Photograph the Perfect Moment with a Casio High Speed Pocket Camera
Dilip Dahanukar asked:
Ever since I read about the Casio high speed camera, I was fascinated by its features. The camera promised 1000 frames per second (fps) photography at incredible 1/40,000 sec. speed! I weighed the pros and cons of getting the normal 20x optical zoom model or the pocket version. The pocket version had a lower optical zoom of 5x but there could be more fun carrying it innocuously to parties and social functions. So I ordered the Casio Exilim Ex-FC100 camera from a shop in New York and received it by UPS within a few days.
I opened the box and looked at the small 156g camera which was about the size of a normal cell phone, just a little wider and thicker. But on closer look, there seem to be many buttons on it which looked unfamiliar to me.
The first remarkable difference is that the movie mode has its own dedicated ON-OFF record button separate from the normal shutter button for taking pictures. This facilitates the taking of snapshots even when the movie clip is being shot!
Just below the movie record button is a rotary toggle to change from standard to high definition HD mode. The camera is capable of taking a HD movie at 1280×720 pixels at 30 fps. The STD mode supports high speed movies at 210 fps, 420 fps and 1000 fps. As you climb higher on the fps scale, the size of the image reduces proportionately. The size of the image at 480×360 pixels at 210 fps is acceptable format for YouTube.
I tried shooting the flight of pigeon at different speeds, and was surprised at the 1000 fps movie clip. The recorded slow movement of the wings was a pleasure to watch. It displayed how nature has perfected its flying machine; you can see it at YouTube: 7RC2W97_yz0. I recorded a man walking at 210 fps and it unfolded the walking movements which were not evident at normal speed. The movie of a bird flying in the sky at 420 fps was also fun to see.
But I soon discovered the limitation of the high speed function. The built-in flash did not support high speed and therefore shooting HS indoors or at night does not give the desired results. The clips are grainy due to high ISO and dont look that great. The high speed function is therefore useful in shooting sports and interesting movements at outdoor settings preferable in sunlight or really bright light. I shot a movie of the flight of a butterfly in my garden at 420 fps. The movie turned out to be an art film! My jerky hand movements were smoothened by the high speed into a smooth flowing composition! See it on YouTube at 7Q_wZVawYMA
After exploring the movie mode, I went on to see what the camera does for the snapshots. I searched for the normal aperture and speed priority settings, but did not find any. The exposure therefore is completely automatic and the camera selects the best exposure by setting the aperture, speed and ISO (in auto mode) on its own. There is nothing manual setting about it.
What requires manual settings are a host of options related to speed. Looking at these features you know that it is a versatile high speed camera with potential ability to give you the perfect shot every time. When an event is happening at a fast pace, it is very difficult to capture the right moment. By the time you press the shutter button, you may have missed the exact moment. There are 3 ways by which the camera helps you overcome this hurdle: (1) by offering you a selection from a series of 6M images taken at upto 30 fps just before and after clicking the button; it does that in high speed continuous shooting CS mode or (2) by getting the camera to show you the action in slow motion for you to click at the right moment. When you point and shoot at an object by pressing the button Slow located at the top left, the camera begins to record images for the time period chosen by you which can be 1, 2 or 3 seconds. The camera then plays out the stored images slowly at speed chosen by you within the scale of 1 to 8. As the images are played on the screen you have plenty of time to click the right moment of the event by pressing the shutter button. Only the frame which you click is saved on the camera. And finally (3), by capturing and saving multiple pictures at 1 fps in the normal speed continuous mode. The camera takes and saves the 9M sized images as long as the shutter button remains pressed. You can then select the shots that you like. All these three modes give you ways to capture images over the duration of the event so that you do not miss out the precise moment. I found that this was the unique and most useful ability of the camera.
On the mundane duty of the camera to take 9M single frame shots, the quality of the pictures at normal settings was not satisfactory. I found that I needed to set Quality at Fine, Sharpness at +2, Saturation at -1 and Contrast at +1 to obtain good shots comparable with my Panasonic camera. The other picture parameters are easy set quickly. Press the button on the bottom right labeled BS which stands for Best Shot. Thumbnail images showing different scenes like outdoor, shade, portrait, high contrast etc. open up on the screen. Just match the scene you are going to shoot with corresponding one and viola; all the settings are automatically done.
Overall, I find that the camera can be used to capture a series of pictures covering the time-span of the event from which selection could be made. This is a unique solution to capture the right moments which makes our chosen photographs more eye-catching and free of mis-timed shots. I really do not know whether there is any practical value in everyday photography for its ability to make slow motion movies with high speed recording, though its an interesting gimmick. It may have some specific applications in analyzing the movements of sportsmen and actors. The ability of the camera to do HD movies is positively a welcome feature. The EX-FC 100 is undoubtedly a significant step forward in camera innovation. Casio merits applause for launching such a creative camera in the market. As for me, its the camera that I would be carrying in my pocket wherever I go.
