[MUSIC] Welcome back. Cameras and Capabilities. I often tell my students that they're not really learning photography. They're learning vocabulary, and that is absolutely true in this Coursera environment as well. Whatever your study of photography is it's learning new terms. And not just dictionary definitions of those, but learning what they apply to and applying that to your own photography. So let's get going. We're going to look here, throughout this lecture, at the various capabilities that we will want to have in hand, literally, in our cameras, and in our mind as we think of this act about making photographs. And this will help you tremendously if you're looking for another camera or if you got a new camera and you really don't understand it very well. Understanding the vocabulary, what these terms mean, gives you a great sense for what you should be looking for in the camera that you might be purchasing and in the camera that you already own. Capabilities that you maybe didn't even know existed because you didn't know the vocabulary. You didn't know how to apply it. You didn't know what it meant. So we're going to run through some terms here. There's a lot of them. You'll want to review this lesson a number of times, I think, and make good notes. But we're going to cover these capabilities that you need to know about in order to fully use the capabilities of your digital camera. We'll start off with shutter speed. This is common in film cameras, as well as digital cameras, of course. What's the range of options for you in terms of the shutter speed? In other words, what's the longest shutter speed that camera's capable of? Some of them have a capability of 60 seconds or longer. If you've got a B setting on the camera, that B setting allows you to keep the shutter open for days if you wanted to simply by keeping your finger on the shutter release button or using a remote shutter release. And just saying, lock it open baby and keep it going. What's the fastest shutter speed capable in your camera? Is it a five-hundredth of a second or a thousandth of a second? These are very common in film cameras, or in digital cameras we can get up into the six, eight, ten, twelve-thousandth of a second sometimes. So take a look at the range of shutter speeds that are available. Second thing to look at is that other control over the amount of light that can hit the sensor and that's the aperture setting. In other words, the hole that light can be passing through the lens during the exposure. Of course, sometimes you're buying a camera with interchangeable lenses, and each of those interchangeable lenses might have a different range of apertures but know what they are. The widest aperture setting, in other words the widest opening, is going to be a small number, like f/4 or maybe f/2.8 or f/2 or maybe even f/1.4, really small number, really big opening. What's the smallest opening? Is it f/16, or does your lens go up to f/22 or maybe f/32 or maybe even smaller? Of course, like anything else, the more options you have the more options you have. What are the modes of exposure that are available to you on your camera? Of course, with the least expensive digital cameras, you've got probably one, it's called automatic. You don't make any choices. The most expensive cameras will certainly give you automatic, but they'll also give you program, manual, aperture priority, so many more. Look for these capabilities, because the more options you have for setting specific exposure modes, the more control you're going to have later on. Now, if you're a new photographer, you probably don't even need most of them, right now. But as you gain in capabilities and gain in understandings of your subject matter, you'll want to do more, and you'll want those available to you. Look even for custom exposure settings that you can determine yourself for different situations. What's the ISO range of your camera? An ISO, of course, is international standard organization. It's a measurement, by those folks, of how sensitive the sensor is to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive the sensor is and the less light it takes to properly expose it. The lower the number, the less sensitive that sensor is and the more light it takes to properly expose it. So for an example, maybe ISO 100 is the lowest number you've got, and on an inexpensive point and shoot digital camera, the highest number might be maybe only 400 or a 600. So it's not a very big range of ISO settings. On a higher end camera, you might find anywhere from ISO 50 or 25 all the way up to, perhaps, 50,000. What are the types of images that your camera is capable of producing? Looking at the low-end cameras, probably just a JPEG, JPEG. And a JPEG file is a photograph that's developed by the microprocessor in the camera. It's immediately ready to use. It's not the biggest picture that the camera is capable of, but it's got the convenience of instant readiness. In creating a JPEG, the camera only uses a small portion of the digital information that's captured by the sensor during that exposure. Some cameras create only JPEGs, but they give you different options for different sizes. You might be able to create a small, a medium, and a large file JPEG. A RAW file is a record of the complete information about the light in the scene that was recorded by the sensor. It's the biggest file that the camera can record. As you get into a little bit more expensive camera, compact cameras and more expensive than that, you'll find that you're also able to access, not