This is the story of a miscalculation I made and how I was able to rescue my equipment that had no environmental seal.

When I lived in Los Angeles, where I began my photography career, it was always a treat to leave the congested city by taking a drive.  As long as you had the time this State offers many beautiful direction to travel.  This story took me up along Pacific Coast Highway.  At the time I was still in-house photographer for Vivitar Corporation, and I had packed a company OM-2 Olympus to harness photographs along the way.

I reached Morro Bay late morning.  It was a (not unusual) sunny and pleasant California day.  The bay is marked by a prominent large rock, or as the Spanish explorers called it, a crown shaped hill.  I can’t really say how tall it is, but it’s projection catches your eye.

That day my eye also caught these immense waves rolling in against the stone jetty.  As I pulled in to park I saw this spectacle had attracted a crowd of onlookers.  Thinking this might make for a dramatic photograph, I began planning how best to position myself for a shot, taking into account how far the surf from the breaking waves were reaching onto the jetty.

After having that all figured out, I moved forward to take my position as a wave was rolling in.  And it was a beauty…it must have been a rogue wave…it drenched me, other people, and the company camera.  Yikes, nothing worse on equipment than salt water.

What to do?  O.K. I wasn’t too bright with my calculations, but fortunately smart enough to jump right into action to save the equipment – I quickly drove to a service station.

Back then gas stations still had (free) pressurized air to fill your tires.  I pulled into the first station on my path, jumped out with urgency, and started blowing the salty water from all the crevices, hoping for the best.  I worked the moving parts on this camera for a few days, and can report thankfully that camera and lens continued to perform superbly for me.

Had the camera an environmental seal and this had happened, I may have been more lackadaisical in my concern, which is never a good attitude when dealing with the corrosive powers of salt water.  You might ask then, what can I do if out on the ocean and this happens?  You can be sure there will not be a nearby service station, and even so you’re lucky today to find pressured air you pay for.  Right you are; I suggest always having a can of pressured air on hand.  It will not only be useful for a situation such as this, but find many other uses.

On to the new camera light meter of the digital age… the histogram.  The photograph below shows the LCD display as it appears on most pocket cameras before you take the photograph.  I took this photo of my Leica LCD display as it was focused on a rope to be photographed…

If you are an avid photographer you may want to archive this photo to go along with the others in the next article to complete the discussion of the histogram.

Do note the “display” button at the lower right of the camera.  Using this or a similar button on your camera you can cycle though the options (I have four options) to reach the one having the histogram, which I point to with the red arrow I added… it’s the yellow area in the dark rectangular box.

The horizontal position of the yellow indicates the exposure and the vertical height of the yellow indicates the number of pixels affected in portions of the exposure.

You can see nearly all the exposure and pixels fall to the center, and slightly right of center (towards, but not overexposing).  This represents a perfect light reading, and after pressing the shutter, a perfect exposure.  I will explain this perfection in the next article.

For now, let me point out that as the yellow area (that can show as white or possibly another solid color on your LCD screen)  moves to the left edge, it indicates you are moving to underexpose.  When it moves towards the right edge means you moving to overexposure.

Should there be a thin vertical line going all the way to the top on either the far left (black) or right (white) side, then you are clipping the blacks or whites, respectively, which in turn means there will be a complete loss of detail in the darkest or lightest areas, respectively.  You must avoid clipping at either end, so reset your exposure if you notice these spikes.  And at this point I’m clipping the page for space… to be continued, and taking permission to go ashore.

If you enjoy the fine art and decorative qualities of photography, I have selected this image for you to help all those afflicted by the oil spill in the Gulf.  Below you will find detailed information about owning this photograph.  Two charities have been selected:

To help people living by the Gulf:

Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
1000 Howard Avenue
Suite 1000
New Orleans, LA 70113

To help nature and its creatures:

Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702

“Easy Corner by St. Ann” is an entertaining photograph of people and their pets gathering around a street band playing in the square by St. Ann street in the French Quarter.  This scene reflects the easy community atmosphere of New Orleans, and for that matter the entire Gulf coast region.