The Best Digital Cameras Product to Buy
Joysmahal asked:
PowerShot A95 Digital Camera (5.0MP, 2592×1944, 3x Opt, 32MB CompactFlash Card) Strengths: High quality 5MP pictures, Camera feels great in hand, swivel LCD screen, best bang for the buck camera. Weaknesses: Included 32MB CF card is too small. Summary: This camera is awesome. I upgraded from a Canon A70 and it was well worth the money. The Canon A95 uses 4 AA bateries, but it eats through normal alkalines way too fast. I highly recommend getting rechargeable NiMH AA batteries and a quick charger.The swivel screen is a major plus, it’s 1.8″ compared to 1.5″ from the Canon A70. The screen is also higher resolution than the A70.I have used the camera for 3 weeks and printed about 50 pics so far. The pics look great and I even cropped to zoom in on some pictures and you couldn’t see any sign of pixelation. I love the manual flexibility with this camera, plus the automatic modes make it easy for anyone to use.The camera has a nice solid feel to it and fits well in the hand. I prefer the Canon A95’s size rather than the ultra compact cameras like Sony’s T1 because you can easily hold the camera in one hand and take pics. But if you have an ultra compact camera, you have to hold it awkward and it my easily fall from your hand.I highly recommend this camera to anyone looking into getting a 5MP camera that’s affordable, flexible, and normal size.
further info, visit; http://www.petrousdigitalcameraprices.blogspot.com
Cyber-shot DSC-W1 Silver Digital Camera (5.1MP, 2592×1944, 3x Opt, 32MB Memory Stick)
Strengths: Size, LCD, AA batteries, movie mode and black & white modes are GREAT - use ‘em all the time. Weaknesses: Flash is weak, zoom inadequate at times. Summary: I spent a LOT of time investigating digital cameras online -one would think I was buying a car or something. Anyway I am a novice camera user and remain very impressed with this little guy. I would certainly recommend it. The movie mode is great for ‘vignettes’ or small movie snapshots. I also use the black and white a lot. I also didn’t think the LCD would matter very much, but it does: I never use the viewfinder. I appreciate the large size of the LCD when passing the camera around to friends to view pictures and movies.Hint #1: Immediately jack up the megapixel resolution to 5 so that you can capture moments in the best resolution possible. Then, bypass Sony’s ridiculous profit margins- for memory cards buy SanDisk instead. The 512 MB is fantastic - you will get a lot of memory space. I saved $75.00 this way - $150 vs. $225. The 32 MB is inadequate for daily usage. I use it as ‘emergency’ memory when my 512 has filled up on me and I need an extra pinch of memory to get me through the moment.Hint #2: Do NOT buy the Sony camera case. They charge a ridiculous price for a shoddy version. Go for a Lowepro - I paid ten dollars and it is very sturdy - also has a nice inside pocket to keep memory cards.Hint #3: Buy a separate set of rechargeable batteries you can swap on the go. The AA battery format is a huge plus.Picture clarity is great for the size and price of the camera. The camera and case are small enough that I WILL take it anywhere, and have. In other words, it is a convenient model.I did find that for indoors the flash was inadequate at a distance. The zoom could also have been 4x or 5x.All in all I am quite happy with this model - but stay away from buying Sony brand ‘peripherals’ unless you like spending money.This camera fulfills my needs. The only reason it does not get five stars for the above drawbacks. Otherwise, a great job by Sony and their third-party peripheral competitors!
