Digital Photo Tips

This, the fourth incarnation (the FX7 was followed in fairly rapid succession by the FX8 and FX9), is on the face of it another minor facelift, but it does offer something still pretty unique in a camera in this class - a true wideangle zoom, covering a useful 28-102mm (3.6x) zoom range. It is, in fact, the world’s smallest camera with a 28mm lens. Other changes (detailed below) include a high sensitivity mode (offering sensitivities of up to 1600) and a new 16:9 widescreen movie mode.

* 6.4 megapixel CCD
* 28-102mm equiv. (3.6x) Leica DC Vario-Elmarit optical zoom
* 4x digital zoom
* Advanced Mega Optical Image Stabilizer
* New 16:9 840×480 pixel 30fps movie mode
* 2.5-inch, 207,000 pixel LCD with high viewing angle option
* 16 scene modes
* New High sensitivity mode (ISO 800-1600)
* Venus Engine PLUS
* Color options: Silver, Black, Pink, White (not all available in all areas of the world

Source from one of the best camera review site - dpreview

I did a review of the Panasonic Lumix FX8 a few months ago because I contemplated buying a small digital camera which I can easily bring everywhere. That model was succeeded by the FX9 and now, another model is out. The Panasonic FX01 (hmmm…why not FX10?). There is a few features which I like, e.g. the 28mm wide angle lense. I had to spend a few hundred RM just to get a wide angle lense for my Konica Z3. If you have taken photos with a wide angle lense, you will know the idifference it made between the more common 35mm. To put it simply, you can get a group photo of all your grandpas, grandmas right up to all the distant cousins! As the number gets smaller, i.e. 28mm compared to 35mm, the things that go into your photo gets wider.

As for the image stabilisation, this is what I tested:

I took several shots of my son running around and yet, there was not blurry pictures. Then, I use a quick motion, click the shutter while moving and still, the pictures turn out clear. Most cameras will not yield this result in dimly lighted area (in amber lightings in Gurney Plaza).

As for price, I guess it must be over RM1.8K. Anyone knows the actual price, do let me know. I can put this on my wish list. :)  This is the street  price in US and UK (taken from dpreview).

• US: $299

• UK: £249

Kodak has a website filled with information on digital cameras.  I like the way they explained what resolution is and how large a print for each different megapixels.  1MP camera can yield 5R print which is the size that we normally print.  In my opinion, once we have acquired a little skill in photography, we wouldn’t be cropping the photos.

Hahaha, I know many people took huge resolutions pic and then, only crop (cut) one corner of them.  Later, they englarge it.  This is not what we should aim for.  I believe good photographers ought to capture as-is basis.  They should immediately recognise from their viewfinder what they want from the photo and take what they see.  Photos that have been heavily cropped doesn’t look natural at all.  In fact, professional photographers don’t rely heavily on Photoshop to enhance their work(I read).  Only tacky and garish wedding photographers crop and twist and adjust the colour temperature of their works.   I had seen plenty of works like that.  Ewws..

Ok, back to the resolution.  Don’t fret if your camera has mere 3 MP.  It is good enough.

Resolution—determines picture quality
Resolution is a key factor in how big you can print and how much you can crop your pictures. It also affects camera cost. The higher the resolution, the greater the cost. For general picture-taking, we recommend a camera with a 2 to 3 megapixel resolution. Read on if you want to know more about resolution.In addition to a camera’s maximum resolution, review its other resolution settings. Many offer a range of settings, which can be convenient to fit more pictures on a picture card or save time making later adjustments. For instance, if you know you’ll only e-mail a particular picture, you could set the resolution setting low and not have to resize the picture later.

Resolution	Maximum print size
1 megapixel	5 x 7 inches
2 megapixels	8 x 10 inches
3 megapixels	11 x 14 inches
4 megapixels	20 x 30 inches

Resolution is the digital version of square footage. In other words, how many pixels (picture elements) are there on the sensor that creates the picture? The sensor is the digital equivalent of film—only it is used over and over. Resolution is expressed by the number of horizontal pixels on the sensor multiplied by the number of vertical pixels.

Resolution for a typical sensor might be as follows: 2,160 horizontal pixels x 1,440 vertical pixels = 3,110,400 pixels. Or in the language of digital cameras, 3.1 megapixels (mega equals million).