All print sizes will be signed and are limited to editions of 13.  From this total, 10 editions of each size are and will remain available, until sold to support the relief effort in the Gulf to the charities shown above.  Note – twenty five percent of the total sales price will be allocated to the material cost of printing and (flat or tube) shipping the photograph to you.  With each purchase two checks with be issued in equal amounts, one to each charity.

Size/price: byx10″-$99, byx14″-$159, byx20″-$229, byx24″-$299, byx30″-$399, byx40″-$499 with “by” equal to the short side.  All prints on your choice of textured (similar to watercolor) or satin paper (semi gloss pearl finish).  If you have any questions  please call 954-564-1112 or e-mail james@jamesschotgallerystudio.com.  To make a purchase we ask you provide your address by e-mail.  Your e-mail can also be used to make a PayPal request for the amount of purchase.  Otherwise, please send a money order or check (to be cleared) to the James Schot Gallery and Photo Studio, 2800 N. Federal Highway, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33306. It is a lovely image, so enjoy it… Visually yours, James

The photograph at right is real, but I certainly did not hold this alligators tail. This was said in jest.  I have far too much respect for all wildlife.

Actually, most everyone thought I was a bit loony, walking through a swamp with murky water coming up to mid-thigh, in an area known for alligators, poisonous snakes, and now pythons.  My motto has been…anything for a great shot.

In this case, the great shot was to be a photograph of the rare… seductive Ghost Orchid.  Last year, I went to see an exhibit in South Miami given by nature and landscape photographer Brian Call.  I had first met him when he visited my gallery and have admired his work ever since, so I looked forward to see his new visions.

And among the many photographs he displayed there was one of the elusive Ghost Orchid.  A book (Adaptation) and movie (The Orchid Thief) have been spun around delicate bloom, and this added to my intrigued to seeing it in the wild.  Talking at the show, I told Brian I’d enjoy joining him the next time he planned to look for and photograph this spectacle, and he graciously told me he’d be happy to take me.

Seeing in the wild is the best option.  It is extremely difficult to cultivate.  Brian told me the best time is from May through August.

On May 16, 2010 we made our foray into the Everglades, going off the beaten path following a long dirt road in Big Cypress National Preserve, passing an occasional alligator we could see, and I don’t know how many lurking unseen.

We finally arrived at a spot familiar to Brian and known to seasonally have several blooms.  Thunderstorms were in the area, and although it was mid-day, once we entered the dense foliage it became quite dark.  There was plenty of mud and water to slosh through as we went deeper into the jungle…  We went several spots with the same conditions, and did find the orchid, but at the 2^nd stage as buds, not yet blooming. Oh, leaving one spot a man driving by stopped to show us photos he’d taken of a large cottonmouth he’d taken just up the road…YIKES!

[check this site for more details and terrific photographs: http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/dendrophylax_lindenii.htm

I had been using the specifications list from dpreview.com and a pocket camera made by Panasonic – the Lumix DMC-FX150.  This camera is now outdated and its selection for these articles was purely random.  There are many terrific small cameras available on the market.  Now you can, using all the articles I’ve written covering the specifications (I’m not sure if The-Triton has them on their Web site, but you can also find them via www.bestschot.com/blog), decide on which brand and what features will best fit your needs when buying a new camera.

We last left off talking about LCD Dots: 230,000, which indicates the clarity of your back display.  As the numbers have gone up to 800,000 things have improved, although the dots for the Lumix are good enough.  I did want to add that all LCD displays in consumer and pro-camera, even if they shoot RAW, will display jpg’s.

Nearly all pocket cameras have a live video feed allowing you to view and compose your shot before you take it. On some cameras the LCD will flip out allowing you to adjust its viewing angle, for instance if you are holding high above your head or taking a self-portrait of you and a friend.  This makes it easier to know you are framing the scene right.

Seldom will pocket consumer cameras also have an TTL or parallax optical viewfinders.  Pro-cameras will have thru the lens (TTL) optical viewfinders, but their LCD’s are only used for displaying photographs after exposure.

