bmsmith
Enlightened
sodakar, I am by no means a camera expert. I just want that written first before I start suggesting anything.
On my camera (Olympus C-700UZ), I have a few different modes on the dial. One of the modes is labelled "A" which is for full automatic mode. Basically, point and shoot. The camera adjusts ISO and shutter speed automatically in order to try to give consistent results no matter actual lighting conditions. I have another mode that gives me complete manual control over the camera, including ISO setting (100, 200, 400, 800), and shutter speed (from 1/1000 sec to 16 seconds).
I think of ISO as the sensitivity of the "film", which in this case is the CCD element in the camera. Higher ISO means greater sensitivity. What I think it means is that the shutter speed can be increased, yet the brightness/contrast of the picture will be just as good as a lower ISO/lower shutter speed. The bonus of high ISO/higher shutter speed is that action shots are not as blurry since the shutter is open for such a short time (less time for objects to move).
Now, for normal cameras you can just buy different kinds of film (ISO 400, ISO 800, etc). But with a digital camera you are stuck with the same CCD element for the life of the camera. Some elements are better than others and some of it has to do with how expensive the camera was (quality of components, etc). When you start going into the ISO 800 range, especially with dark shots, you will start to move into the edge of the signal-to-noise area of the CCD element's sensitivity range. Basically you'll start to see a "starfield" with many thousands of pixels of differing color throughout the entire picture. This starfield effect can wash out any other faint light in the picture, effectively ruining the shot. Taking nighttime shots with a digital camera is very hard. (for me)
If your camera has a "manual" mode where you can select the ISO and shutter speed and perhaps even aperture size, then you can manually set these values and leave the camera that way for every flashlight you want to take a beam shot of. For extreme comparisons between, say, a MAG Solitaire and a Streamlight UltraStinger (ahem, perhaps that is too extreme
), you may end up with one shot either completely washed out (due to the manual camera settings being too sensitive) or too dark (due to low light output of the flashlight combined with the low sensitivity settings of the camera).
The cool thing about digital cameras is that you can experiment without spending money on real film and you get instantaneous results. You mess up, just erase and start over.
Have fun and experiment!
- Brian
On my camera (Olympus C-700UZ), I have a few different modes on the dial. One of the modes is labelled "A" which is for full automatic mode. Basically, point and shoot. The camera adjusts ISO and shutter speed automatically in order to try to give consistent results no matter actual lighting conditions. I have another mode that gives me complete manual control over the camera, including ISO setting (100, 200, 400, 800), and shutter speed (from 1/1000 sec to 16 seconds).
I think of ISO as the sensitivity of the "film", which in this case is the CCD element in the camera. Higher ISO means greater sensitivity. What I think it means is that the shutter speed can be increased, yet the brightness/contrast of the picture will be just as good as a lower ISO/lower shutter speed. The bonus of high ISO/higher shutter speed is that action shots are not as blurry since the shutter is open for such a short time (less time for objects to move).
Now, for normal cameras you can just buy different kinds of film (ISO 400, ISO 800, etc). But with a digital camera you are stuck with the same CCD element for the life of the camera. Some elements are better than others and some of it has to do with how expensive the camera was (quality of components, etc). When you start going into the ISO 800 range, especially with dark shots, you will start to move into the edge of the signal-to-noise area of the CCD element's sensitivity range. Basically you'll start to see a "starfield" with many thousands of pixels of differing color throughout the entire picture. This starfield effect can wash out any other faint light in the picture, effectively ruining the shot. Taking nighttime shots with a digital camera is very hard. (for me)
If your camera has a "manual" mode where you can select the ISO and shutter speed and perhaps even aperture size, then you can manually set these values and leave the camera that way for every flashlight you want to take a beam shot of. For extreme comparisons between, say, a MAG Solitaire and a Streamlight UltraStinger (ahem, perhaps that is too extreme
The cool thing about digital cameras is that you can experiment without spending money on real film and you get instantaneous results. You mess up, just erase and start over.
Have fun and experiment!
- Brian