Popular Digital Camera Brands

When it comes to digital cameras, there are a number of manufacturers that are leading the pack because of their ability to produce high quality equipment with technologically advanced capabilities and impressive picture taking abilities. Some of the leading digital camera manufacturers include Nikon, Cannon, Sony, and Kodak.

One of the most popular manufacturers in the industry is Nikon, which has played a role in revolutionizing the industry by introducing the D series of the digital camera line. These SLR cameras are packed with high resolution, high megapixel cameras that are equipped with large LCD viewing screens and multiple size lenses that are able to capture high quality pictures.

Another popular manufacturer of digital cameras is Cannon which also has helped bring the industry to where it is today with great advances in the technology that they put into their cameras. They have been able to product a number of great models that provide photographers with the tools they need to produce wonderful photography work. Their popular products fall in both the point and shoot and SLR categories and can be purchased in just about any electronics department around the globe.

Other popular manufactures of digital cameras include Sony, Kodak, and Panasonic, all of which are gaining their share in the market by providing hobbyists and professional photographers with high quality products that are capable of producing great looking pictures. These manufacturers also have introduced their versions of the point and shoot cameras as well as the SLR versions.

If you're looking to start your own photography business, or if you're simply looking to purchase a camera that you can use on occasion to take pictures of a special event or activity, then you'll definitely want to check out the manufacturers listed above for all of your camera needs.

Photographing Our Beautiful Butterflies

Image : http://www.flickr.com

What else do you know that can compare to the magnificent colors you see when you look through your camera lens at a butterfly? Maybe a butterfly sitting on a beautiful brilliant flower. It doesn't get any prettier than that. If you're lucky enough to have a garden with flowers that attract these winged beauties, and you're into photography, hopefully, you've been getting some great shots. But, if that doesn't describe your situation, you may find some of these tips helpful in getting started.

There are three great environments for photographing butterflies. The outdoors, garden settings, and butterfly farms or houses. People have been collecting butterflies for centuries. Catching them, killing them and displaying them on boards and in cases. Catching them on film is a great alternative. The butterfly gets to live and the pictures live on.

You don't have to have a lot of special equipment or a big, expensive camera to begin your butterfly photography. Actually, you may be spending a lot of time getting up and down off the ground to get those great shots. The smaller point and shoot camera and the convenience of a quality fanny pack camera bag would be just perfect for butterfly photography. You'll also need a good helping of patience and a lot of time. You can't go out and call butterflies. You can, however, set yourself up to have the best possible opportunity to find butterflies to photograph.

Butterflies are attracted to colors and scents. If your desire is to photograph butterflies in their natural habitat, you might go out a day or so ahead of time to locate an area that has the right conditions for butterfly photography. A couple good places to look would be fields that are loaded with wildflowers or areas of damp or moist soil. If you live in an area that is lush with forests, rivers, streams, and waterfalls look in those areas for some perfect shots of these magnificent creatures.

If you have a garden filled with flowers of purple, lavender, white, yellow, orange, and red, you should be able to go out your back door, set up your tripod, and wait for the butterflies to appear. Some of the most popular flowers for butterflies are alyssum, dahlias, honeysuckle, impatients, marigolds, petunias, sunflowers, candytuft, and zinnias. You can also help encourage them to your garden by putting out some over ripe fruit or nectar. Butterflies are attracted to the scent of rotting fruit.

Check your background before you're start your photo shoot. Ideally, try to situate yourself so that the background compliments the butterfly. Do your best to frame the shot to eliminate unwanted background items. Get as close to the subject as you possibly can, without scaring it away, so that the butterfly fills the picture. Another way to deal with unwanted background images is to set your camera to blur the background. Butterflies are attracted to flowers that are in the sun rather than the shade, so be positioned properly when taking your shots.