Another useful feature on the LCD’s that is found on most digital cameras is the option to display different pre-shooting as well as post viewing screens.  You can have it blank to only view the composition of the photograph to be taken, or review one already taken, or have it set to preview or review with valuable information about camera settings.

The LCD in the pre-exposure can display battery life, number of exposures remaining, shutter and aperture settings, the ISO, date and more.  In the post-exposure view it will display many of the same things (as shown below with a photo of one of my shipmates), including the important histogram that I will talk about in the next article. Notice in the photo of my camera back with the LCD

that at the lower right side you see a silver button, above having “display” and below “LCD mode.”  Pressing it in the shooting and viewing modes will cycle me through the display options.

Let’s move on to:

Live View: No – I’m a bit confused by this “No,” because the answer is “yes.” This camera has no optical viewfinder.  Composing the photograph to be taken is done by looking at the live view on the LCD.  This is something invented by the Olympus people back in 2006.  I have always liked their products.

USB: 2.0 (480Mbit/sec) – This high speed transferring cable system is presently the most common method used to get the photos you’ve taken off your removable or fixed in-camera storage disks on to your computer.  A faster, but more rare method, would be “firewire.” Ultimately, you’d like to transfer to your computer to get the full digital advantage.

HDMI: No High-Definition Multimedia Interface.  If this were available your camera would have a cable to transfer a TV or PC video signal.  This camera does not take short video clips.

Wireless: No – You cannot operate this camera remotely, possibly to do time-lapse photography.  Keep in mind you can use the self-timer to get into that family picture.

Environmentally sealed: No – Means stay out of the rain, and be especially careful of salt water spray.  I have a funny story to relate on this next time.

Battery: Lithium-Ion rechargeable – Lithium is the best battery technology for this type of equipment today… 3X more power- ½ less weight compared to AA alkaline batteries   Makes for a good financial investment to.

Weight (inc. batteries):  179 g (6.3 oz) – I always equate weight to metal construction and lightness to plastic.  I like a little weight.

Dimensions: 97 x 54 x 25 mm (3.8 x 2.1 x 1 in) – It is what it is, or if size matters small is good.

Notes: – Yeah, we’ve completed the specifications and what this information means.  As mentioned at the beginning, you can now look up your camera specifications and become more familiar with its capabilities.  Better still, the next time you are in the market for a new camera check out all the specifications and make an informed decision.

The dpreview specification lists do always end with “resolution chart and colour patches.”  I’ve never seen anything connected with them.  They would demonstrate the resolving power and color accuracy, respectively, of the optical (lens) system.  This information would certainly be digging into details.

On a closing note for this article my second bit of excitement to note was having Dorie Cox, reporter and assistant editor for The-Triton visit the gallery-studio.  We had some camera fun, after which I had permission to go ashore.

It’s great if you simply enjoy taking snapshots and that’s it.  I would recommend a book I thoroughly enjoyed on the subject titled “The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978,” and say to you keep snapping those jpg’s.  Those of you who consider yourselves more serious photographers will want to use camera RAW in capturing the more important people, events, and places in your life.

Those who consider themselves serious photographers would benefit from and enjoy more in-depth aspects of a JPG vs. RAW discussion, I’ll the snap shooters  all the details to just provide you all a quick sense of file format difference.

A JPG is an 8 bit file format that results in 256 levels of luminance from pure black to brilliant white, versus a camera RAW that is 12 bit (working up to 16 bit) that has 4096 possible luminance levels of information (65,536 for 16 bit).

I don’t have to tell you that if you had to work on a photograph on your computer to correct exposure, color or remove some blemishes or crop a real small area of the photograph, you are much better off having 4096 possibilities to work from than 256.  This is the advantage of RAW.  The disadvantage… it’s a much larger files size, taking up more memory and much longer times to move around, loading, and it’s useless for the Web.