further info visit; http://www.petrousdigitalcameraprices.blogspot.com
FinePix E550 Digital Camera (6.3MP, 4048×3040, 4x Opt, 16MB xD-Picture Card)
Strengths: Well priced, 6+mp, all features including raw image Weaknesses: This camera uses 2 AA cells in a hurry Summary: As a professional digital camera lecturer, I must admit that the Fuji E-550 was a very pleasant surprise for me. Priced at about $340, this digital camera produced digital photos that were much sharper, more detailed, and more excellent than I, frankly expected.I found the digital camera very easy to use right out of the box. While this digital camera does have a 12mp interpolated image size available, I found the 6mp native image size to have more contrast, detail and resolution.As you might expect in a consumer digital camera, the digital camera’s flash is not very powerful. At 200 ISO it will produce excellent exposures out to 13 feet. By adding a supplementary slave flash such as the Sony HVL-FSL1B and a bit of flash compensation, I was able to extend the effective flash range out to 25 feet, making the Fuji E-550 useful for indoor photos of large groups.The Fuji E-550 does an equally amazing job with macro or close-up digital photos. It will focus quite close making it very effective for photos of small items and jewelery that might be photographed for sale on auction sites such as www.ebay.com.The strongest suit for the Fuji E-550 is it ability to record a great deal of detail with extreme sharpness and clarity while being handheld. The Fuji E-550 is also very capable of taking excellent night photos when it is placed on a tripod.All in all, I was extremely impressed with the Fuji E-550. I received a lot more digital camera than I expected for the samll price of $340. For those who like to use the raw image format, you will understand that you can essentially re-take the digital photo all over again right in your computer. This is a huge advantage.Of course, being a Fuji digital camera, the Fuji E-550 uses the somewhat more expensive XD electronic data chips. However, the Fuji E-550 is very speedy. From power on to being ready to take the first digital photo takes 1.4 seconds. This digital camera is equally as fast in writing your digital photo to the XD chip.The newer Fuji digital cameras are marketed to compete dollar for dollar with the Kodak line of digital cameras. Therefore, they tend to be very competitive with Kodak and offer in most cases, a lot more features.There is available for the Fuji E-550 an adaptor as well as both a wide angle and a telephoto (1.9X) supplementary lens. The supplementary lenses are very fairly priced and readily available through Fuji’s own website. This is a pleasant contrast to the accessories offered by Sony, through their own website, whose wide angle and telephoto supplementary lenses are unreasonably high in price.
Conclusion: The Fuji E-550 is a top quality digital camera. It more capable than most might expect. In addition, it is quite small and pocket sized, extending its appeal to many more digital camera users. It is worthy of your attention. The digital photos produced by this digital camera are amazing and compare most favorably with much more expensive consumer digital cameras. I would happily purchase this camera again.I will be very confident in introducing the Fuji E-550 to the attendees of my workshops all over the world. It is a digital camera that I can point to with a lot of pride, simply because it gives the digital camera user many features and excellent digital photos for a very resonable price.
further info please visit; http://www.petrousdigitalcameraprices.blogspot.com
Snap the Perfect Moment With a Casio High Speed Pocket Camera
Dilip Dahanukar asked:
Ever since I read about the Casio high speed camera, I was fascinated by its features. The camera promised 1000 frames per second (fps) photography at incredible 1/40,000 sec. speed! I weighed the pros and cons of getting the normal 20x optical zoom model or the pocket version. The pocket version had a lower optical zoom of 5x but there could be more fun carrying it innocuously to parties and social functions. So I ordered the Casio Exilim Ex-FC100 camera from a shop in New York and received it by UPS within a few days.
I opened the box and looked at the small 156g camera which was about the size of a normal cell phone, just a little wider and thicker. But on closer look, there seem to be many buttons on it which looked unfamiliar to me.
The first remarkable difference is that the movie mode has its own dedicated ON-OFF record button separate from the normal shutter button for taking pictures. This facilitates the taking of snapshots even when the movie clip is being shot!
Just below the movie record button is a rotary toggle to change from standard to high definition HD mode. The camera is capable of taking a HD movie at 1280×720 pixels at 30 fps. The STD mode supports high speed movies at 210 fps, 420 fps and 1000 fps. As you climb higher on the fps scale, the size of the image reduces proportionately. The size of the image at 480×360 pixels at 210 fps is acceptable format for YouTube.
I tried shooting the flight of pigeon at different speeds, and was surprised at the 1000 fps movie clip. The recorded slow movement of the wings was a pleasure to watch. It displayed how nature has perfected its flying machine; you can see it at YouTube: 7RC2W97_yz0. I recorded a man walking at 210 fps and it unfolded the walking movements which were not evident at normal speed. The movie of a bird flying in the sky at 420 fps was also fun to see.
But I soon discovered the limitation of the high speed function. The built-in flash did not support high speed and therefore shooting HS indoors or at night does not give the desired results. The clips are grainy due to high ISO and don’t look that great. The high speed function is therefore useful in shooting sports and interesting movements at outdoor settings preferable in sunlight or really bright light. I shot a movie of the flight of a butterfly in my garden at 420 fps. The movie turned out to be an art film! My jerky hand movements were smoothened by the high speed into a smooth flowing composition! See it on YouTube at 7Q_wZVawYMA.
After exploring the movie mode, I went on to see what the camera does for the snapshots. I searched for the normal aperture and speed priority settings, but did not find any. The exposure therefore is completely automatic and the camera selects the best exposure by setting the aperture, speed and ISO (in auto mode) on its own. There is nothing manual setting about it.