only a JPEG file, but a RAW file. And those RAW files aren't processed information by the camera at all. It's just zeroes and ones. You need to use an independent piece of software in your computer to process that picture after exposure. What's the size of your sensor? Well, that's part of what you're paying for and you want to know what that is. It has a lot to do with the ways your pictures can come out and the way your lenses perform, too. We call a full frame sensor, the same size as about a 35 millimeter slide or negative, that's about 36 by 24 millimetres. An APS-C sensor is about 24 millimeters by 16 millimeters. It's a bit smaller than the full frame. And another commonly used sensor these days, you'll find in many mirrorless cameras, is what they call the four-thirds size. That's 17 millimetres by 13. Of course there are a lot of different sensor sizes, especially if you get into the point and shoot style the less expensive cameras, the sensors can be even smaller. Knowing the size of the sensor is important, that size of the sensor determines the size of the file that you're going to be able to produce. Two other things you want to know about this sensor is that a CCD sensor, meaning a charge coupled device. In that kind of sensor, all the pixels on the sensor are exposed at the same time in any given line. A CMOS or complimentary metal oxide sensor, the pixels are exposed one at a time kind of like they are on a TV screen. You've probably seen lines or bands on a TV image at a certain point. And that's those pixels one at a time across any given line changing. And that's the way they are exposed from the camera, with a CMOS censor. What kind of metering capabilities does your camera have? Well, point and shoot, probably one. It's an averaging meter, it's going to take account of all the light that's in the scene. Average it all together and there's your exposure recommendation. The camera just shoots. What you see is what you get. More advanced or more complicated cameras, you might find other metering modes. Spot meter, for example, which is going to meter a very tiny spot on your subject. Might be center weighted, it'll face most of the exposure in the central area of the picture. Might be what we call evaluative. And an evaluative meter, meters all the different spots in the scene. And evaluates them based on some computer information on other picture types that are in the processor of the camera. White balance, what does that mean. White balance means the adjustments of the ways that colors look in you final picture, based on the color of the light source itself. Different light sources have different white balances. They might be cooler, in other words look bluer, or they might be warmer, in other words look redder. An ordinary tungsten lightbulb is more on the red orange end of the spectrum. And the flash, the strobe, like you might find on your camera, is much more on the blue end of the spectrum, like daylight is. Having the ability to adjust the white balance, to pick specific white balance options. And even to customize those white balance options, that's a very important capability as you get more in control of your photography. What does optical zoom mean? Optical zoom simply means for any given lens if it's a zoom lens. The elements of glass in the lens can be moved to create a longer focal length or a shorter one. A wide angle lens, a telephoto lens. 20 millimeters, 15 millimeters. Those are wide angle focal lengths for most cameras. 80, 100, 400, those are telephoto lens settings for most cameras. The bigger the number the more telephoto. The smaller the number the more wide angle. Digital Zoom means pretty much pretending that your lens is longer than it really is. You know, when they put the lenses together and put the pieces of glass in the lens and wrap it all up, it's set. It's going to be say a 100 to 400 mm zoom. That's really optically all it can do. So let's say you've zoomed out to the longest focal length of 400 mm, but your subject still isn't big enough In the frame. Well, if you've digital zoom capabilities with your camera, you can use a smaller portion of the sensor and thereby make the subject bigger. And it looks like you got a longer focal length lens on. What are the video and sound recording capabilities of your camera? Well, is it HD video or not? Is it HD video in 720p or 1080p or 4K? Does it allow you to create videos in NTSC? For the United States, or PAL for Europe and other places. Do you have stereo sound or mono sound? Is there a built in microphone only, or can you plug an external microphone into your camera? Once you've made a photograph, how do you get it out of the darn camera? Well, on the most simple cameras, the only way to get the picture out, is to just simply take the memory card out and plug it into a computer and off you go. More and more complicated cameras allow you more and more options for getting that image out. And also, for connecting the camera to a computer or other device like a tablet or a cellphone. With a more advanced camera, you can connect that camera perhaps with a wire. Plug the wire into the camera, plug the other end, USB into computer, and they're one unit. Or with more advanced cameras yet, there's wi-fi capability. Press a few buttons on your computer, or your phone, or your tablet. A few buttons on your camera, and they're talking to each other. There's another option too that's come up recently. Near field communications, or NFC. Which is a little radio signal that, if the computer and the camera