You do have options.  If it is important and your camera is RAW capable, you can shoot in this format, make your corrections and enhancements, then convert to JPG for print, saving, or web.  If, on the other hand, you have no plans for optimizing the photograph shoot JPG files and save your time.

One last comment before moving on.  It is best if you can to keep the computer for enhancements, and take the photo so well you do not have to make corrections.  With film we use to say “begin with a perfect negative” and the rest will be easy in the darkroom.  The same holds true today for digital.

Back to going through the list of specifications as we can find on dpreview.com, I last ended with Uncompressed format: Yes, RAW. Let’s move on to:

Quality Levels: Fine, Standard – These quality standards reference quality settings in the jpg format only.  RAW is 100%, everything, not compressed by in-camera software.  JPG’s on the other hand will compress a (taken) photo 10 to twenty times it’s original (RAW) size.

A JPG that is compressed to a maximum or 100% size is one that you have set as fine under the quality options found in your camera’s menu.  Other options will lower the quality of the image and standard represents some lower quality.  For the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX150, we have been using over the long haul discussing specifications, it is unclear if this setting represents 80% or some other lesser value.

A 100% JPG can look as good as a RAW (it will just not process as well afterwards for enhancements via computer software), but as the quality goes down it does become noticeable, first on any type of enlargement and eventually even to those meant for e-mail or web display.

A pixel is (generally) a square and in low quality JPG’s you will begin to notice the photo being made up of squares.  If the standard quality setting for the Lumix is 80%, even 60% of the fine quality it will likely still be suitable for e-mail.  For e-mail you need as small a file as possible for quick transmission…everybody wants to receive your e-mail right away.

Standard Viewfinder: None – Most of the pocket cameras now do not have viewfinders that will have you bringing the camera up to your eye.  The LCD has become the new viewfinder.

LCD:  2.7 ” – This is the diagonal size of this camera’s viewfinder.  Not bad, early on sizes were a lot smaller and the largest are now around 3 inches.

LCD Dots: 230,000 – In addition to size, clarity of the LCD is something to consider consideration.  I just checked my Leica D-Lux3 and it has less, 207,000 dots for a 2.8” LCD, and the new D-Lux4 has 460,000 dots for a 3” for its LCD viewfinder, so it offers the best clarity by which to preview and review for taking and checking, respectively your photography.

The next article should close out the review of specifications.  Do check them before buying a new camera, and look for the best features within your budget based on all the specifications.  I would be interested to hear from you out there riding the waves…any questions on things already talked about, or topics you feel I’ve overlooked?  If you’d like for me to go onto greater detail on a specific aspect of photography let me know by sending me an e-mail.  In the meantime, I’ll take permission to go ashore.

Dwindling down the list, last time we ended with Time-lapse recording. Let’s move on to:

Orientation sensor: yes – When you take a vertical picture the camera will automatically change the orientation to vertical when holding the camera horizontally to preview your shots.  In other words, both horizontal and vertical shots will show in the proper orientation without physically having to rotate the camera horizontally and vertically.  That makes images easier to preview.

Storage types: SD/MMC/SDHC card, Internal – We use to load a roll of film, but now we put in a storage card.  These cards are growing by Gigabytes; 2,4,6,8 and greater, having the ability of taking far more pictures, over a thousand using in the jpg format and by the hundreds if shooting RAW, over a roll of film.  They are smaller than a roll of film making it possible to manufacture smaller cameras, and cost for larger capacity card keeps tumbling down, down, down.

Unfortunately one size does not fit all.  Different cameras can use different memory cards.  There are Compact Flash cards that are a reliable format.  There are microdrives, SmartMedia, Sony Memory Sticks, various forms of Multi Media Cards, xD picture Cards, and other memory formats, but the Secure Digital (SD) seems to be among the most popular. This matters in getting better pricing and having a popular product insures more R&D advances.

Storage included: 50 MB Internal – This is not a lot, but a bit of a buffer for a half dozen jpg’s or so without putting in a memory card.

