I am a big fan of Digital SLR cameras.  These devices offer outstanding image quality and virtually instant autofocus and metering.  The difference between these and point and shoot cameras is like night and day. The downside is that dSLRs tend to be large and bulky particularly if you have multiple lenses.  Even an dSLR with one lense is typically bigger than a point and shoot.  IMO, point and shoot cameras are valuable because they offer improved portability vs dSLRs.  Historically, the downside has been image quality.

I recently ran across this article where the author compares the image quality between a $40,000 medium format camera and a $500 Canon Powershot G10.  The results from the two cameras were surprising similar.  A large group of photography professionals could not consistently differentiate between images taken from the two cameras!  Yes, he essentially says that a $500 a picture that is difficult to differentiate from a $40k camera.

The differentiation between the above two cameras will vary by specific lighting and situation.  In the case above, the performance was equivalent while there will be of other cases where there is no comparison.  (It better be that way when spending 50x more!)  That said, the fact the two cameras provide similar image quality in even one circumstance is amazing.

From my perspective, the Powershot G10 is the point and shoot camera to get if you are going to purchase one.  It retails for $500 although you can use the Microsoft Live/eBay discount to save 30%.

Today, I joined a pack of Cub Scounts in a model rocketry event.  I found the entire experience reminiscent of the past.  As a child, I spent many hours devoted to rocketry and have fond memories of spending hours building these rockets and then launching them.  The last one I built was a replica of the space shuttle and I remember to this day!  I cannot wait to do the same with my kids in the future.

I brought my camera to the event and took the pictures below.  It is a time series of pictures of a launch.  In case you were wondering, it was not that hard to take these pictures.  The launchers counted down from 5 and when they hit 1, I held down the shutter button.  Interestingly, even shooting at 6 frames per second, I was only able to capture 5 frames.

Frequent visitors to this blog know that I am very interested in digital photography.  I have created a number of posts highlighting key elements of digital photography.  Recently, I ran across a very interesting blog authored by a professional sports photographer from a newspaper in Seattle, WA.  Here is a link to the site and I recommend that you check it out.  I will be adding the site to the blogroll.

One the biggest problems I see with digital photographs relates to white balance. The typical symptom of this problem is unnatural tint to all of the colors in the picture. Most commonly, it is blue, but it could be a variety of colors. This typically is easily fixable in Photoshop or equivalent editing software. Let's talk specifically about what the problem is how to avoid and fix it. I will shortly be adding some sample images and a demos of how to fix white balance issues.

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In a previous column, I posted about exposure and how cameras use sophisticated algorithms to choose the proper exposure. In this piece, I will cover the basics on the algorithms that cameras use. Remember that many cameras have different metering modes, but all rely on common fundamental principals and this post will focus on those. After reading this article you will emerge with a basic understanding of camera metering and some of the common pitfalls to think about.

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