Have your camera bag packed and ready the day before, so you can head out early in the morning. Have extra film or memory cards, extra batteries, and a tripod. As with most photography, the best time to photograph butterflies is either early in the morning or late in the evening. Not only is the lighting best, but the butterflies won't be quite as active during these times of the day when it's cooler. It will give you a little more time to take the shot when the butterfly comes into view. Take as many pictures of the butterfly as you can before it flies away. Don't wait for what you think may be the perfect shot or you may not get a picture at all.

Connecting Micromax A60 as a Modem

Micromax released its first Android smart phone called A60. This A60 has a feature of 3G network option.Using this Micromax one can connect your PC to internet with high speed of upto 7.2MBPS depending on the service provider. This Micromax A60 smartphone will cost you around 6500Rs. With this price you will get android smart phone which you can also use as a 3G data card to your PC.  So below is the procedure to connect to internet through Micromax A60 from the PC.

PC suite for A60: To download PC suite for Micromax A60, the detailed instruction with download link provided in my earlier post Micromax PC suite Download.

Procedure for using A60 as modem to PC:

Follow the following steps to connect Android A60 to your PC:

1.Insert the cd which you have got with your Micromax mobile.

2.Install the PC suite of A60.

3.Restart the PC.

4.Connect your handset to the computer

5.Now in phone goto setting->wire less &network>select internet threwting

6.Now in computer click on start->connect to->show all connection->click on

connection

Congratulation! you are connected to 3g broadband internet from your PC using Micromax A60. Enjoy Surfing!!

Feel free to share your experience using the A60 smartphone as datacard.

For downloading free games for micromax mobiles visit here

Nokia E5 Price and Specification

 Nokia E5 is a first E series phone from Nokia. This Nokia E5 has solid design, physical qwerty keyboard and good battery life. This E5 comes with stunning features like 5 MP camera with digital zoom and Social network applications. Also this Nokia phone has most of the  connectivity options.

Nokia E5

PC suite for Nokia E5:  Nokia E5 PC suite free download is available in Nokia PC suite free download info. Nokia PC suite is now renamed as Ovi Suite. Using the Ovi suite you can connect your mobile to PC and if need you can use your E5 as a modem to connect your PC to internet.

Latest Nokia E5 Price: Nokia E5 price in India is 9200Rs.


Pros and Cons of Nokia E5:
Pros of E5:

• The solid design.
• Good QWERTY Keyboard.
• Long battery life
• Multi Tasking, support for Office applications.
• 3G

Cons of E5:

• Outdated S60 interface.
• Not much support for third party applications.
• No Video Call Features.
• No autofocus feature in Camera.
• Expensive.
• No Secondary camera for video Conference.

Specification of Nokia E5:

• Messaging : SMS/MMS/Email
• Rear Camera : 5 megapixel
• Camera Zoom : Digital Zoom with Autofocus & LED Flash
• QWERTY Keypad:Yes
• Video Capture:Yes
• Memory Inbuilt : 250 MB
• Connectivity : Bluetooth,USB Ports,Wifi
• Infrared: No
• Internet : GPRS,EDGE,HTML,Webkit
• Entertainment : Games,FM Radio,Music Player,Ringtones
• Operating Frequency : Quadband GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Technology : Java Technology,3G,OS
• Staddby Time/Talk Time : Upto 690 Hours/Upto 18 Hours
• GPS: Yes. Nokia Ovi Maps.
• Phone Kit : Headset/Speaker/Charger/USB Cable/user Guide/Handset

The Water and Your Camera

Researching on the depth that cameras can go in water bodies is important when buying water proof cameras. Most strong cameras can even resist even pressures that human body might not be able to resist. This is very important depending on how far you plan to take it.

The weaker types of cameras are called water resistant cameras. They are not suitable at being submerged in water for a long time. Some of them cannot also contain some quantity of water. They are normally useful to backpackers and hikers who may only come into contact with water when it rains.

The 9ft and 10ft depth cameras are best for situations where you need to put the camera into water to take a picture.

Most water bodies around us do not have depths of 9ft and 10ft but it is always better to have cameras with this depth as they can fall into the water. Having a normal water resistant camera might be a problem as they can get damaged if they fall into water. The Fuji Finepix XP10 has a depth of 9ft and is good for usage at home.