are close enough to each other, can also be used to transfer images and information back and forth. Does your camera have what we call custom settings? And these are custom settings for exposure. They can really be quite custom. Pretty commonly, if you do have custom settings you might find one for portrait. Which means the camera assumes that your subject is going to be within a few feet of you and probably photographed from the waist up. Or maybe mountain, assuming that the landscape is far away. Or even perhaps under water, if you can take your camera under water. In which the camera will compensate for the color of the water, which is quite blue, and make the scene look more normal in color. However, there are maybe dozens of other options that you can find on other cameras. Some that are really quite sophisticated they can turn the background out of focus, or instantly in focus, by making two or three photographs of the same scene. There are endless combinations and looking at those custom settings in the camera you own, or the camera you might be buying, is really important for you to understand. What are the accessories that are available for the particular camera you're looking at? Whether it's in your hands already or it's in the store. Are there underwater housings for the camera? That's kind of cool. Are there separate viewfinders for example that you can put on the camera? If it's a compact camera or a muralist camera, does it have an EVF? Electronic viewfinder that you can add. Does there have a remote control capability, either one that you plug in or one that can connect by WiFi? Lots of different options to look for. You'll need to look for them in making a good decision about which camera is right for you. Take a look at the camera, not only in the picture, but in your hands. I always recommend to students that they go to the camera store, pick up the camera, hold it, think about it. Don't just hold it for a second or two, but really think about how it feels in your hands. And then raise it up to your eye. If you have a big nose like me maybe that nose was kind of getting in the way, especially if there's a touch screen back there. Do you have large hands or small hands? Are you left-handed? Are you right-handed? What makes the camera feel comfortable to you or uncomfortable to you? What are those controls? Do your hands kind of form naturally on the camera and then your fingers fall naturally near the zoom button, or the exposure control button, or other controls? In other words, is the camera comfortable? You can't tell that from a picture. Where's the flash if it's built into your camera? Is it really close to the lens? Probably, if it's a less expensive camera. Is it farther away? In fact, can it actually pop up out of the camera body and be even farther away? You'll find that with a little bit more expensive camera. The farther the flash is from the lens itself, the less you're going to run into the problem of red eye. And red eye, of course, is the light coming as close as possible to the lens, to the subject, hitting their eyes, bouncing off the back of their eye and back to the camera. And that's that red eye effect. Are you like me in that you lose things every once in a while? Well sometimes having a colored camera can help you. There are a lots of options for camera colors today. In fact, a lot of manufactures putting out the same camera in a white body and a black body. And in some in a red body, or a pink, or a green, or a silver or you name it. Sometimes that's a practical thing, helps you find it. For other people it's a kind of a style statement. If you photographing children or other people who are some times distracted, maybe having a colored camera can be a really good tool for you as a photographer to keep their attention on you. The other thing that body color can convey to the subject is that you're not a serious photographer. And I will sometimes use a camera in a situation, perhaps in a museum or some other place where professional photographers are banned. I'll use a colored camera, or a less expensive looking camera to make my pictures just so that people don't feel that I'm a pro. And maybe they feel intimidated by me, or they'll notice me too much. I kind of blend into the scenery a little bit more with a camera like that. What's the size of that viewing screen? Now as much as I hate to admit it, I'll shoot a picture and look right down at it myself. And what I want to see is a nice big, bright, colorful picture. One that's easy to see, no matter what lighting situation I'm in. You also want to see whether that screen can be adjusted. Can it pop out? Can it be angled one way or the other? Can it be angled up so that you can see it as the camera's pointing at you to make those awful selfies? Can it be angled so that you can hold it way down low looking down, or maybe even have it on the ground and still see the sensor, see that live view and make your picture confidently? To wrap this up, think about which of these capabilities are the ones that are associated with the kind of photography that you want to do. If you'd like to do sports photography, well you're going to be looking for a camera which has the capability to have a very fast shutter speed. And perhaps a very slow one also to convey the emotion of movement. That's just a small example. Think about what kind of photography you want to do. What do you need to be able to do to do that photography? And then what does your camera need to be able to do to provide that image to you? [MUSIC]
