[thelist] Camera specs for web pics

Benjamin C. Varadi bvaradi at nlcnet.org
Wed Mar 17 14:49:20 CST 2004


> So if the picture is going to take up the entire screen space on a
> monitor with a resolution of 1152x864 (which I hope it won't!) a 1
> megapixel camera will be more than sufficient.

...assuming that you'll never want to zoom into the image or crop it,
and assuming that you can find a 1MP camera with good optical quality
& speed.

the criteria that are rarely mentioned when camera shopping (i suspect
because manufacturers find it useful to de-emphasize them) are time
between shots & ISO equivalent (ie: can you shoot in light conditions
similar to those that would require 400-800 speed film?  how difficult
is it to change this setting?).

with your budget you should have no problem finding something perfect
for the web, but do your research and don't be too dazzled by hype (a
"feature" that can be better reproduced in photoshop is pointless in
my book).

think about how you'll actually use the camera, and make the megapix/
battery type/ lens choice/ speed/ memory type/etc choices that are
right for you- you can probably save some of that money & put it
towards case, tripod, memory card, card reader (unless you're a fan of
clunky "photo management" software) and gas to get wherever your photo
subject is located.

for what it's worth, I didn't have thousands of dollars to throw
around, and after wasting much time and money on midrange cameras,
ended up returning/selling each one.  Now I shoot snapshots on a
small, light digicam with no zoom, a big fat SD card and AA batteries,
and take "real" pictures with my trusty old Pentax SLR, using slide
film, a zoom lens, and a really nice scanner to get incredible
results.

-BEN

(back to lurking)


--
Benjamin C. Varadi
IT Coordinator
National Labor Committee 
540 W 48th St, Fl. 3; NYC 10036
phone: (212) 242-3002
fax:   (212) 242-3821
www.nlcnet.org



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