Digital Cameras Offer Plenty of Freedom and FunFeb 15 '01 (Updated Jul 16 '01) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Digital Cameras
The Bottom Line After spending years not shooting silly pictures or taking gambles on whether a shot would come out right to save film, digital cameras have freed me.
I've been crazy about taking pictures for decades. But I'd always dealt with the hindrance of film and developing costs, so I refrained from taking frivolous pictures for fear that I'd be paying for something not worth the price, or that I'd miss out on taking a GREAT picture later because I already used the exposure for something less important. And we've all dealt with having a perfect picture-moment and received the developed film to find that said perfect moment was blurred, blocked, or otherwise ruined. But digital cameras are the answer to the lack of freedom that conventional cameras denied amateur photographers. Please note that this critique will address nothing technical. If you want advice on the technical elements to consider while buying a digital camera, please read my critique concerning the Olympus D-490 Zoom digital camera. I also HIGHLY suggest reading "review123's" article about digital cameras- it's rather long but contains a lot of detailed and helpful information. Back to the critique at hand. I'd always had a few pet-peeves about conventional cameras: 1) Wouldn't take frivolous pictures because I might regret paying extra money for developing and film. 2) Never knew if crucial pictures came out well or not. Digital cameras solve both of these problems. To whit: 1) Five years ago I'd never think of taking a camera and blowing a roll of film on a night at the local pub with a few coworkers. Get a few rowdy friends together to blow off some post-work steam and you'll always have a few ideal pictures but who wants to "waste the film?" But digital cameras have no film, so every picture is guilt- and cost-free. I know I'll be buying my folks one if there's ever a grandchild for them to visually gush over because they can take the insane number of pictures grandparents need to take of their li'l nippers without losing hundreds of dollars for hundreds pictures that "darling little outfit." Or on the pets until said grandchild pops up, for that matter... 2) Let's say, on vacation in Paris, you climb the Eiffel Tower and want some breath-taking nighttime shots of Paris in all its glory. But it's November and shiver-intense temperatures have you shaking the camera. Throw in plenty of wind that you get way up on the third tier. And you snap two rolls of film in hopes that you'll get a few good pictures without the wind-strewn and body-shaking blurs. Days later you're back at home with the developed film and find that you have 48 Parisean smears for pictures. I did exactly this with a digital camera instead, and didn't have to cross my fingers. I took ten pictures and examined them to find only ONE came out well with the conditions I mentioned. NO PROBLEM! I deleted the nine rejects and knew to rest my elbows on the railing to stifle the shakes. Ten more, seven erasures, ten more, three erasures, etc. and I have a crop of beautiful pictures of lit-up Paris without any film or developing costs, defeating the lousy weather-related odds against which conventional cameras would have failed miserably! NOTE that to do what I've described above, the camera must have an LCD display of some sort (like a very small television) so you can actually view and delete pictures. Yes, digital cameras cost significantly more than conventional cameras. But if you invest in the money savers like a camera on sale and rechargeable batteries, the camera will eventually pay for itself due to the lack of film and developing costs. And in the meantime, the extra money you spend is easily worth the freedom and guaranteed quality pictures you'll create! There's one other benefit I wasn't sure I would mention but hey- we're all adults here, right? (Uh... right?!) With the fees that accompany developing film also come strangers' prying eyes and the danger(s) of the ability of said strangers to copy and do whatever they want with exposures. When using a digital camera for personal use (let's say special romantic circumstances, for example), you and your loved one are the only ones that will see the results. And better yet, just with the Paris example, you can weed through the ones that don't make her/him look like the Love Goddess/God that she/he is and retake them, thus ensuring both enjoyment and future photo-shoots. And this is, of course, only one angle in which the privacy of digital cameras is quite a benefit... I'm sure there are plenty more. Added on July 16th: I had to add this little bit. I wrote this quickie review concerning the convenient aspects of digital cameras five months and one day ago. As of today, 1400 people have read this modest critique. Is that ASTOUNDING, or what?! I think all of my other critiques combined might have 1/10th the readership, but apparently a lot of people are reading up on digital cameras. Again, I highly suggest checking out Consumer Reports for the most recent practical/technical reviews as well because it certainly helped me when I chose mine. Incidentally, I've taken at least 800 pictures so far and my Olympus D-490 Zoom is still going stronger than "strong."  |
| Read all comments (3)|Write your own comment |