The 9ft camera won't be good however if you plan going further. A camera with a range of 10-30ft will be appropriate for this. These cameras cover snorkelling and many scuba excursions.

No matter what kind of camera you want, you will find that almost all the popular camera makers like Panasonic, Canon and Olympus make cameras for different depths. They have also made quite strong cameras that can withstand falls and freezing.

Sealife makes cameras that can withstand more pressure levels. These cameras can range to as far as 200ft. this is good for serious surfers. They however come at higher cost at as much as $500.

Always determine why you need a camera and buy one to suit your needs.

Black and White Portrait Photography: Made Easy

When I started out as a young photographer back in the sixty's, just about all images in advertising were shot in Black and White and we use to work mostly with large view cameras sizes 5x4 inch, half plate, whole plate and 10x8 inch, using B/W sheet film made by Kodak and Ilford.

We also use to shoot with Medium Format cameras such as the "Hassleblad" SLR. and the "Rolleiflex" TLR, format size 6x6 cm. using Black and White film stock Ilford HP3 and HP4, also Kodak Tri X, 120 size roll film.

There were no Point and Shoot Digital Cameras or Compact cameras and color negative film was so expensive to buy and even more expensive to process and print, most times it just wasn't used and the quality was poor.

Side Note: Just about all weddings back then, were shot in Black and White and with Medium Format cameras and haven't you noticed to day just how exceptional it is to see a creative Wedding Photographer adding a few images in Black and White to his wedding shoot. In my opinion all weddings are made for Black and White photography, after all the Bride is in white and the Groom is in a dark suite.

How then did we shoot color images in the studio for advertising and fashion. We used exclusively Kodak Ektachrome sheet film. Around this time Kodak introduced Kodak Ektachrome to 120 size roll film and of course good old Kodachrome slide film had been around a while. The problem with making a print from a Kodachrome slide was it was very expensive and the quality left much to be desired. Meanwhile Kodak Ektachrome Sheet Film, was the only quality colour film available at the time and still is one of the best quality colour transparency films around to day.

So whats so special in shooting in Black and White, simply put, It's just so refreshing to see an image that is not in bright and sometimes unnatural colors and the beauty of the image is in the tonal range from whites to blacks, which evokes a mood which is hard to capture when you look at bright colors.

For example if you shoot a Portrait Head Shot with a white or plain background, carefully lighting the subject, you are really only going to see a creation of an image whare the character or beauty of that person shows without confusing it with color.

So lets examine ways to shoot Black and White Portraits, Fashion or figure shots.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

1. Film Camera. 35mm. SLR or Medium Format size 6x6cm.

2. Black and White film. Kodak T.Max 100 ASA. or Ilford HP4.

3. Soft-Box or Umbrella attachment for a Studio Flash.

4. Reflectors.

5. Tripod.

6. Model.

WHAT TO DO:

You have two choices for shooting you Model in Black and White, we will keep the details short as there will be other resources you can follow up with at the bottom of this page.

a) Studio: Setting up and working in your home studio, (or hired studio).

b) Outdoors: Working outdoors on a fine warm day.

STUDIO: Set up your flash with a soft-box or umbrella attachment, positioned to the side of your camera, approximately at a 45 degree angle to the subject.

Always work with a tripod, this is how the Pros do it and they know a thing or two!

Set up a large reflector the other side of the camera and fix a second light facing into the reflector as a bounce light to fill-in the shadow side of the model. I would be wise to have an additional small reflector below the models head to reflect light up under the models chin.

You may also require additional lights to light up the background and a clip light to clip the models hair.

Check your exposures by using a stand-in model. After some experimentation find the right balance and correct exposures my making these tests a day or two before you plan the actual shoot, so eliminating mistakes on the big day.

OUTDOORS: Now this is a whole lot simpler and just about anybody can produce great shots without the necessity of expensive studio flash equipment.

You will however, need a fine warm day and you will be working outside in the SHADOW of the building.

