Cybershooters pack digital cameras to capture electronic images
06/02/2000
By Robert W. Bone / Special Contributor toThe Dallas Morning News
I was at a convention in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, this January when I had an opportunity to ``baja'' – drive an ATV willy-nilly over sandy hills and dales beside the ocean. After becoming passably proficient at baja-ing, I stopped on a convenient dune, flagged down a buddy, handed him my camera and asked him to grab a shot of me with my helmet, bandanna and other macho paraphernalia while astride my powerful vehicle.
 A high-resolution digital image shows detail of desert plants at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. |
``Don't drop the camera in the sand,'' I warned. ``It's a new digital!'' Later in my hotel room, I plugged in a wire and downloaded all the day's photos from the camera into my laptop computer. Then I punched up the ATV picture on the screen, saw it was clear and sharp, and titled it ``Baja Bob.''
My laptop's modem was plugged into the data port on my room's phone. With a few strokes on my keyboard, I e-mailed this electronic souvenir simultaneously to my wife in Honolulu and my daughter in Los Angeles.
The operation took only a few minutes. And it made a big hit with the family. That image along with other recent digital camera travel pictures can be seen on the Web (http://robertbone.com/digitalcameras/ digital.htm).
Since that day in Cabo, I have discovered some advantages and a few disadvantages of traveling with a digital camera. On balance, it's a fun and economical method for documenting your vacation experience.
Yes, economical. Although a good digital camera may set you back the better part of a thousand dollars, it can eventually pay for itself if you take a lot of pictures. The principal savings: No film to buy and no developing charges. Secondary savings: Fewer wasted shots, because you can view the picture on the camera's own 2-inch LCD screen after you snap it. If you don't like it, push the button and it's gone.
Probably the only travelers who should be wary of electronic cameras would be those who have no computer-savvy members in the family. This will no doubt soon change, as more commercial digital services are offered.
 Use of available light captures the mood of lunch aboard a moving trolley in Melbourne, Australia. |
Meanwhile, it's an advantage if you, your computer-clever offspring or your Uncle Ned are equipped with a PC or Mac and a good color printer to reproduce your fond memories at the end of your trip.
It also helps if you travel with a laptop computer into which you can download your pictures every evening, freeing up your ``flash card,'' the film's electronic equivalent, for the next day's activities.
Most cameras come with a flash card of only eight megabytes, allowing about 12 high-resolution or 100 or so low-res (less fine detail) snapshots. So I bought an extra one of 48 megabytes. This allows me to take more than 100 high-resolution pictures or more than 600 low-res shots before downloading. (Today you can get cards with as high as 340 megabytes for about the same price as a second digital camera.)
For this article, I spent three weeks with the Nikon Coolpix 950, putting it through a workout shooting pictures in Australia and Hawaii. I also shot previously in Europe, China and Mexico with an Epson PhotoPC 800, a smaller, shirt-pocket size camera with more-limited features. (It has a sharp lens but no zoom, and the batteries run out quickly.)
The Nikon seemed to have more controls and readouts than the space shuttle. But once I learned how to manipulate the more important of these features, it surprised me with talents I never imagined a camera could have.
In one mode, for example, you can hold down the button until the shutter has rapidly clicked several times. It will then present for your approval one picture which is the sharpest and best exposed of the lot. (This is no good for some situations, such as capturing moving objects. For that, you use the camera's sequential mode.)
Because of the digital's high sensitivity – perhaps equivalent to a maximum film speed of 800 or more – you may find yourself shooting in situations where you would previously never unholster a camera.
I found myself snapping away in airplanes, airports, restaurants, theaters and nightclubs. And I took more photos, because I could erase what I didn't like – and I did a lot of erasing.
 Cadman's Cottage, the oldest building in Sydney, Australia, was photographed digitally. |
In Melbourne, I took a picture in a dark pub where the camera seemed to be able to see better than I could. Of course, I could always use the built-in flash, but I found that most pictures looked more interesting when shot using the available light.
In unusual situations, such as under fluorescent lighting, the pictures sometimes come out with an unrealistic color balance. But as your Uncle Ned knows, this can often be corrected later with a few moves on mouse and keyboard.
With your camera set on one of its automatic pilot selections, where it chooses the proper shutter speed and other settings, it helps to have a very steady hand, or preferably a tripod, in low-light situations. I found that these hand-held pictures often looked fine on the camera's little screen, but when later enlarged to 8 by 10, they exhibited a greater or lesser amount of blur.
Some disadvantages
•When you squeeze the shutter, the camera is sometimes busy taking care of internal business, processing the previous picture perhaps, causing an annoying delay before snapping the photo.
• Batteries – usually AAs – must be in top condition. I used Lithiums or NiMH rechargeables, not conventional alkalines, and always carried fully charged extras. (Today's small chargers now work on foreign voltages.) Batteries will last much longer if you turn off the LCD screen and use the optical finder.
•The lens cap on the Nikon covers only the lens and not the eye- level optical viewfinder. As a result, I sometimes found myself shooting blanks. Of course, this isn't possible when using the LCD screen to compose your picture because its image comes directly from the lens.
Additional advantages
•Never again will you have to investigate back alleys in out-of-the- way places to find film of dubious quality. Yours is always with you.
•Using the LCD screen, it's easy to take candids of colorful locals going about their business without their being aware of it, especially when using the maximum zoom. (In the case of the Coolpix, that probably is because no photographer has looked down into a camera to take a picture since Roleiflex and box Brownie days.)
•Because of the unusual wasp- waisted twist on the Nikon, you can zoom to the widest focal length, point the lens back to you and use the LCD view to compose a self- portrait of yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House or whatever.
 The Nikon Coolpix 950 swivels to allow self-portraits. |
•At day's end, you can take the camera back to your hotel room, connect it to the TV and view large versions of your photos while you're still on vacation.
Conclusion
The digital camera may not be for all travelers yet. But for the avant-garde explorer who is reasonably familiar with today's home computers, it can be an exciting addition to a good trip.
Robert W. Bone is a free-lance writer based in Hawaii.