What requires manual settings are a host of options related to speed. Looking at these features you know that it is a versatile high speed camera with potential ability to give you the perfect shot every time. When an event is happening at a fast pace, it is very difficult to capture the right moment. By the time you press the shutter button, you may have missed the exact moment. There are 3 ways by which the camera helps you overcome this hurdle: (1) by offering you a selection from a series of 6M images taken at upto 30 fps just before and after clicking the button; it does that in high speed continuous shooting CS mode or (2) by getting the camera to show you the action in slow motion for you to click at the right moment. When you point and shoot at an object by pressing the button “Slow” located at the top left, the camera begins to record images for the time period chosen by you which can be 1, 2 or 3 seconds. The camera then plays out the stored images slowly at speed chosen by you within the scale of 1 to 8. As the images are played on the screen you have plenty of time to click the right moment of the event by pressing the shutter button. Only the frame which you click is saved on the camera. And finally (3), by capturing and saving multiple pictures at 1 fps in the normal speed continuous mode. The camera takes and saves the 9M sized images as long as the shutter button remains pressed. You can then select the shots that you like. All these three modes give you ways to capture images over the duration of the event so that you do not miss out the precise moment. I found that this was the unique and most useful ability of the camera.
On the mundane duty of the camera to take 9M single frame shots, the quality of the pictures at normal settings was not satisfactory. I found that I needed to set Quality at Fine, Sharpness at +2, Saturation at -1 and Contrast at +1 to obtain good shots comparable with my Panasonic camera. The other picture parameters are easy set quickly. Press the button on the bottom right labeled BS which stands for Best Shot. Thumbnail images showing different scenes like outdoor, shade, portrait, high contrast etc. open up on the screen. Just match the scene you are going to shoot with corresponding one and viola; all the settings are automatically done.
Overall, I find that the camera can be used to capture a series of pictures covering the time-span of the event from which selection could be made. This is a unique solution to capture the right moments which makes our chosen photographs more eye-catching and free of mis-timed shots. I really do not know whether there is any practical value in everyday photography for its ability to make slow motion movies with high speed recording, though it’s an interesting gimmick. It may have some specific applications in analyzing the movements of sportsmen and actors. The ability of the camera to do HD movies is positively a welcome feature. The EX-FC 100 is undoubtedly a significant step forward in camera innovation. Casio merits applause for launching such a creative camera in the market. As for me, it’s the camera that I would be carrying in my pocket wherever I go.
Capture Your Memories for a Lifetime in Your Camera
Nor Nan asked:
g a camera might be cumbersome for some people. With a wide range of options, which are available in the market, one can always get lost using the different features of this gadget. However, as a device, a camera surely gives you the advantage of capturing memories in a single snapshot. Going back through time, the first camera was big enough and it needed a lot of preparation before one could use it. As years passed by it became smaller and thinner. All you need is a good camera to capture your precious moments and share these with others.
Again, this simple invention brought us closer to what we really need as human beings. We need to remember a lot of things in life just in case our memory fails us. We need a camera not only in happy moments but it also provides evidence in court about a crime that was committed. In a camera, we share both the happy and sad realities of human existence. The snapshots bring us closer to who we really are. It brings us in unity with our neighbors in another country. It makes us realize that capturing these different situations reveal our interconnectedness. This simple machine leads us to the discovery of what we truly need in our lives as human beings.
Capturing Each Moment Like Capturing A Part Of Your Life
Surfing the Internet, opens us to tons and tons of pictures ranging from situations of happiness and peace to war and poverty; showing us the different human realities that are captured through a picture; and it makes us understand that we have to do something to make this world a better place. As we receive the photo, we see a glimpse of another part of the world. Humanity is responsible for the situations that are happening in our everyday life. It captures who we are and what we can become. This simple gadget is now placed in cell phones and computers. It is through responsible use of this machine that we build the future of our world and it is through abuse that we destroy it.
As the world continues to revolve and life goes through the different stages of evolution, the camera also goes through a process of transformation, which continues to capture important aspects in our history. Through the photos, humanity now learns from the past as it travels onwards to the future. As a gadget, this will take on other forms but essentially, and it will continue to do its job of capturing the meaning of life. This explains why a lot of people would prefer buying a cell phone with a camera; there is a thirst within us for collecting our memories. Hence, it is through its responsible use, that it attains its perfection. The camera is only useful when it achieves the common good. It should be used to build humanity and not destroy it. This is one of the means where we can share our feelings with one another and brings us closer to each other. The challenge still remains - let us capture each moment!
