Last night, my daughters performed in a piano recital held by their piano teacher. Her policy has been, "no flash photography while a child is playing." But last night she didn't even try to stop the parents who did so, using digital cameras.
I suspect that many who buy digital cameras are surprised to learn how poorly they perform at EV0 to EV5. Unlike camcorders, few digital cameras can shoot above ISO 400. And in a dimly lit room like last night's, ISO 400 won't cut it. I didn't take pictures last night. When I do, I shoot at f/2.5, using 800 color print film set at ISO 1000. I have the film push-processed one stop. Next time, I'll probably shoot Delta 3200 black-and-white and say goodbye to color problems. People who buy digital cameras may not realize what they're missing until it's too late. There are times when you want the shutter to activate the moment you press the button. You simply can't do that if your camera waits till you press before it focuses, or fires off a series of pre-flashes. My older daughter is pressing me to get her a digital camera for her 15th birthday in April. "What features are important to you?" I asked. "Small size? Ability to shoot in low light without flash? Resolution? Ease of transferring to disk? Number of shots it can hold?" "I dunno," she replied. "Just make it smaller than a breadbox. I just want to be able to share pictures right away with my friends." She doesn't know it, but I think she's become hooked on the 6.1 MB scans provided by Dale Labs. I wouldn't get her anything below 3 MB. The new Pentax "Altoids box" camera is intriguing because it would always be with her. Actually, Dale Labs provides the Photo CD image, too, in Kodak's YMCK format, which I can open at a mind-numbing resolution of something like 12 MB. In PhotoImpact, I can open it directly into RGB colorspace. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
