I've done I've only seen viewfinder
>point-and-click style digital camaras which are useless for what I want to
>do. I've always assumed anything that can handle (Nikon) SLR lenses will
>be prohibitively expensive. If anyone knows of something cheap
>(relatively), please post it.

Jeff,

We have used an older digital here and were happy with
what it could do...given its lower image quality, etc.
Indeed other than electricity (and precious little at that)
the supplies costs and their environmental impact is
very low. Digital images can be sent from field sites
to campus instantly, and backed up for safety purposes.

The newer digitals have LCD screens as the viewfinder, and
while the image isn't precisely what you will see on your
PC or website later, it certainly shows you what you need
to know about lighting, exposure, shadows, cropping, etc.
If you find a better specimen later you can delete the
previous shot and take the new one.  You cannot do that
with film either.

The real beauty of digital photos is when you drop one of
the files into Photoshop and add labels or dodge and burn
or adjust the color balance, etc.  With Kodachrome you don't
know what you have until you get the slides back, and then
you can't adjust a thing.  Digitally you know you have
the right image and when you get home you can fix minor
problems and add to the instructional value.

The resolution of digital photos is lower than film, but the
gap is closing rapidly.  Some of the newer models have 1280x960
resolution, macro mode, 10x zoom, etc. and cost under $1K US.
I don't know of any inexpensive ones that use SLR lenses...
there is a joint venture product...but the price is $5K or
more.

ross

________________________________________________________________
Ross Koning                 | koning at ecsu.ctstateu.edu
Biology Department          | http://koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/
Eastern CT State University | phone: 860-465-5327
Willimantic, CT 06226 USA   | fax: 860-465-4479
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