Battery Conservation Tips

Are you always running out of battery power just before you take that perfect picture with your digital camera? Here are some

tips to conserve your batteries when you are out “snapping away”.

1) Turn off your digital camera when not in use. If you are in a situation where you must snap pictures quickly, this may not

apply as turning digital cameras on and off take a few seconds, and may cause you to miss a picture-taking opportunity.

However, if you are taking a leisurely stroll and can afford a couple of seconds before snapping a still subject, by all

means, conserve your digital camera’s energy!

2) Many digital cameras have a regular viewfinder and an LCD viewfinder. While the digital LCD viewfinder has its benefits,

it can drain battery power. Turn it off when applicable and use your regular viewfinder for taking pictures.

3) Don’t stop after taking every photo and look at the picture in your digital camera’s playback mode. Granted, you sometimes

need to look at photos immediately after shooting them in order to make sure your exposure is correct, the lighting is ok,

etc., but doing this does use up your digital camera’s battery power.

4) If you are using MicroDrive media, be forewarned that these miniature hard drives may take up quite more power than

Compact Flash cards.

Taking care of you new battery pack

Normally, a new battery pack comes in a very low charge condition and must be fully charged before use. Refer to the user

manual of your portable electronic equipment for charging instructions. A new battery pack needs to be fully charged and

fully discharged or “cycled” as much as five times to condition them into performing at full capacity. Your equipment may

report a fully charge condition in as short as 10 to 15 minutes when the new battery pack is being charged for the first

time. This is a normal phenomenon especially for Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd) and Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) chemistries. When

this happens, remove the battery pack and let it cool

down for about fifteen minutes then repeat the charging procedure. “Conditioning” (fully discharging and then fully charging)

is necessary so as to maintain the optimum performance of a battery pack, and is recommended at least once a month

particularly for Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries. Failure to do so could result in reduced charge capacity and can significantly

shorten the battery packs useful life. Lithium Ion batteries do not require conditioning. It is normal for a battery pack to

get warm when charging and during use. However, if the battery pack gets excessive hot, here may be a problem with the

portable electronic equipments charging circuit and should therefore be checked by a qualified technician. Rechargeable

batteries undergo self-discharging when left unused for long periods of time. This is normal particularly in the case of Ni-

MH and Li-ion chemistries. For best results, always store a battery pack fully charged. It should be removed from the

equipment and kept in a cool, dry and clean place. The amount of runtime a battery pack produces depends on the power

requirements of components in your electronic equipment.

Don’t let under-charged batteries keep you from taking great photos.

If you infrequently use your digital camera, you may think that you after you use your digital camera, recharge your NiMH

batteries, wait a few weeks or months, then use your digital camera again, that your batteries will be charged and you’ll be

ready to snap photos, right?

Oops… Do that and you’ll be stuck with a non-functioning digital camera or one that just blinks a picture showing a dead

battery.

Rechargeable batteries don’t stay charged forever. They tend to lose a little bit of their power every day. If you charge

your batteries and frequently use your digital camera, you will probably never notice this loss of power. However, after a

couple of weeks, the power loss may be noticeable, and after a couple of months or longer of non-use, those once ready-to-go

batteries may have lost enough power to make them unusable.

Don’t get caught in this trap. Always charge your batteries before every trip, and make sure to use a battery charger with a sensor that prevents over-charge.

more info: http://www.camera-battery.org

A digital camera might look like a film camera but they are actually quite different. Both freeze light to make a photograph. Film cameras do this chemically using film. Digital cameras use a light sensitive CCD or CMOS silicon chip to convert light and digital information into pixels.

Pixels are the tiniest areas of light that your digital camera can recognize and change into information. The greater amount of pixels the more detail and higher the resolution the photograph. A low resolution color printout of tree will show that it is green but in a high resolution photograph the leaves and texture of the bark will be more sharply defined.

With digital photographs your have the ability to use software like Adobe Photoshop Deluxe and Microsoft Picture to edit photos and make corrections.

Choosing Your Camera

Important considerations when choosing a digital camera are: What do you want the camera to do? What features do you require? How much do you wish to spend on your camera?