Uncompressed format: Yes, RAW – To better understand Raw files it is best to give an overview of how images taken are stored.  Cameras have built in software capable of compressing files.  The purpose of this is to reduce file sizes enabling more photos to be stored on memory disks.  It also allows for faster downloading and transfer of those files, for instance, on the Web.

Lossless compressed TIFF files are an option sometimes provided by cameras in saving photos taken. Lossy compressed jpg’s are another and by far the most popular image filing format.  For this, the software within the camera rearranges information contained in the photo taken and discards what is determined to be unnecessary.

This determination by the software follows the way we see.  All mammals have the Where system of sight.  This is based on luminance levels, and allows us to see spatial arrangements, depth, coarse and to a lesser extend fine detail.  More advanced mammals like humans also developed a What system in seeing colors.

Colors are part of our identification process of objects, but it is not as well or critically defined as the Where system.  Therefore, technically colors can be compressed to a greater degree without our seeing the difference or taking notice.

For example, you may take a photo with a lot of blue sky.  A lot of 0 and 1’s repeat in the digital formula to represent this blue sky.  The camera software determines it can eliminate the repetitions for the blue sky by compressing information representing all that blue, that is, it summarizes aspects of an image.  Of course, once the information has been discarded… it is gone, never to be re-created to its original status.  Again, this reduction by as much as a factor of 20 leaves more memory space is the trade-off of this action.

You may have assumed correctly that the camera software automatically determines through its software what to discard…leaving you no control.  This is where RAW comes into play.  With this quality setting files are stored in the cameras native format and nothing is compressed or discarded.

What this means is you have all 100% of the information, and if you wish to work with the photograph, for instance in PhotoShop, which offers enhancements that can be destructive, having all the information means the damage is better mitigated, and this is the advantage of RAW.  A 16 bit RAW file offers thousands more tonal levels over an 8 bit jpg file.

Nevertheless, for most cases and general photography the jpg format set to its highest (fine) standard will provide a very satisfactory result, and with this comforting conclusion I’ll ask for permission to come ashore.

We are nearing the end of the specifications list.  Last time I talked about technical support and Continuous Drive: Yes, 2 fps, 8 images. Let’s move on to:

Remote control: No – Simple enough, you cannot control this camera remotely. You might ask “when would I want to” or “is this important?” No, for most users this is not important.  If, on the other hand, you are serious photography buff it can be something you could explore.  I’ve used it creatively in my recent Aurora w/Eos fine art photographs, where I had to place a fixed camera at a distance away from me, to allow it to capture my working with light.

A practical application could be if you wanted to record your hands on repairs to a ship’s engine that is located in a hard to access space.   Then remote control would save you from having to get up and press the shutter.

By the way engine rooms can be somewhat dimly lit areas.  Here’s some recent news you may not have read about yet.  Both Canon and Nikon have come out in their professional line with cameras with new, very high ISO settings.  For the Canon it is 102,400 and I think the same for the Nikon.  This means you can (with these cameras) shoot photographs (and video) in very low light…in darkness and get an exposure.

Keep in mind most cameras have a peak ISO of 1600, some 3600, and a few pro-cameras going to 6400.  Now add 12,800 or 1 stop, 25,600 or 2 stops, 51,200 or 3 stops, to 102,400 or 4 stops of light sensitivity.  This is amazing, but of course this being available only on high end professional cameras you question how this applies to you.  Well, this technology will surely (in time) be passed on to less sophisticated consumer models.

This improvement in light sensitivity has another positive side effect.  You may recall from previous articles my mentioning you should avoid high ISO settings such as 1600 or 3600, because these speeds have lots of unwanted noise.  This technological advance means newer (future) cameras will produce less noise at higher ISO settings, so 1600 and 3600 will start to look pretty good.  It will also make those tiny on camera flash units seem more powerful.  Eventually they may no longer be needed, with the exception of flash fill, which is always helpful.

