I’ve been noticing recently that digital photography has it’s own drawbacks when trying to take pictures of kids. Every time I take a picture, the kids want to see it. Makes it hard to get a spontaneous shot when even before you click the shutter the kids are moving towards you to take a look at the LCD. Rather frustraing for a photographer.

The Dreaded Shutter Lag

Which bring up another topic. Shutter Lag. The small point-and-shoot (P&S) cameras have horrible shutter lag. Shutter lag is the length of time it takes for the camera to focus, calculate the proper exposure and actually take the photo. Anyone who has tried to take pictures of small children with a P&S digital knows that I mean. Blurry photos galore, or at the very least not quite the picture you were hoping for (probably because the kids were heading over to see the picture on the camera).

For myself I can drag out the DSLR, slap on a nice lens, pop on the flash if I need to and I’m set. At least that is until I actually want to get in the picture. Handing a big, bulky professional level DSLR (digital single lens reflex) to anyone except another photographer is a bit daunting, even if it’s set in full auto mode. Something about the size seems to make them think it’s more complicated than a P&S. Of course they may be worried about dropping it too (I try not to think about it).

What To Do?

So what are the options? You can check out the reviews of P&S models at http://www.dpreview.com and hopefully they will have an in-depth review of the models you are considering. The site has excellent reviews of many cameras and includes in their comprehensive reviews the timings of many camera operations, including shutter lag. Find one with a short lag, then go to a store and actually test it.

The other option is to move up to a DSLR. There are many choices today from Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Olympus, Pentax, Samsung and Sony. More often than not these DSLR are going to be rated in Frames Per Second (fps) where the P&S little brothers are more like Seconds Per Frame. Much easier to get the shot you want when the shutter clicks when your finger presses. You can find DSLR’s with lenses in the $600 price range. Not a whole lot more than a really nice P&S, and it opens up a lot more options.

Oh Boy, Options

Of course the “lot more options” tends to be “lots more money” too. Yes, interchangeable lenses can be great, but it can also be daunting. There are so many choices available from wide-range zoom lenses to high-cost professional “glass” it does take some consideration.

Then of course there is the sensor size/focal length multiplication issues. With the consumer and prosumer DSLR cameras the sensor is usually not quite the same size as the original 35mm film size. This means all the lenses made for the 35mm format don’t give the same “field of view”. You will see numbers like 1.5 or 1.6 magnification factor. For example if you have a 50mm lens on a camera with a 1.5 focal length multiplier your 50mm lens will give you images as if you had a 75mm lens on it (50 * 1.5).

The smaller sensor size doesn’t make your 50mm lens a 75mm lens, but because the sensor size captures a smaller portion of the full 35mm frame size, the image appears as if you had a 75mm lens. So to compose the same scene on a camera with a focal length multiplier you would have to move back or have a wider angle lens attached.

This can be really nice on the longer lenses where a 400mm lens now looks like a 600mm lens, but it also means a 16mm lens is really only a 24mm lens.

What’s Best?

A fine question and one that can only be answered by your own needs. The important considerations, in my mind, are shutter speed, portability and lens requirements.

For myself it means three different cameras. A Canon 1Ds for professional work with a nice selection of lenses, a Canon Digial Rebel XT for home use (with the added benefit of being able to use the professional lenses when needed) and finally a Canon point-and-shoot for portability.

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years is that one size does not fit all when dealing with photography.

Update (3/21/07): I just read a nice article that explains zoom lenses pretty well. It’s on the NY Times site at: Tweaking the Zoom

Scott Chytil
Scott Chytil Photography

Digital Photography

Of course you are…right? You have protection…right? You backup your images to a second hard drive…right? Think about all the other files you store on your computer. Do you keep your finances in Money or Quicken? Do you have work related files stored there too? Do you really want to have to reconstruct all that information?

I know, you’ve been meaning to do it, but you just haven’t gotten around to it. Being a father of two small children I know there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. If only there was an extra 8 hours available when the kids are asleep.

The fact is hard drives WILL fail. The question is WHEN. So what to do about it? Well, the solutions range from mind-numbingly easy to entirely too complex. Here’s the breakdown:

External USB or Firewire hard drive: These drives are self contained and as long as you have USB2 or Firewire available through your computer they will be quite fast. There are many that have a “One Touch” feature specifically to back up everything on your computer, which is great if you only have one hard drive to backup. If you have an older machine with USB1 you will want to invest in an add-on card that gives you USB2 or Firewire ports. It’s worth the time you will save waiting for things to get backed up.

If you have more than one drive you will probably need to have some type of backup software. Windows XP comes with a backup utility, but it’s pretty bare bones. It will do the job and it is already probably on your computer, so it’s a valid option. For other options take a look at these sites:
PC Magazine List
Backup-Software-Reviews.com
If you have a Mac, you can get free backup software by getting a .mac (pay) account:
.Mac website on Apple.com
If you have an opinion on any backup software please post a comment to this article.

If you are computer literate you can always add a bare drive to your computer if you have the room. Then use backup software as mentioned above.

Want to go whole hog? You could implement a full-on Digital Asset Management system. If you are a professional photographer this is a must have in the digital age. A good read is “The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers” by Peter Krogh. It spells out a complete workflow and management system to make sure your photos survive your lifetime and beyond. Mmmm…Just thinking about multi-disk raid systems makes me drool.

So what do I run? I currently have all Seagate drives. One drive stores all my program files (Windows, Photoshop, etc). A second drive stores my data (pictures, financial, work files). An external Firewire drive is used for nightly backups. Every night I run my backup software (Genie Backup Manager Home Edition). It can be configured to turn off the computer when it finishes. For most people that will be enough. You would at most lose one days worth of changes. Not a huge deal. I also have a second external firewire drive that I use to backup my backup drive. Just in case something bad happens.

I’m also in the process of reading “The DAM Book” mentioned above and will be implementing a lot of the practices as I get through it.

Do I feel safe? Mostly. If my house burns down I’m in big trouble. That’s one of the principles of The DAM Book that I will be implementing in the next month or so. Having a backup copy stored off-site is just that extra level of safety that will keep me sleeping through the night (now that the kids do).

Scott Chytil
http://www.chytilphoto.com

Digital Photography