There are professional high end cameras that cost thousands of dollars, cheap throwaway cameras and a huge selection of mid-level cameras available to choose from.

Will you be photographing images for the internet and for email? Will your photos be printed? For regular print size snapshots and web photos a one to two megapixel camera will do. In fact for the web a lower megapixel would be better as higher resolution photos are slow to download.

Do you want a point-and-click camera? Are you someone who just wants to get the picture taken with the least amount of bother. Do you want a camera that does everything automatically and you simply have to press a button? Or, are you someone who would rather figure out the best settings for your camera and make the adjustments manually? It’s always best to find a camera that suits your purpose, need and ability.

High or Low Resolution

High end, high resolution cameras are good for photographs that are to be printed. The greater the number of pixels the higher the resolution. High resolution does not make sense on the web as the extra resolution does not make images appear any sharper. Also, high resolution photos are slow to download on the web.

To print your photographs you will need a good quality color printer. If photos are to be printed, high resolution does make a difference depending how large you want the picture to be. High resolution will give a large print better definition. High resolution cameras cost more. Expect to pay more for high resolution. You also need to check that your printer can handle high resolution prints.

Lenses

Low-end digital cameras have fixed focus lenses made of plastic. With these lenses everything is focused and you don’t need to make a decision what to focus on.

Variable focused lenses are made of glass or high quality plastic. These lenses focus on whatever object you are trying to capture in a photograph.

Most mid-range digital cameras come with auto focus and manual focus built in. Auto focus is for point-and-click photos of whatever is in the middle of the frame. Or, by turning the ring over the lens, you can manually focus the camera. These cameras allow users to switch between auto and manual focus.

Zoom Lenses

Digital cameras have optical zoom and digital zoom lenses. Optical zoom costs more, give a better quality picture, and works the same way as on non-digital cameras with lens adjustments. A digital zoom comes about when the camera makes calculations to manipulates the pixels. Digital zoom gives a less sharp image. Some cameras include both optical and digital zoom.

View Finder

The view finder is what you look through to see what you are photographing. The view finder on both digital and regular film cameras will approximate the picture your lens is viewing. Digital cameras will also come with an LCD display that you can use to check your photographs and decide weather or not to keep them.

Lighting

When it comes to lighting you might not want the camera to make the decision automatically for you. On an auto setting you camera might not make the best lighting choice given the location and environment. At times like this you can appreciate being able to switch between manual and automatic settings.

Digital cameras allow you to test exposure and view a picture on LCD prior to pressing the button fully and committing to a photograph.

Flash

There will be a built in flash that comes with your digital camera. In addition, the better cameras have a location for a flash attachment. This is a good option for producing better quality photographs.

Connecting to Your Computer

You will need a PC USB cable, or for Mac’s – Firewire or Mac USB cable, to connect to your computer. You will also need a cable adapter for your camera’s CF (Compact Flash) or SM (Smart Media) card .

The CF or SM cards are removable high capacity storage cards for your photos. Your camera will use one type of card or the other. Not both. Check to see which type of storage card your camera uses.

USB connections are fast and easy to set up. Older cameras connect through a serial port. USB is faster and does not require that the computer be rebooted before it recognizes the camera.

Batteries and AC Adapters

Digital cameras often come with rechargeable batteries. It is best to have two sets of batteries. One set to use while the other is recharging. AC adapters make it easy to plug into an electrical outlet when you are near by one.

Main Drawback of Digital Camera

The main drawback of digital cameras is shutter lag delays when the camera delays responding after you squeeze the button. It is possible you may miss the moment when photographing moving objects due to shutter lag. Some of the newer cameras are beginning to address the problem.

Select a camera that does what you want it to do, has features you will use and is priced in the range you want to pay. This will be the right camera for you. If your experience is limited and you do not want to take a lot of time learning how to use the camera, go with a point-and-shoot camera. Something without too many features. If you are a camera enthusiast who wants to do more with your camera or is willing to take the time to learn how to use the feature then, by all means go all out.