Camera's Functions


Status
Not open for further replies.

revenant

New Member
Apr 8, 2002
1,101
0
0
38
collinyeo.blogspot.com
Greetings,

I've just migrated from hardwarezone photography forum to ClubSNAP. Cause I found ClubSNAP to be a better place for Photography thingy. The people here are nicer too ;)

Anyway, I have a few questions to start with. Could some kind soul explain to me or give me an url on the following?

- Exposure
- Shutter speed
- Aperture value
- ISO settings
- White balance

Are there anymore necessary functions which I've missed out?

thanx and have a nice day :)

Oh btw, this is my 1st post. :D
 

wah.... 10min ago I was bored, nothing to do. 10min later I was given 5 different web pages full of words to read.

Anyway, thanx for the fast and helpful web sites :)

Is there any particular one which is better of the the rest? Really a lot. I just wanna know the basic, not so in-depth cause not much money to get a good one.
 

~~~~~~~~WELCOME TO CLUB SNAP~~~~~~~
reading alone is not enough....come join us for the shooting and we'll be glad to share something that we know.......
 

Originally posted by Fundee
~~~~~~~~WELCOME TO CLUB SNAP~~~~~~~
reading alone is not enough....come join us for the shooting and we'll be glad to share something that we know.......

I have yet to get my 1st digital camera. I'm actually looking for 2nd hand Canon A10 or S10, else Camedia C-1 Zoom will do fine too. Don't ask me to get 1st hand, cause I don't have that much money and would not like to spend that much on cam. Just a decent cam of at least 1.3megapixel, with optical zoom will do.
 

Originally posted by revenant


I have yet to get my 1st digital camera. I'm actually looking for 2nd hand Canon A10 or S10, else Camedia C-1 Zoom will do fine too. Don't ask me to get 1st hand, cause I don't have that much money and would not like to spend that much on cam. Just a decent cam of at least 1.3megapixel, with optical zoom will do.
for a start just get the best you can afford...be it 1st,2nd, 3rd or 4th hand as long is working that will be fine.......the most important is how you handle your 'tool' to produce the best you can. if you get the basic fundamentals right...the rest will depends on your imagination.
 

How much do you want to spend?
 

Originally posted by YSLee
How much do you want to spend?

Don't wanna spend too much on it. I was offered $400 for a 2nd hand Canon S10 but rejected it in the last minute cause think about it again, $400 is really too much for me. Then previously saw a one selling A10 for $250 - $300 but that was months ago. So, was trying my luck to wait for a few weeks waiting for someone to sell off his A10.
 

Ok.. Here's a compress version by me~ ;p

Exposure: This means the amount of light entering the camera to expose a piece of film... or sensor. Under-expose means too little light resulting in dark pics and over-expose means too much light is enetering the camera, resulting in pics too bright with lost of details.

Shutter speed: one of the elements that "controls" the exposure. In a camera, there's this little hole that allows light to enter the camera so that it can expose the film (or shine onto the CCD/CMOS) The shutter speed indicates the length of time the hole is opened for light to enter. The shutter speed is indicated in seconds. 1/60 seconds is twice as long as 1/125 seconds and thus will allow twice as much light to enter compared to 1/125 seconds

Aperture: This indicates the size of the hole that allows light into the camera. This is indicated in f numbers... A smaller f number indicates a larger hole, a smaller f number indicates a smaller hole.

ISO settings: This is a standardised way of indicating film sensitivity... How sensitive they are to light... Commonly found Film with ISO values of 100, 200 and 400 are commonly found over counters at supermarkets and such... Fuji Superia 100 is an example of ISO 100 film and say Kodak Max 400 is an example of ISO 400 film easily available. More sensitive film, such as ISO 800, ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 can be obtained at dedicated photography shops photography shops. So what does all these means. A high sensitvity film will require less light to expose the film... An ISO 200 film will need half the amount of light to achieve a certain exposure compared to a ISO 100 film. and $00 will require half of what ISO 200 will require and so on... So how does this helps in practice? Sometimes, with low light conditions, and when flash is not desired, one may like to use a more sensitive film so that a faster shutter speed can be used so as that camera shakes (movement of camera during long exposure cause blur images) are minimised. The ISO standards are also brought over into digital cameras... Different ISO is achieved by amplification of the CCD/CMOS signals... As for digital camera, higher ISO will results in more noise, which are random nonsense pixels seen on the final image. For film, higher ISO film generally has poorer resolution and are more grainy.

