Section1 PHOTO - VIDEO - PRO AUDIO Digital Still Cameras Introduction to Digital Imaging ...8-11 Canon..............................................12-28 Casio................................................29-31 Contax.............................................32-33 Fuji...................................................34-45 Hewlett Packard ...........................46-49 Kodak..............................................50-53 Kyocera...........................................54-57 Leica................................................58-59 Minolta............................................60-75 Nikon...............................................76-87 Olympus .......................................88-101 Panasonic...................................102-109 Pentax.........................................110-115 Samsung.............................................116 Sony ............................................117-136 Vivitar ................................................137 INTRODUCTION TO Digital Imaging—a primer for the uninitiated Digital imaging is exploding. It seems everybody is doing it. And you think you want to get into it. Fine, but where do you start? What equipment do you need? No problem. But before we get to that, let us begin with a little background information so you’ll have a better understand of what digital imaging is. Until about five years ago imaging was an analog affair. Pictures were “recorded” onto film and the manipulation of images took place in a darkroom—a messy, wasteful and environmentally unfriendly way of doing things. Digital imaging is the digital recording of images, either by a digital camera or a scanner. Once recorded, these digital images (made up of 0’s and 1’s) can be transferred (downloaded) to your computer where they can be edited, manipulated, e-mailed, printed, or incorporated into almost any kind of document. In order to get images into your computer, they must be digitized. There are You won’t have to crawl up in the attic basically two ways of digitizing them. Digital cameras or scanners. Digital or dig around the basement anymore to cameras digitize images as they are shot. Scanners digitize existing negatives, find those prints of the kids. With digital DIGITAL CAMERAS DIGITAL photos, organizing, storing and finding transparencies and prints. Once the images are digitized—whether they were prints is a thousand times easier and shot with a digital camera or shot on film and scanned—you can transfer them more efficient. In it’s simplest form you can glance at hundreds of thumbnails of to your computer (there are many easy ways to do this.) Now the second part your images on your computer to quick- of digital imaging starts . ly find what you are looking for. You can make copies of your photos to create You can optimize your images with an image-editing program, restore damaged 8 albums in their own folder. On a more or faded photos, and apply an almost infinite variety of special effects. You see sophisticated level you can use cataloging software (for as little as $50) the results of anything you as you do it, and if you don't like something – just to attach keywords to your images to hit “undo” and do it again. You can e-mail your pictures, or post them on a search your photo collection. Web page, put them on flyers, turn them into calendars or greeting cards, put Not to scare you or anything, but fires, them on T-shirts and coffee mugs, print them, or even have them output back floods, theft, earthquakes, etc. do happen. The family photos one loses in onto film. Oh, one more thing. In the long run digital is cheaper, a lot cheaper. these disasters is often the biggest loss, Much less money spent on film, chemicals etc. they are irreplaceable both in sentimen- tal value and memories. So backing up So now, what do you need to go digital? A digital camera or a scanner, a fast your photo collection is a must. And it is computer with a lot of RAM (at least 256MB), a 20˝ monitor, a lot of storage, easy. If your photos are in a digital form, copying the files (photos) to a CD or an inkjet or dye-sub printer or output device like a CD or DVD burner and DVD and storing them in a safe place is a image-editing software. All these things you will find throughout this catalog. lot easier to do. Keep them in a safety deposit box or at work. You can store But for now the question is . thousands of photos for pennies on a CD or DVD that takes up no space. It is just a matter of you doing it and it is easy to Digital Camera vs. 35mm Camera and Scanner do. (This is a good idea even in the world of digital because it is not So now we know that we need either a digital camera or scanner, so which one. You uncommon for hard drives to fail and if might have thousands of dollars invested in a top 35mm system. If you scan your full- that is the only place photos are stored frame 35mm image (negative or slide) with a 2700-dpi (dots-per-inch) scanner film you are out of luck –so back them up). scanner (under $300 today) you get a 9.4 megapixel scan (2496 x 3776). Do it with a One more thing, digital cameras are a 4000-dpi scanner (under $1000) and you get a 21MB file (3762 x 5646). So you can con- great way to learn photography. With tinue to shoot with your familiar and versatile 35mm SLR camera—which very likely the ability to instantly see images, you has more features and better performance than most digital camera. And you have a will have a much better appreciation for good negative or slide as well as a high-resolution digital image. But resolution is only settings such as aperture and shutter one part of the story. Digital cameras are the biggest innovation in photography in and how they alter mood and character. over 100 years. They give you a myriad of benefits that simply can’t be achieved with a 35mm camera. And if you haven’t invested a lot in analog—then there is no question. DIGITAL IMAGING THE BASICS How Digital Cameras Work 35mmvs. DIGITAL A digital camera is similar to a 35mm Generally a 35mm camera costs less than Digital cameras might be a little more camera in the way that it takes pictures. CAMERAS DIGITAL a digital camera. But 35mm cameras are expensive now, but they getting better The way a digital camera differs from a not getting much cheaper. and cheaper all the time. 35mm camera is what's inside. When you take a picture on your digital camera the Taking photos costs money. The more you Taking photos are free. You basically buy CCD charges up and prepared for the take the more it costs. You have to buy your memory storage once (memory card) picture to be taken. Once the shutter film then pay to develop it. If you don’t and can keep reusing it after you have button is depressed, light enters the pay you can’t see your pictures. downloaded your photos to your computer. camera and strike the CCD. The light is then measured electronically on the CCD You must be patient and wait. You can Instant gratification because you can and is then sent off to the internal memory not see your photos until you get them immediately see the photos you have of the camera, called the buffer. Once the back from the developer. taken with the LCD monitor on your image information reaches the buffer, it is digital camera. then compressed (if selected) into JPEG format. The completed image is then You must rely more on your photograph- You don’t need to rely as much on your transferred to the memory card on the ic skills because you don’t know what photography skills because you get camera. Some cameras will need this your photo will look like until you get it instant feedback. If you don’t like it, just process to finish before taking another back from the developers. shoot it again. Or just shoot a whole picture, some cameras have an internal bunch of photos because you can keep buffer that is large enough to hold a the ones you like and delete the rest. number of pictures, and can therefore take multiple pictures in a row, called burst 9 Making copies or your photos cost Making 100% exact duplicate copies of shooting. money, time and a trip in your car. your photos is free and as easy as three clicks with your mouse. The CCD is made up of millions of tiny sensors that record the amount of light The pictures you take are not ready to be Your photos are instantly ready to be that hits them. The sensors only record the e-mailed to a friend, client or used on e-mailed to your friend, client or used on amount of light that hits them, not the your web page. You must pay for the film, your webpage. color of the light. For the digital camera to pay and wait for the photos to be developed detect what color is in each pixel, a color and then digitize them using a scanner. filter is put over the individual sensors After the light strikes the CCD, the You are limited to maybe 36 photos at the Digital Cameras hold far more images individual sensors convert the amount most before you have to put a new roll of than the traditional roll of 24 or 36 of light hitting them into an electrical film in. images. The number of photos your digi- signal, which is originally stored as an tal camera can hold before you need to analog signal, and is converted to a digital download is limited only by the size of signal by a analog to digital converter your memory card, the resolution of your (A-D converter).