3/4 inches by 5 inches to maintain the same sharpness that was displayed on the monitor. Obviously, a 3 mega-pixel camera allows you to enlarge the picture to 8 inches by 10 inches and maintain the same sharpness at the 3 3/4 by 5. If you blew up the 1 mega- pixel picture to an 8 x 10 size, it would appear "grainy"; just as an over-enlarged film camera negative would appear.
The prices of digital cameras are coming down monthly and range from $100 to $1000 depending on the features you are after. Professional cameras are $3,000 to $4,000 and take a picture as high as 6.1 mega-pixels, which brings up another question. How do you store such a large picture in the camera and how do you get the picture into your computer?
There are four ways of storing a picture in a digital camera. They are: 3 ½ inch floppies, super disks, mini-CDs and flash cards. Sony has pioneered the 3 ½ inch floppies and the mini-CDs. Most other cameras use the flash cards that hold from 8 Megabytes up to 320 MB of pictures. Price for a 16 MB card is about $40 and many come with an adaptor that allows you to plug the card directly into the USB of your computer and download the pictures. So now you as, "What size card should I buy?"
That depends on size and image quality of the pic-ture you intend to take. Most cameras save the picture in JPEG format and have a choice of compression of the picture. My camera (Nikon CoolPix 990) uses HI, FINE, NORMAL and BASIC. I like to take my pictures at the highest resolution (2048x1536) and when set to HI, it saves the picture in TIFF and has no compression. Problem is, only 1 picture will fit on a 16 MB flash card. FINE saves it in JPEG and the file size is reduced roughly to 1/4 of its original size resulting in 10 pictures on a 16 MB card. The NORMAL setting reduces the file size roughly 1/8 of original size and saves 20 pictures and BASIC reduces to 1/16 of the normal size and saves 40 pictures. The BASIC setting at 2048x1536 is what I use and I'm delighted with the quality an 8x10 picture. I have 3 cards totaling 160 MB of memory and can take 400 pictures at that setting. |
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According to Nikon, JPEG compression reduces file size, but has no effect on the number of pixels in the image or on the size of the image when it is output on a printer or monitor. I agree with their statement after having tried the different compression settings and printing the same scene with no detectable difference.
Now that you are armed with information about digital cameras, you must then determine what you intend to use it for and how many times you want to buy it. (I added the latter because people usually buy the first one on price, are dissatisfied, and then buy the one they want.) If you are a "point and shoot" type camera owner, don't spend a lot of money on a digital camera. On the other hand, if you are a "wannabe photographer" like me, it's worth spending more on the camera and getting the features you need.
A good place to check prices on cameras is on the Net at: shopper.cnet.com. Type the URL exactly as I have written it and then select CAMERAS from the main menu. I saved a great deal of money by shopping this way rather than dealing with the local stores. Happy shopping and I hope you find what you are after.
With Regret
After discussion with the president of the computer club, we have decided to suspend further meetings of the Internet SIG. Due to the very low attendance at meet-ings we feel that as we are currently organized in this SIG we are not meeting the needs of the people who are interested in the Internet. Please watch our publication, The Soundboard, for possible developments in the future for activities aimed at the Internet. Thank you for your interest. I hope to see you again at future activities. Herb Isaac
Thanks for your time and dedication, Herb.
Saving an Outlook Express Address Book
The answer to saving an address book from Outlook Express has eluded me for years. Recent events forced me to try to find the answer. Both of my
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