White balance:Under different lighting condition, the truely white object may not be really white... but this are seldom seen as our brain automatically compensate for the ambient lighting. But for photos, the effect of the colour of the ambient light on the final image is very apperent. In the morning, the sunlight are blue-ish which will results in pictures with blue-ish tint... Fluorescent tubes gives greenish-blue tint to pictures... White balance are available in digital camera to allow for compensating these colour tints.


Er... generally this is what I know lah... Quite basic lah... but hope its informative enough.
 

Originally posted by Flare
... Aperture: This indicates the size of the hole that allows light into the camera. This is indicated in f numbers... A smaller f number indicates a larger hole, a smaller f number indicates a smaller hole.

?? I assume you meant a f setting and size of hole is inversely correlated?
 

wow, a great effort from you, Flare.. thanx :)

As for shutter speed, what are the values available and how do I know which value would be better in taking a particular scene? Try one and snap, then refer to the LCD to see if it's good enouhg, if not adjust the shutter speed again?

Aperture : Again, what are the values available? I suppose different digicam have different range of F stop? Bigger hole results in more details?

ISO Settings : So do you mean that higher ISO = not good ?

White Balance : erm..... do you mean that if an objet is to be shot under the sun, the ray from sun shining on the objet will be bluish, resulting in the object's colours differ from it's original?
 

Shutter speeds and F stop available will be limited by the camera or lens... so it depends... My camera has shutter sped ranging from 4 seconds to 1/4000 and F numbers from 2.8 to 9.

For shutter speed, its generally best to use one that will prevent camera shakes. This is the reciprocal of the focal length of the lens you are using or less... so say I'm zoomed at 200mm.. it'll be best to shoot at 1/250 seconds (1/200 not available) or less. But remember to set the aperture to the appropriate value so that the exposure is still correct. The shutter piority mode of cameras helps this process. You set the shutter speed and the camera find the aperture that'll give you the correct exposure for the lighting conditions. But there are restrictions... When the scene is dimly lit, your camera may not be able achieve the correct exposure and you will have to use a slower speed. And perhaps use a trpod to minimise camera shakes. Shutter speed can also be set up according to the effect you like... let's say you want to freeze the wings of a bird in flight... you may have to use a very fast shutter speed such as 1/500 and use a flash to compensate for the lack of lighting. Or let's say you want to show the motion of legs of someone using an exercise bike, you'll need a slower shutter of say 1/8 seconds and a tripod to eliminate camera shake. Or let's say you want to do that nice streaking light of cars on the road. You may like to set the shutter to 3 seconds and set up a tripod. When using long shutters, please note that it may result in over exposure if your camera doesn't have an aperture small enough. In such case, you may need Neutral density filters, which are like sun glasses for camera, which reduce the amount of light entering the lens. But overall, some experience and sense for estimating speeds helps.

For Aperture, a smaller hole (which is a larger F-number) will give a deeper dept of field... which is the area in focus.. and thus give more details... remember the pin hole camera you make when you are young? A smaller pin hole will make a sharper image. This is not so apperant in consumer digital cameras. But for SLR cameras, the dept of field for thelens can vary widely for the range of aperture available. So to control this aspect, a lot of people shoots in Aperture piority where they set the aperture and allow the camera to set the shutter speed to achieve a correct exposure and using a tripod or monopod when the shutter time is too long to handhold...

High ISO, say 800, in most digital cameras (the fuji s600 series is an exception in a sense) will results in very bad noise...

White balance: Yes in a sense... The sun isn't so obvious, The problem exist for all type of lighting, which can usually be compensated by a camera's automatic white balance capability. But very difficult lighting condition such as fluorescent light and tungsten bulbs will not be effectively compensated by the automatic mode.
 

Originally posted by Flare
A smaller f number indicates a larger hole, a smaller f number indicates a smaller hole.

Call me nickpicking, but the proper term is f-stop. :D And I think u mean a BIGGER f stop indicates a smaller hole.

To add on to aperture explanation, aperture not only controls light, but also Depth Of Field (DOF).

Hi Revenant, wah I type all those things in HWZ u dont understand meh? Like learning how to swim, reading theory will only get you to a certain point. To understand further, you need to get a camera and start shooting.;)
 

Status
Not open for further replies.