Seat your Model facing whare the majority of whare the light is coming from, making sure that the sun is not falling on the model.

Place a white card, size 1 meter by 70 cm. available at you local art store, behind the models head as a white background.

Then place two other white cards, one each side of the model, reflecting light back into the subjects face.

It's also a good idea to have your model seated in front of a table on which you have also placed a white card. This lights up any shadows under the models chin.

The camera must be set on a tripod so you can then carefully control your image. Remember you are creating a beautiful picture, not taking snaps of your kids, be professional and you images will look professional also.

You can improvise setting up your background, I usually use the garden broom and rake... But do make sure that you support the reflectors and background with a strong tape in case of a sudden gust of wind.

Now you have just set up your DAYLIGHT STUDIO...

Find a good quality B/W Lab, yes they still exist, and it's worth paying extra for this kind of work. Avoid taking you processing to the High St, 1 hour photo lab.

The results will astound you and you will surely impress you model too.

With some persistence and experimentation, you will prefect your own technique with the shots and soon start producing masterpieces.

By the way, the usual attention to the Models hair and make-up is also needed, keeping in mind that you don't have to over do the make up for B/W photography.

While shooting your model with your Daylight Studio set-up, you can create some great images for your portfolio in the same way the great photographers of the past use to and in the way that all photography started out... Black and White...

Wide Angle Photography

Ahh...wide angle photography, probably one of the easiest types of photo to take; but also one of the hardest to excel at. Have you ever tried to cram 30 people into a single photograph? You'd try to stack them, have some of them on the floor or even ask some of them at the back to jump at the press of the shutter!? You're also trying to make sure that you are able to see the faces of these people in the photograph. Difficult if your camera's lens is not wide enough and you have to move yourself further back to accommodate, which may not be possible if space is limited. When shooting indoors with flash, moving back may even give you an underexposed photograph, as flash is often not powerful enough to reach longer distances.

Apart from the utilitarian purpose of getting good group photographs, shooting wide angle lets you portray the scene in full detail with unusual and sometimes, exaggerated perspectives. This is especially true of super wide angle. Small objects can be made to appear larger than larger objects within the same scene, effectively shifting the balance of the image composition. When used well, it can bring attention to the subject of interest in the foreground, at the same time preserving the context of the whole image by showing the location or event in the background.

Wider Options

Lenses are categorized by their focal lengths. Typically, lenses fall into one of these categories:

· super wide angle (10~24mm)

· wide angle (24~35mm)

· standard (about 50mm)

· telephoto (70~300mm)

· super telephoto (300mm and beyond)

These numbers indicate the focal length, which describes the field of view achievable using that lens. Incidentally, the field of view of a 50mm lens is considered to be an approximation to what the human eye sees. For the DSLR owners, they can choose from a variety of lenses ranging from a super wide lens all the way up to a super telephoto. But what about the rest of us?

Digital compact camera owners are not left out of the picture. There are a multitude of wide-angle adapters for digital compacts; both made available as accessories as well as by third-party manufacturers. These can be attached via lens threads or bayonet mounts on their bodies. There are also some from third-party lenses which can be attached magnetically!

Focal Length Multiplier

Note: The 'focal length' of the lens determines the 'field of view', which is the angle of view seen using this lens. 'Field-of-view crop' is often referred to as 'focal length multiplier' for the sake of simplicity.

Digital photography, from the hardware perspective, is based on principles of 35mm film cameras. For a photographer who shoots with film, there is no such thing as a 'focal length multiplier', because to them, everything is 1x. This means that a 50mm lens is a 50mm lens. Not so for a digital SLR. A 50mm lens virtually becomes a 75mm lens, when attached to a Nikon D200 digital SLR. This is because the 'focal length multiplier' of 1.5x causes the 50mm lens to have a field of view equivalent to a 75mm lens.

Shooting wide angle is basically one way of depicting a scene using a wider field of view, which in turn is achieved by using a lens with a focal length of less than 50mm on a 35mm film SLR camera. These days, with the proliferation of digital SLR cameras, there might be some confusion to how focal lengths are calculated.