Self-timer: Yes, 2 or 10 sec – This options allows you to become remote from the camera before a picture is taken, and it’s most often used to allow you to get into a shot with your family and/or friends.  You know how it works; you set your camera on self-timer, an option usually found on a main dial on the camera back.  Your camera is already on a tripod or can be placed on a firm chair or table, where you can compose the shot using the other people in the group to be taken.  You press the shutter and hear the timer noise, as you run into an open spot the is left for you.  Usually the flash is on for overall light or flash fill, and it will go off to take the shot, or otherwise you will hear a click.

I’m sure most of you that have already tried the timer in this way have always used the 10 second setting, as 2 seconds makes for a real sprint.  So why the 2 second option?  E-mail me your thoughts, but one good use for this short delay is during low light when you want to avoid hand held camera shake.  You can set it to 2 seconds, place your camera on a solid service, compose and take the shot within 2 seconds knowing it is steady.

Here again the future increases in ISO will make this less of an issue.  Possibly the 2 second delay will be eliminated, but the 10 second delay will remain.

Timelapse recording: No – This would allow you to capture, for instance, the opening of a flower bloom by automatically taking a photo repeatedly at an interval time set by you.  Again, your camera will be fixed on a tripod or solid object.  The result will give you a movie of stills showing the flower opening to full blossom.

Even professional cameras do not have this built in feature, but have it as an optional accessory device that will also do remote exposures.  Pocket cameras will not have this accessory available as an option.  For now my time has lapsed and so I’ll ask permission to go ashore.

We are nearing the end of the specifications list.  Last time I talked about technical support and Continuous Drive: Yes, 2 fps, 8 images. Let’s move on to:

Remote control: No – Simple enough, you cannot control this camera remotely. You might ask “when would I want to” or “is this important?” No, for most users this is not important.  If, on the other hand, you are serious photography buff it can be something you could explore.  I’ve used it creatively in my recent Aurora w/Eos fine art photographs, where I had to place a fixed camera at a distance away from me, to allow it to capture my working with light.

A practical application could be if you wanted to record your hands on repairs to a ship’s engine that is located in a hard to access space.   Then remote control would save you from having to get up and press the shutter.

By the way engine rooms can be somewhat dimly lit areas.  Here’s some recent news you may not have read about yet.  Both Canon and Nikon have come out in their professional line with cameras with new, very high ISO settings.  For the Canon it is 102,400 and I think the same for the Nikon.  This means you can (with these cameras) shoot photographs (and video) in very low light…in darkness and get an exposure.

Keep in mind most cameras have a peak ISO of 1600, some 3600, and a few pro-cameras going to 6400.  Now add 12,800 or 1 stop, 25,600 or 2 stops, 51,200 or 3 stops, to 102,400 or 4 stops of light sensitivity.  This is amazing, but of course this being available only on high end professional cameras you question how this applies to you.  Well, this technology will surely (in time) be passed on to less sophisticated consumer models.

This improvement in light sensitivity has another positive side effect.  You may recall from previous articles my mentioning you should avoid high ISO settings such as 1600 or 3600, because these speeds have lots of unwanted noise.  This technological advance means newer (future) cameras will produce less noise at higher ISO settings, so 1600 and 3600 will start to look pretty good.  It will also make those tiny on camera flash units seem more powerful.  Eventually they may no longer be needed, with the exception of flash fill, which is always helpful.

Self-timer: Yes, 2 or 10 sec – This options allows you to become remote from the camera before a picture is taken, and it’s most often used to allow you to get into a shot with your family and/or friends.  You know how it works; you set your camera on self-timer, an option usually found on a main dial on the camera back.  Your camera is already on a tripod or can be placed on a firm chair or table, where you can compose the shot using the other people in the group to be taken.  You press the shutter and hear the timer noise, as you run into an open spot the is left for you.  Usually the flash is on for overall light or flash fill, and it will go off to take the shot, or otherwise you will hear a click.

I’m sure most of you that have already tried the timer in this way have always used the 10 second setting, as 2 seconds makes for a real sprint.  So why the 2 second option?  E-mail me your thoughts, but one good use for this short delay is during low light when you want to avoid hand held camera shake.  You can set it to 2 seconds, place your camera on a solid service, compose and take the shot within 2 seconds knowing it is steady.

