RAAF Radschool Association Magazine

RAAF Radschool Association Magazine - Vol 19 November 2007

Page 4

Digital Cameras

What's the best digital camera? It depends on what you want to use it for. Here are some features (besides price) that might be important when you go to buy a digital camera.

1.Size. Can you carry it in your pocket? Do you want to? There are some pretty small cameras available now.

2.Zoom. Optical zoom is the one that matters. Digital zoom is equivalent to cropping (trimming) a picture on your computer. Smaller cameras usually have less zoom capability because of the lens size.

3.Stabilization. If you get a camera with a large optical zoom, you might want to consider one with image stabilization. Otherwise, a lot of the zoomed-in pictures will probably be blurry if you don't use a tripod.

4. Resolution, a.k.a. megapixels. This is the number of dots (pixels) in a photo. An image with 1,600x1,200 resolution has 1,600 pixels across and 1,200 pixels vertically. This makes 1,920,000 pixels. Cameras with a maximum resolution of 1,600x1,200 are called 2 megapixel cameras (or sometimes 1.9 megapixel, if the manufacturer has a pang of conscience). If you double the resolution to 3,200x2,400, you get an 8 megapixel camera. In most applications, a 2 mega-pixel camera is OK, 3-5 megapixel is plenty, and 8 megapixel is probably overkill.

Larger images take more disk storage and take longer to transfer from the camera memory to your computer. But they're prettier, right? Not always!! In some cameras, the image resolution exceeds the accuracy of the lens. Sometimes the image resolution is so high you can't see it on the output device. In an 8x10 printed photo, it's usually hard to see the difference between a 2 megapixel and an 8 megapixel photo. It's really hard to see the difference between a 5 megapixel and an 8 megapixel image without a magnifying glass. The most visible difference would be caused by the colour, lens, and software of a digital camera.

Why would you want 8 megapixels or more? You can take an 8 megapixel image and crop it, effectively increasing the zoom. You can print an 8 megapixel image out on poster-size paper and have a very sharp image. If you do image processing and modification, it's usually easier if you have more pixels to work with. But if you take pictures for the web or to print off on printer 13"x19" or smaller, there may not be much purpose using a full 8 megapixels.

Laurie Lindsay recently came across this photo of 14 Appy at study. He says:

“It was taken outside a study hut at Frognall sometime in 1960. You will notice that some of the blokes are trying to study and others, like McEvoy, were stuffing around. Ted has never changed. I finally got around to going through the back issues of the magazine. The old Caribou seems to take pride of place. (it was the only aeroplane they would let me work on—tb). I was at 38 Sqn from 1969 to 1972 and some of the articles brought back some great memories. I was flying back from Port Moresby in a Caribou and an RNZAF Bristol Frightener took off from Townsville a half hour after us, flew beside us for half an hour making rude signs, and then beat us into Richmond by half an hour.

The Caribou was designed for landing and taking off, definitely not for flying. (I can remember flying back from Moresby too—the old Caribou was very slow so stayed a long time in the air to get anywhere. It didn’t have toilet facilities, but the in-flight ration box made a good substitute, followed by a swift kick out the ramp door).

Tiny Ashbrook was the SEngO and I once had an argument with him about selecting reverse pitch in the air. I had studied the wiring diagrams and I knew it could not be done. Tiny countered by saying "Come flying with me!" It really pissed me off having a smart-arsed pilot for a boss and three versions of the aircraft in the squadron. I lost!

If you see John “Porky” Donohue (ex-38Sqn clock winder) [right], please remind him that he still owes me a duty crew from 1972. I got posted before I could extract it from him. I will settle for a beer one Anzac day.

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