The era of digital photography has arrived. A filmless camera
whose image is captured on a photo-sensitive plate and is captured in digital
form. There is no film to load or develop and print. Once the
camera has been paid for, there is no further expense. Digital cameras
are expensive at the present time, but the cost is falling fast, and there
is an increasing variety on the market.
The image captured can be seen on the camera video screen before the record button is pressed. The quality and size of the required image is at once apparent. If the image captured is inadequate, it can immediately be discarded, and a new one composed. The image can be stored in the camera on removable disc, or downloaded to a computer immediately or at any time in the future. The image can be electronically manipulated there, and printed on photo-quality paper if required, or sent in a number of modalities to others by Internet or any other electronic medium.
This has immense implications for Meccano, where images of models are often hard to make, at exhibitions, or in one's own home, and where a picture can often save a thousand words. Where Meccanomen are scattered in so many countries around the world, these images can be freely and easily distributed, and the task of publishing magazines and making ModelPlans can be greatly eased.
John Stark has had considerable experience in digital photography, and
has written this article especially for Meccano OnLine WebSite.
Digital Photography
by Dr John D Stark
I originally purchased a Fujifilm MX500 digital camera.
It has a top resolution of 1280 x 1024 (also
640 x 480), three quality levels (fine = 4:1 compression of the
JPG
"photo" it takes; normal = 8:1, basic = 16:1) and three focus
levels
(hard, normal & soft). I normally use the following options
-
1280x1024, fine quality, hard focus - to take the best photos I can
(for archiving). It's easy enough to downgrade them for display
on
screen, emailing or putting on web-sites. The MX500 also is great
for macro photography - it focusses down to 3.5" away from a
subject so that a business card will fill the full frame - great
for
getting close-ups of detailed mechanisms. The MX500 uses 4 AA
cells (NiCads are fine and last a couple of hoursin normal use).
Unfortunately, the MX500 has several disadvantages. Firstly, it
comes only with a 2Mb Smart Media card, so it can hold only 2 of
the highest resoultion images (at 650 - 700 kb each) ranging to 38
basic images (640x480, 16:1 compression at 38kb each). I
overcame this deficiency by pruchasing a 16Mb SM card. It can
hold 23 top quality images and, at the other extreme 310 basic
images. The second disadvantage is the time taken to transfer
images to the computer via the serial cable. It takes about 2
minutes per HQ image. All this time the camera must be on and
it
really chews through the batteries. I purchased a floppy disk
adapter that looks just like a standard 3.5" FD - you place the
smart media card in that are read it just like you would a normal
disk. Smart media cards are a only 1.5 x 1.75" and about 1mm
thick.
The 3rd disadvantage of the MX500 was the plastic case. I
managed to demolish the plastic around the tripod mount without
even knowing I'd done it. Being able to mount the camera on a
tripod is very desirable for photographing Meccano. You can use
the 10sec delay to take photos hands-off to avoid camera shake.
I
consider the fragile case a design fault, and the dealers replaced
the camera under warranty but allowed me to pay a little more for
the MX700 - basically the same camera but in a metal case. This
one comes with a 5V power supply, uses a rechargeable Lithium
battery, but still only has the 2Mb SM card as standard. Despite
being identical in most respects the MX700 is a slightly older
model than the MX500, so the latter produces slightly better quality
images because it has more efficient inbuilt software for
compressing the images. However, the MX700 has a few extra
features - mainly the ability to adjust exposure, flash intensity,
and
white balance manually - but also the ability to take 16 shots (in
one frame) within a 2 or 4 second period. There's also a 2X digital
zoom (waste of time) that the MX500 does not have.
Overall, I think both cameras are excellent. I loved the quality
of
the images from the MX500, but those from the MX700 are nearly
as good. The robustness of the MX700 is great - its main
disadvantage is that it does not have a lens cover (MX500 does).
The MX700 is very compact (3" x 4" x 1.25") and can fit in a shirt
pocket!. In my view, the floppy disk adapter and a 16Mb Smart
media card are essential additions to either camera. If you choose
the MX500, then you'd need to get a 5V AC adapter too (this is
standard with the MX700).
There are now quite a few good digital cameras around. I can
whole-heartedly recommend either of the above. There's also a
new model (MX600) which has an optical zoom. Although it's more
expensive it may be worth a look. My overall suggestion would
be
to make sure to purchase a megapixel camera 1024 x 768 or
greater. 640 x 480 is not really good enough unless you're only
interested in producing photos for the internet. The critical
thing
with digital cameras is that there's only a fixed number of pixels
in
each frame. If you crop the image (because it is not the right
shape to fill a whole frame) then there are fewer pixels in the
image. If you enlarge it, the quality will deteriorate.
This will occur
quite rapidly with a 640x480 image, less so with 1280x1024 or
greater. Secondly digital zooms are a gimmick, they do nothing
that can't be done with software. On my camera, all the 2x digital
zoom does is convert a 1280x1024 image into a 640x480 image.
I
doubt whether it is necessary to have an optical zoom for
photographing Meccano either - better to be more concerned with
the macro capability. This is where these Fuij cameras shine.
Other makes I've read about can focus only down to 200 mm (8")
away. I've not played with these, but you'd want to make sure
than
you could get close enough to take the shots you want. It's very
important with digital cameras to fill the frame as much as you can
with the detail you want to capture because you can't enlarge very
much without losing detail.
Dr John D. Stark
10 Penzance St
Nelson 7001
New Zealand
phone 64 3 545 1025
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Last modified 04-04-01