Here again the future increases in ISO will make this less of an issue.  Possibly the 2 second delay will be eliminated, but the 10 second delay will remain.

Timelapse recording: No – This would allow you to capture, for instance, the opening of a flower bloom by automatically taking a photo repeatedly at an interval time set by you.  Again, your camera will be fixed on a tripod or solid object.  The result will give you a movie of stills showing the flower opening to full blossom.

Even professional cameras do not have this built in feature, but have it as an optional accessory device that will also do remote exposures.  Pocket cameras will not have this accessory available as an option.  For now my time has lapsed and so I’ll ask permission to go ashore.

Before moving on, I would like to cover a topic seldom if ever mentioned in other media and related creative/technical magazines… I’m talking about technical support.  This is very important when you have a problem and need help.  I can only speak from my experiences.

Most manufacturers make a good, well made product.  We all know part of quality equation is directly related to the price we paid.  It’s not a 100% factor, but this does play a part, so if you’ve purchased a camera on the cheap, the construction or lens clarity or performance stats or all the above will be reflected in the price.

But even great products finely manufactured have problems, and so we call their technical support.  The first troubling difficulty is usually a lengthy wait in queue listening to their music selection.  The speaker phone comes in handy at this point so you can put the phone down and do other things while waiting.  You also have to hope there are no transfers that can easily end up in a dial tone.

Eventually someone gets to your call.  Odds are the person answering to your concerns lives in another country.  With luck you two will easily understand each other.  More important you have to hope the person at the other end can really be helpful.

As nice, polite and intelligent most technical support people are they often do not have the experience necessary to get to the nitty-gritty of problems.  In many of my experiences, I find myself having difficulty understanding the person on the other end, answering the same questions about my name, phone number, product ID over and over, and being instructed to perform rudimentary tasks that seem to be read from a checklist as an attempt to resolve my technical issue.

Know that there are levels of technical support – level 1 and level 2.  The first is basic, limited and of uncertain experience (or help), the second is experienced and advanced, therefore great if you can get there.  Unfortunately getting there, to level 2 is the problem; it can be the real challenge, very time consuming, and often nearly impossible.

My experience has been that most companies with great products (such as Nikon and Panasonic) that I’ve had to deal with have horrendous aggravating support for their products.  On the other hand, I’ve found Canon to be amazing, most often quick to answer a call, experienced to resolve the issue, and following up with a customer satisfaction surveys.  I feel they care.

What can you do about technical support?  I have no personal experience with such fine camera manufacturing companies as Olympus or Minolta and all I can suggest is before buying a product give a call to their technical support and see how it works.  Otherwise learn how to scream your way to level 2.

Actually there is one more very helpful tip.  Different people have different skills at level 1.  I often quickly evaluate a technician.  If I determine the person I connected with has too little knowledge to really help with my problem I will graciously look for a way to end the call ASAP.  Then I call back, which gets me to another technician, and often I find another technician who may have better skills.  Sometimes an accumulation of information from several technicians leads me to resolve the problem myself.

When it comes to my equipment I often tell others that the case protecting it is as important.  The same holds true for technical support.  Having it, knowing how well it works and how to work it is as important as discussing specifications or creativity.  Sometimes we are simply limited by options, but if otherwise flexible go with the company having the best support, and demand the best support.

Having cleared up these support/help issues, let’s get back to the list of specifications and move on to:

Continuous Drive: Yes, 2 fps, 8 images – “Yes” means this camera (like most) is capable of taking continuous, one after another, shots.  In this case, 2 fps or frames per second until 8 shots have been taken.  This is presently fairly standard for pocket cameras, until technical advances improve specifications..

Three factors play into this capability, a) the shutter release, b) the camera’s image processing system, and c) the buffer size.  A buffer can be equated to a camera’s internal holding tank for images on their way to the removable storage card.

