Buying a digital camera: What (almost) nobody else will tell you.
Feb 22 '02 (Updated Feb 24 '02)
The Bottom Line Digital cameras are fun and easy to use. But they cannot replace a 35mm SLR and the hidden costs can eat you alive.
I have owned and used many 35mm cameras, including an Argus C-3, Pentax K-1000, Minolta XG-1, X-700, Nikon F and more. The newest of these is nearly 20 years old. I own three digital cameras and am looking to purchase my fourth. Yet none of my digital cameras (nor any digital camera that costs less than a new Hyundai) can match what even my oldest 35mm camera can do. I read the reviews online and in magazines, yet every camera I purchased did NOT MEET MY NEEDS in some way or another.
The reasons are simple. Even though I tried to find out everything I possibly could before buying a digital camera, I did not understand the limitations of the medium and how it differs from "normal" photography.
Almost all reviewers recycle the same junk again and again. Megapixels, compression, memory. I aim to be different and help you with the following:
1. What will it take to replace your film camera?
2. The hidden costs of a digital camera.
3. The Sony Memory Stick: Another way to spell RIP-OFF?
I wont bore 95% of you by defining 35mm, SLR, film grain, VGA, F-stop, autowinder, ASA/ISO, etc. If I use a word or phrase you dont understand, please do a search with your web browser. (I got sick of every article on Y2K that defined just what Y2K was all about.)
If you are buying a digital camera to sell stuff on ebay, then stop reading. Go out and buy the cheapest VGA or better resolution camera you can find, it will do the job.
1. What will it take to replace your film camera?
If you are buying a digital camera to REPLACE your film camera, then consider yourself warned: Everything you need will cost as much as a quality 35mm SLR, a couple dozen rolls of film, plus processing. The fact is its impossible for ANY digital camera to replace a 35mm SLR.
a. 35mm film has unsurpassed color accuracy. the results of a quality camera using a quality film processed in a quality lab are nearly flawless. Photo labs are very adept at adjusting the print to give outstanding results, even if the original image is under or over exposed. Digital cameras are good but not perfect.
b. Almost every 35mm SLR comes with an autowinder and can take 2-3 images a second until the film is gone. Digital cameras require time to compress the image and store it to memory, it can take 3-15 seconds or more until the camera is ready to take another picture. High end digital cameras can take a few shots quickly, but at a lower resolution. Once the RAM is full, they must still take time to compress the image and save it to flash memory.
c. 35mm SLR cameras take a picture when you press the shutter release. Most digital cameras (and cheap point and shoot 35mm autofocus cameras...) have a short time delay while they focus. It might only be .1-.3 seconds, but its amazing how often you miss a shot.
d. 35mm cameras accept a wide variety of film speeds, with varying grain size and light sensitivity; a digital camera is stuck with its image sensor. Few digital camera buyers ask "what is the ASA rating of the image sensor in this digital camera?" If its 100 ASA and the camera has a lens F-stop of 4, indoor images will be impossible beyond the range of the typicaly tiny built in flash. If you have ever used a 35mm SLR with an F-2 lens, 1000 ASA film and a flash attached to a hot shoe, you now understand a major limitation of digital cameras: they need lots of light.
2. The hidden costs of a digital camera.
a: If your camera does not come with a rechargable battery pack, add the price of a battery charger and two sets of batteries to the price of your camera. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, PURCHASE ANY CAMERA THAT CANNOT USE RECHARAGABLE BATTERIES! If you use flash and your built in LCD, the cost of batteries will be more than the cost of a roll film and processing.
b: Unless you have an honest photo-realistic printer, you will be unhappy with your printed results. I like the HP photosmart printers because they have a place to plug your camera's flash memory card. Most printers ask you to specify the print paper for best results, the HP 1215 analyzes the paper before it begins printing, assuring the best results no matter who makes the paper.
c: Printer cartridges dont last very long when printing photographs. You might be able to print 1000 pages of text before you run out of ink; you would be lucky to get 25 8x10 prints from the same ink! Even if you get 50 prints you can imagine how expensive it will be. HP printers have expensive cartridges but you get a new print head with every ink refill. Other printers have much cheaper refills but it might not be such a bargain if it contains only a tiny bit of ink. I use International Refill Kits to make photo printing much more economical.
c: Printer paper. You will not be happy printing on plain paper, the results in no way resemble a photograph. Photograph paper was close to $1 per 8x10 sheet, but as more people buy digital cameras the prices are becoming affordable.
3. The Sony Memory Stick: Another way to spell RIP-OFF?
If you own other portable digital devices, you are probably familiar with SMART MEDIA or COMPACT FLASH cards. I like the CF cards because of their smaller size, greater resistance to damage and larger memory capacities. Almost every digital device uses Compact Flash or Smart Media cards except for SONY, they invented an incompatible device called the MEMORY STICK. Where a Compact Flash is just over 1 inch on a side and perhaps 1/8 of an inch thick, the Memory Stick is about the size of a stick of gum. Memory Stick costs more than than the other cards and it has less memory to boot, it does not offer a single advantage over Compact Flash. It wont plug into anything not made by Sony...not my PC, laptop, printer, PDA or MP3 player. Nobody but Sony makes the Memory Stick. Nobody but Sony uses the Memory Stick. Do you see a pattern here? Until Sony stops trying to shove the Memory Stick down our throats, I suggest you avoid all Sony digital cameras like the plague.
A few more digital camera observations:
Digital cameras have the most trouble dealing with super detailed objects such as tree leaves, or water such as a lake or river. A camera that delivers acceptable shots indoors will deliver pictures with obvious compression artifacts if the scene involves trees or water, unless you shoot in the highest resolution mode with the least amount of image compression. Otherwise grass can look like a green carpet and trees like brocolli! The lower the pixel count the worst it will be, cameras with less than 1.5-2 megapixels have VERY obvious visual defects with trees and large amounts of water.
The bottom line:
Five different film cameras loaded with the same film and used to take the same image will deliver five nearly indistinguishable images, THE SAME CANNOT BE SAID FOR DIGITAL CAMERAS!
Every digital camera can do a reasonable job taking "snapshots." Buy your digital camera at a local store and make sure you can return it if you are not happy with the results.
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