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How to Choose a Compact Camera 3

We’ll finish up with how to choose a compact camera today. Read this post to brush up on digital zoom, action photos and image stabilization among other things. You’ll be ready to do some serious shopping after you read all three segments of this series.

Do you need to zoom up on things?

Your new compact camera will have either no zoom, standard (2-4X), high (4-8X) or ultrazoom (8-10X+). The higher number tells you how much you can multiply your photo by. Don’t forget that having more zoom is not a replacement for getting closer to your subjectZooming tends to flatten the perspective of your camera lens. Try to use the zoom feature for situations where you cannot get close to the subject, or if you want flattened perspective. Also, camera lenses with greater zoom ranges will almost always produce lower image quality even when you’re not using the zoom. Get an ultrazoom lens only for bird photos and other specialty shots.

As you zoom in, it will become harder to achieve a sharp photo because zooming increases the impact of camera shake. This is made worse by the fact that the maximum aperture available will also decrease for greater zoom amounts. A high zoom lens on a compact camera is never a good idea in low-light. If you think you will need lots of zoom, be very sure you have image stabilization.

It will make a big different whether your lens has optical or digital zoom. Digital zoom simply crops out the exterior part of your photograph – something you could easily do later anyway. This makes the images larger and lowers its quality. You want to get an optical zoom and ignore digital zoom numbers. They are meaningless.

Will you be usisng your new camera for sports or other action photos?

If you will need to achieve a sharp focus on moving objects you’ll want to get a camera with “AI servo”, “continuous” or “sports mode” autofocus. These autofocus modes are especially important with compact cameras because these tend to have a longer delay between when you press the shutter button and when the camera actually takes the shot. If will be taking a lot of action photos, try to find a camera that has the lowest shutter lag time as possible.

As with low-light photos, your camera’s range of ISO settings and maximum aperture are also important because they improve your camera’s ability to freeze action with fast-moving subjects. Don’t worry about image stabilization with action photos, though, as it won’t be any help at high speeds.

Sumary

The trend with compact cameras is tradeoffs. Having one feature almost always comes at the cost of something else. It’s best to choose a camera with the least amount of megapixels you will need, the least amount of zoom, and the largest size you can live with, especially as it relates to aperture size. Pay attention to which settings are available, whether it has image stabilization, which is basically a must, and whether you want your new camera to support the RAW file format.

And the most important thing – once you’ve chosen your new compact camera, have a great time with it!

Taking Action Photos

This morning I was chatting with a young pharmaceutical student. I asked him if he had any pictures he was particularly fond of and immediately had several file transfers on my desktop. He’s obviously passionate about his photo lifestyle, even though he uses only a small pocket camera.

This one caught my attention. The focus is just the opposite to the action photos you normally find in the sports section of the Sunday paper. Usually we see the athlete in sharp relief, with the background blurred to show you how fast he was moving, but if you think about it, you’ll realize that in real life, it’s actually the athlete and the ball that are doing the moving.
It may not win any prizes as a “good” picture, since the subject is blurred but I think it protrays the intensity and speed of the moment better than a “correct” photo would have.

Here’s what he had to say about the photo:

I’m not a professional photographer, so I don’t think about how to make my photos look good. I think about what’s fun and interesting to me, and what will make my friends laugh, or start chattering about their memories when they see the pictures. I don’t consider angles or balance, I simply say to myself, “Hey, if I take a photo of this, my friends and I will get excited all over again when we see it!”

I don’t like to use a flash, indoors or out. It changes the feeling of the moment. If the lighting has orange tones and is soft and dim and I use a flash, everyone’s faces turn out much whiter than they really are, and the surroundings, and good food people are eating simply disappear. So I just raise the EV value and turn off the flash.

I use the continuous mode on my camera a lot. That’s how I took this shot. I had it set to the highest speed, and must have had 50 pictures of this one kick to choose from.

Thanks to Masayoshi Tokunaga for the photo and advice. I wonder if the ball went in?