Professional level camera systems can approach a burst rate of 10 frames per second continuously for 120 jpg images, or several dozen RAW images due to less shutter lag, more sophisticated processing systems, and larger buffers.  Again, technological advances will upgrade the capabilities of all camera systems.

Creatively this is most useful in sports photography or taking your energetic young child following fast movements and stopping action.  Today, no longer inhibited by the expense of film and processing you can go crazy experimenting, and while you are doing that I’ll ask permission to go ashore.

Focal length multiplier: - This is somewhat more complicated to explain, and I have been considering how long this terminology will be of value to photography in our changes to the digital world, but I’m not sure of the answer.  Therefore I will do my best to clarify what it means, and in doing so the attached photo with this article will prove helpful.

The left side of the photo shows a seagull against a clear blue sky taken on 35mm (size) film or digital image sensor.

The right side shows the same seagull image, but notice it shows less of the blue sky…it has much of it cropped out.

This right side sets the example that most digital cameras, certainly all the pocket point and shoot cameras do not have a full (35mm) size image sensor.  They are smaller as is shown on the right side.

When their size is mentioned you will see such fractions as 1/3 or 1/1.8 or 2/3, and there are more, but they all are in comparison to 35mm and they all are smaller in size by comparison.

As in other aspects of our lives, size is important.  We here about megapixels all the time, knowing the more the better, and a larger image sensor can hold more pixels.  Then it is wise to realize that having more in not better than having more and bigger pixels. Therefore, a 6 megapixel with a 2/3 sensor is better than a 6 megapixel camera with a 1/3 sensor, because the 2/3 one is larger.

The fact that a sensor is larger, having more pixels and possibly larger pixels also has it producing less unwanted noise artifacts, and gives it a better dynamic range.  The latter meaning the ability to successfully capture detail in both the shadow and highlight areas of a scene to be photographed.

Looking into the meaning focal length multiplier can go into this type of information and considerations, but there is more and it concerns optics and our lenses.  This is signified when you see “FLM is 1.5X.”

In the example photograph, let’s say in the full 35mm the seagull on the right was photographed with a 200mm lens.  The same image on the right shows a cropped “by the size of the sensor” version if taken with a pocket camera having a smaller chip.  What it is in actuality showing you is the image equivalent as if it were photographed with a 300mm lens.  And this is what is meant with the FLM 1.5 X 200 = 300mm

Nearly all digital cameras, excluding more expensive digital SLR’s with full size 35mm image sensors, have smaller chips and some conversion factor.  If you are unable to change lenses on your camera, it’s really not necessarily relevant, except for giving you a better understanding of your camera.

If you can change lenses, you would multiply the FLM with whatever lens you were using to get the actual (new) zoom range.  If you had a 70-210mm zoom, with a FLM of 1.4X it would become a 98-294mm.

In this way, this is very nice.  Lenses with greater zoom ranges are heavier and more expensive (if maintaining the equal quality), and this conversion is therefore working for you.  On the wide angle side it is not though.  A more expensive extra (super or ultra) wide 17mm wide angle will now, with a FLM 1.4X, be a 24mm.

What can we expect; there is a yin and yang to everything.  Smaller chip has a better FLM conversion to capture a smaller ship at a distance, but this will make it difficult to get those full cabin shots…

Lens thread: No – Lenses with thread would enable you to add on attachments, such as filters, hoods and modifiers.  Throughout my career I never was a filter nut, but there are filters such as a polarizer, ND filter, color conversion and color correction filters; some can be handy, and others that today are not necessary.  A future article will revisit filters. 

Lens hoods can also be attached by the lens thread.  They help shade stray light from entering the lens if, for instance, you are shooting towards the direction of the sun.

Modifiers for a lens would be an additional lens you could thread on to, for instance, makes it a wider lens.  In other word, it could transform the FLM 1.4X 17mm that became a 24mm back to a 17mm again, that is, if you had lens thread.  It’s not the optimum optical solution, yet better than no solution to get those full cabin shots, with which I leave to ask for permission to come ashore.