To keep things simple, we can use this rule of thumb. If you are using a 35mm film SLR, your focal length multiplier is 1x. If you are using a digital SLR, your focal length multiplier could be any one of these, depending on the model of DSLR camera: 1x (eg Canon 1Ds Mk II), 1.3x (eg Canon 1D Mk II), 1.5x (eg Nikon D200 or D70) or 1.6x (eg Canon 30D).

To get the actual focal length (and hence field of view achievable) of your lens, multiply the lens focal length with the multiplier.

Example 1 Nikon D300 (multiplier is 1.5x) with a 17~70mm lens The actual focal length range of this combination is 25.5mm-105mm, achieved by multiplying the lens range with 1.5

Example 2 Canon 1Ds Mk II (multiplier is 1x) with a 70~300mm lens The actual focal length range of this combination is still 70-300mm.

Example 3 Nikon F5 (35mm film camera with multiplier of 1x) with a 15mm fisheye lens The actual focal length of this combination is still 15mm.

The reason behind the focal length multiplier falls to the size of the recording media, the CCD or CMOS. Different cameras use different sized CCD/CMOS for different reasons eg. to make a smaller camera and for better power efficiency. For compact digital cameras which do not fall under the digital SLR category, focal length multipliers are rarely used because they don't have interchangeable lenses. What they do have are wide angle adapters or telephoto adapters. A wide angle adapter may be referred to as a 0.7x wide adapter. What this number means is that this adapter shortens the focal length of the built-in lens by multiplying it with 0.7, effectively creating a wider field of view.

Super wide angle shots sometimes appear distorted, but they do show a lot more in the background, lending context to an image

Focusing with Wide Angle Lenses

An inherent characteristic of camera lenses is that wide angle lenses come with more depth-of-field compared to telephoto lenses. This reduces focusing errors to some extent, which means that you can focus on almost anything around the center of the frame and get an acceptably sharp image. In this case, a small aperture further increases the chance of a sharp image. For best results though, we can use the "1/3 of the distance rule". Look inside your camera viewfinder, estimate the distance from the nearest point that is visible in the viewfinder, to the furthest point that is also visible in your viewfinder. Focus on a point that is roughly one-third of the distance away from you. If you cannot use autofocus effectively on that point (perhaps due to very dim light levels or low contrast early in the morning on a mountain), you can estimate the distance and manually focus your lens, using the distance scale on your lens. A small aperture (eg. f16) gives you more depth-of-field, so use it if possible. That's why it's good to carry a tripod, which will let you use smaller apertures without camera shake.

Composing with Wide Angle Lenses

Wide angle photography has its own set of challenges. While it lets you show more of the scene, sometimes less is more. If not properly framed, a super wide angle image may include distracting elements which detract from your image, because a wide angle lens sees a wider field of view than a normal lens. Therefore it's good to fill the frame well, composing it in such a way that only the necessary elements are included. Landscape photography is a classic candidate for using wide angle lenses. In order to shoot great landscape photography, foreground interest is important. Wide angle lenses let you include a sizeable portion of the foreground in the frame, so use it well by choosing a foreground that is actually interesting.

When shooting super wide angle, we can also get away with a slower shutter speed because the shorter focal length downplays slight camera shake errors, opening up new possibilites with photography. One example is hand-holding your SLR camera in a busy street downtown, capturing a sharp image of your subject while rendering the pedestrian traffic as a blur, due to the slower shutter speed.

Wide Angle Care

Exercise more caution when handling your DSLR or digicam with a wide-angle lens/adapter. Some wide angle lenses have protruding glass which is more exposed and susceptible to accidental contact with dirty fingers or worse, it may end up getting scratched. If your lens accepts a UV filter, get one. It will protect your lens from countless dangers. Many wide angle lenses allow you to focus closer than a telephoto lens, so a lens hood helps to some extent to protect your lens from your overzealous attempts to get a closer shot.

Wide angle photography is exciting, go forth and experiment!