Weekly Reflection 2- Presentation

Weekly Reflection 2

17/2/2014

Today as mentioned on last reflection, there will be three topics for presentation which were:

1) General Issue- Types of Camera

2) Digital SLR

3) DSLR Brands- Nikon VS Canon

I've chosen the first topic as my presentation. Through my own reading I figured out that basically there are three types of camera which are:

   1.  Compact Digital Camera

• Compact Digital Camera can be best regarded as the most common and demanded camera available in the market as it is light weight, portable and user friendly. The other term is known as "Point and Shoot", which points the advantages that the settings of the camera are fully automatic preset with necessary scene modes to offer consumers with a variety modes of picture capture preference. Of course, it is cheap and affordable.
• However, the main disadvantage of this type of camera is that it has a lots of technical drawbacks. Due to its compact size, the sensor of camera is small which limits the performance of the camera such as lots of shutter delay, sluggish when taking photos, limited zoom and tiny flash and lastly, limits in controlling capabilities and lens changing.

   2.  Advanced Digital Camera

• As the name implies, "advanced" digital camera offers the customers a better range of performance compared to compact digital camera. It has better zoom and a wider length of focus range. Users have more control over exposure and it includes automatic feature while still having highly customizable advanced features. This type of camera has a higher quality of glass lenses. It looks like a DSLR but in fact it is not a DSLR.
• However, although it has advanced features, users are still unable to change the lens and compared to DSLR, the zooming feature is shorter and still suffers from long delay and lag time when taking photos. Normally this type of camera has no mirror built inside the camera where users are not offered the view-finder feature but replaced with a LCD screen for capturing.

   3.  Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR)

• This type of camera offers the most professional feature which enables users to change lens, which is then raise up the performance of the camera where users have more control over focus and zoom, better flexibility and capability with exposure, little or no lag time and produce better pictures. Users can use view-finder feature for capturing.
• The two main disadvantages of this type of the camera are that it is highly expensive and it is not user-friendly. The accessories especially the lens are costly compared to digital compact camera and advanced digital camera. Moreover, the skills needed to fully uncover the potential of the camera is high which requires users to have adequate level of photographic knowledge to produce an image which is used to be as good as it is expected.

I ended up my presentation by stating the increasing level of pricing and professionalism for these types of camera starting from Compact Digital Camera >> Advanced Digital Camera >> Digital Single Lens Reflex.

The presentation was then continued by Nadwa on Digital SLR to discuss more on the information of this type of camera. One thing she noticed was the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. As the name implies, this type of camera is "mirrorless" where it does not have the view-finder feature yet this type of camera is the same with DSLR where users can change the lens. Dr. Jamalludin showed us the example of this camera which is the Sony Nex Alpha.

Sony Nex Alpha (Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera)

Dr. Jamalludin removed the lens to show us there is no mirror inside.

Sony Nex Alpha (Lens Removed with No Mirror Embedded)

Thus, this type of camera is leveled between Advanced Digital Camera and DSLR.

Lastly, the presentation was done by Uzailun on Nikon VS Canon. Two models were compared which were the Canon EOS 7D and Nikon D300S. The hardware specifications and features offered by each type of camera were listed. To choose which brand of camera, there was no specific answer. The most important factors depended  are the budget of users, the level of knowledge and lastly, the requirements. If we are passionate in photographing, then it's recommended to get a DSLR which is good in long run while if we just want to get photos for memories, digital compact camera is the best choice. Lastly, Dr. Jamaluddin introduced us a website, www.snapsort.com as a reference for us to know more on choices of camera.

With these presentation held, I was exposed to the greatness of the word of photographic. I knew I've discovered on the tip of the iceberg, thus I hope to learn more in this course.