The Hidden Cost of Digital PhotographyJan 10 '02 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Digital Cameras
The Bottom Line In digital photocameras, one thing you mustn't forget: The hidden costs involved to be able to use it comfortably and before you can admire your best pictures on paper !
Instead of delivering the umpteenth review of the digital camera I recently bought secondhand, a Minolta Dimâge 2300, I wanted to seize this occasion to give some general reflections on what costs are really involved in the daily use of such a device. The camera and what comes with it First and for all all entry level or medium level digital cameras are currently sold with a ridiculous amount of memory. Mostly a memory module (memory stick, CompactFlash card or SmartMedia card) of about 8Mb which allows you to only store a bare minimum (more or less a dozen) of quality images. In my experience and to be able to work comfortably with your camera you need at least 64 megabytes of memory, to allow for the capture of several dozens of quality images at once, but the more the better of course. Luckily prices for these memory media are coming down steadily. Also most of them come in a package containing some simple alkaline AA batteries, which when you use the LCD-screen a lot will last you for about the same amount of pictures. So that if you stay with this type of batteries you pay through the nose just to keep the camera going. Some manufacturers are kind enough though to include rechargeable batteries and a battery charger in the package. But even those are hardly up to the job because what you really need are high capacity (minimum 1200mAh) batteries with no memory effect, so no NiCad rechargeables but NiMh batteries or better. The difference between the two varieties is that the first, if ever you recharge them without a prior full discharge, will permanently lose an amount of power storage capacity. Nimh-type batteries are not affected by this phenomenon and can be recharged at any point, which is a great advantage. Ideally you would even have to have two sets of these batteries allowing you to take your pictures without ever having to worry that you will run out of juice on a critical moment. What this all boils down to is that even if you buy a cheapish level entry camera you will immediately have to upgrade the battery type and the amount of storage. This additional cost is not to be neglected as neither the memory modules nor the batteries are really cheap. I hear you thinking "Do I really need all that ?". Yes you do if you want to benefit from the biggest advantage of a digital camera to the fullest, which is that you can take lots of pictures at once, see them instantly on a screen and then print to paper only the very best of all those you made. Digital image printing. DIY-printing of digital images is never cheap, and certainly much more expensive than when you have the pictures taken by a classic camera developped in a shop. All this whether you have a dedicated photoprinter or you simply use your home multipurpose inkjet printer. The glossy photo paper needed to give your digital images that right photolook is very expensive as are the cartridges for your printer, according to your printer model the mileage of your cartridges may vary and the printing cost per page will then be higher or lower. Also if you have to experiment a lot with your printer to find out how the images are best presented on the papertype you use, making the printed version come as close to the screen image as possible, your printing costs will run up really high. An alternative to DIY-printing is making use of your local protoprintshop to print your selected images, this requires you to send them the pictures through email or to bring them into the shop either on floppydisk or CD. But beware, no more changes will be made by them to the pictures, so make sure that what you give them is really your final wish, which requires you to carefully work them over with a Photo-editing programme on your computer before handing them in.  |
| Read all comments (5)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
