Cameras:

I bought one of the less expensive digital cameras a year ago. My intended use was to make illustration images for websites. The images in the equipment section were all made with my little digital camera. The main problem I see with digital cameras is that the color filters are made right on top of the imager integrated circuit (IC) each pixel in the rectangular array of pixels is dedicated to a color. There are many different strategies that have been tried for how best to allocate the pixels to colors and exactly which color filters to use on the pixels. The common undesired result that occurs is that of color aliasing. This will happen most predictably on images that include things like cloth with fine stripes. The effect is a color rainbow along edges in the image. The only thing I didn’t get with my camera that I really wanted was a tripod socket. The next model that had one was a BUNCH more money and I decided to live without it.

Since I originally wrote this I had a chance to buy a different digital camera (1998). This camera has two added features over the camera I originally had. There is a built in flash, which is useful sometimes, and a tripod mount. The tripod mount is the feature I was really looking for. My current camera is a low-resolution model because my plan is that my only use for pictures from a digital camera is for web pages.

In 2003 I replaced my digital camera again. This time the feature I was most looking for was to have a camera that stored pictures on a removable camera card. Most of my interest in using camera cards was faster loading of pictures to my PC. Another reason was that having pictures on memory cards makes them easier to carry around. My main uses of a digital camera have remained the same. I only use digital pictures in web pages, or to attach to e'mails. This camera has resolution that is much greater than needed for these applications, but I simply resize the images in my picture editor before I use them. This camera also has a display on the back that lets me see the picture I have taken. This is nice, but it comes at the price of very short battery life. This camera uses two AA lithium batteries and I usually have six or eight spares in the bag with the camera. Depending on how I am using the camera, sometimes a pair of batteries last for less than one day's use.

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