Tutorial Two: Digital Camera use and applications

In this tutorial, we demonstrated the competence in using a digital camera and tripod. We had to choose theme and capture 5 images which we will display them on our blog. The theme i have chosen is Signs around Polytech.

“A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature.” In relation to digital camera technology, neither is better on an absolute basis. Film and digital cameras do different things better, and neither is going away. Although film based camera will decline in areas where digital camera excels but the choice depends on the user’s application. Here are some of the pluses & minuses digital camera technology holds in relation to traditional film camera:
Pluses
*Faster to develop photos
*being able to look back whether to keep/delete photos.
*depend on the size of the memory card. But generally more photos can be stored. And very easy to transfer photos to computers, CDs or social networking website.

Minuses
*The photos taken are not valued as much as they are very accessible.
* A cheap digital camera costs about $200, while a basic compact film camera costs $150. If you want a digital camera with additional features, it can run up to $700. Digital cameras store photographs on small removable cards. Each one of these cards costs anywhere from $50 to $100 depending upon capacity. Whereas a roll of film cost around $10, but you can only take approx 30 photos.
* Digital cameras are small computers that take photographs. Even the fairly simple ones come with many buttons, menus, options and settings. Camera manufacturers like to boast that their camera has more features than their competitor's. More features means controls that you will have to learn.
* Most digital cameras use rechargeable batteries that are just for that model camera. Digital cameras are battery hogs. If you own a film camera now, you may have had to change the batteries once in a couple years. Digital camera batteries will be drained if you take lots of photos. Backup rechargeable batteries are a necessity.

There are many ways that digital images can be stored/transferred and manipulated by using other communication technology. Such as computer hard drive, CDs, social networking website and digital photo

In tut one, we talked about ethical issues. The ethical issue that may arise when using digital image. Consent must be gained from the people involved, so their privacy is not invaded.

Digital images are being used in occupational therapy practice. During my 1st placement at a school setting, photos were taken during assessment to record the client’s progress. Also photos were taken during a special event such as sports day to capture the Kodak moment. And the photos were later displayed on the newsletter.

During this tutorial, we were asked to sign up for a flicker account and upload the photos we took. We are also expected to link the Flickr photos to our blog by creating a photo badge. Flickr.com is a free online photo management and sharing application. Their main service is to get photos and videos to people who matter to us.

There are many other photo storage websites which offers a similar service to flickr.com, facebook, myspace, bebo, msn and bebo are all very popular amongst young and old today.

The last things we looked at were digital/optical zoom and megapixel.
What is the difference between digital zoom and optical zoom? Digital zoom works much the same way as it does on your pc. The idea behind digital zoom is that it takes a portion of the image and expands that image to the full size of the image. What happens here is that the section of the image that you are looking at becomes bigger not closer, which means the quality is reduced. Optical zoom uses the lens within the camera to draw image closer. Using the optics of the camera the image is brought forward much the same way as binoculars. When using optical zoom, quality remains the same and the full resolution of the camera can be used on the zoomed image.

A megapixel refers to one million pixels, and is commonly used in reference to digital camera as an indication of resolution capability. A pixel is a tiny square on a computerized display that is so small it appears as a dot. The display screen is a solid gird of these squares as dots, which can be easily seen with a magnify glass. The more pixels or dots that made up the display screen, the clear the resolution or image will be.