2. Digital Cameras: P-2201 1 Digital Cameras

3. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Digital Cameras Topics – Optical Viewfinders – Using the LCD screen – Using and protecting media cards – Utilizing compression 2

4. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Types of Digital Cameras Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras have changeable lenses and numerous settings that can be modified. Digital “point and shoot” cameras have a fixed focal length lens or fixed zoom lens. 3

5. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Effects of Corrective Eyewear Recommend bifocals or half frame readers for quick changes in focal distance – Use far vision to frame the focus – Use near vision to set menu and review results on LCD screen D-90 camera has a diopter correction function for corrective viewing in viewfinder – Small dial located next to viewfinder – Try before you fly! 4

6. Digital Cameras: P-2201 LCD Screen LCD screens on a mission are difficult to use to frame a shot in an airplane – Small and hard to view in bright sunlight Must use camera viewfinder to frame shots on CAP missions. 5

7. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Camera Batteries Safety tips: Lithium Ion (Li-on) batteries can start fires if they short out. Always keep spare Li-on batteries in a protective case or pouch Battery requirements for CAP missions. – Spare rechargeable battery – AA Alkaline batteries for extra battery pack 6

8. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Media Cards Should to have a spare SD memory card for the camera – Can swap cards for immediate re-launch. Minimum size of 2-4 GB each. – Primary media card – Alternate/back-up media card kept in camera bag 7

9. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Protecting the Media Card Have a formatted card A corrupted media card means it is unusable and unreadable. Typical causes of media card corruption: – Turning off camera before image printed to card – Removing card before photo printed to card – Removing card from card reader while images being transferred – Using a card that has not been formatted for a specific camera – Taking photos on camera with exhausted batteries – Shooting photos with a full media card 8

10. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Image Compression JPEG is an image format that is based on (lossy) compression and is the preferred CAP format – Smaller file sizes – File size, image quality & compression artifacts dependent on compression parameters, typically: Fine– 95% of TIFF size Medium – 75%-85% Low – 23% TIFF (typically uncompressed) and RAW (uncompressed) are image formats that can be compressed. – Large file size – No compression artifacts 9

11. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Typical D90 JPEG Image - 4288 x 2848 Pixels 10

12. Digital Cameras: P-2201 Effects of Compression (Resizing) a JPEG Image 11 Original JPEG 4288 x 2848 3.1 Meg Bytes Re-compressed JPEG 1024 x 768 0.8 Meg Bytes ~ 3.8 to 1 file size reduction (lower quality + more compression artifacts)