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The inaugural meeting of our Digital Photography SIG was amazing. We literally
had a standing room only crowd and as with all of your Users Groups meetings
the information shared was nothing short of fantastic. Here is some of the
information shared at the meeting:
Basic computer requirements
If you already have a computer and it is working great for your purposes, don’t take this as a suggestion to buy a new computer. However, if you are
in the market for a new computer and want to know what to look for, here are
my suggestions from the meeting.
- Processor: (Basic User) Celeron or Duron 1 gigahertz (Advanced User) Pentium
4 or Athlon 1+ gigahertz computer.
- RAM: 128+MB for basic users and 256+MB for advanced users. We mentioned that
Windows 98 and ME usually don’t handle more than 512MB very well but XP will
pretty much handle whatever you put into it.
- Hard Drive: At least a 20 gigabytes.
- Monitor: 17” plus or dual monitors with a Radeon VE card.
- Other Drives: CD-ROM, CDRW, Zip (optional)
- Misc: 2 USB ports in front and 2 in back, 2 firewire ports, 1 ethernet port
“Photo quality” Printers
- Don’t buy a “photo quality” printer based on what the sales man says in the
store or the claim on the side of the box.
- Make sure that you see samples and find out how fast the ink dries and that it will print on any type of
paper.
Scanners
- Optical DPI is the most important aspect of a printer. If you plan on cropping or enlarging a lot of photos, go for a 600+ dpi scanner.
- Ignore the interpolated resolution because it doesn’t mean anything.
- If you buy a scanner with easy access buttons, don’t be surprised if they suddenly stop
working or if they don’t work the way they are supposed to.
Features of a Digital Camera
- Viewfinder – Using the viewfinder instead of the LCD panel will save batteries.
- LCD panel – Allows you to view and maintain images once they have been
taken. It also displays the image immediately after the photo is taken.
- Optical zoom – Digital cameras use both optical and digital zooms. Ignore
the digital zoom number because it doesn’t do anything. A higher optical
zoom will always produce a better image.
External Storage
The type of storage doesn’t make much difference but if you can’t store you
images on removable media then you risk running out of “film.”
Media Reader
Using a media reader will save batteries and wear and tear on your camera and
won't break the bank at $25-$40.
Transparency Scanner
- A transparency scanner allows you to scan slides and negatives at an extremely high resolution.
- This is the best option for serious digital photographers.
- They are very expensive though. Starting price is around $450 for a good one.
Links from this month's meeting
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