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A camera for the crossover crowd
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There are digicams for dummies — and for the hardcore professional. Now here's something for the in-betweens
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DIGICAMS The market is booming
Can you tell pixels from PictBridge; do you know how to do white balancing or auto-bracketing? Can you tell the difference between digital and optical zoom? No? Then welcome to the worldwide club of digicam dummies.
These are some of the things that separate the men from the boys (and the ma'ams from the girls) when it comes to digital photography. But life is not all black and white — and surely not the world of photography, which embraces a whole universe of shades in between. Which is why digicam makers in recent weeks, seem to have discovered a small but growing market for cameras that are neither for the rank amateur not for the battle scarred professional.
There are a growing number of upwardly mobile customers (and we are not just talking about the size of their wallet), who want to make a smooth crossover from amateur to crossover, and demand something better than entry-level click and shoot cameras.
The Japan-based Canon, which is aggressively targeting the Indian customer, recently launched nearly ten new digital cameras at one go. The company provided MetroPlus with one of these new breed crossover models for detailed evaluation. We took the Canon Digital Ixus 750 for a test shoot and this is what we found:
This is the latest in the company's range of ultra-compact digicams, and sports one of the largest liquid crystal viewing screens (2.5 inch) to be found in this class of cameras.
However, unlike many amateur models, the Ixus 750 still includes an optical viewfinder. Anyone who has tried to use a digital camera outdoors in bright sunlight knows how difficult it is to see the picture on the viewing screen. A viewfinder also helps you almost triple your battery life. While those who believe in setting their cameras in `auto' mode and letting it `do its own thing' will have no problem.
The 750 also allows more enterprising clickers to choose their own combo of settings. You can compensate for exposure by adjusting the light sensitivity. You can also set shutter speeds from 15 seconds to 1/2000 second. Another feature that the `pros' like to do for themselves is what is called `white balance'. The digital camera needs a reference point which represents true white. It will then adjust all other colours based on this. With the 750, you can set the white balance for day-light, cloudy, fluorescent light etc. Or you could also leave it at `auto'.
This is a 7.1 mega pixel camera, which means over seven million separate dots define your picture. This is great going for amateurs and we had no difficulty getting sharp eight by 10 inch prints.
There are five different image sizes you can choose, and naturally you need the biggest resolution or size to make large prints. These days, most digicams include a movie mode and the 750 is no exception. It offers a maximum movie size that looks good enough on most television screens if shot at 30 frames per second. But you have to remember that when you use what are basically still cameras for movie, you eat up about 1.7 megabytes of space for every second. This might be no problem as long as you buy some additional memory cards of large capacity.
The Ixus 750 has an MRP of just under Rs. 30,000 but many Canon outlets will offer you a better deal and throw in a free 256 MB memory card. Internationally, this camera is priced around $400, but if you are asking a friend to bring you one from abroad, it is known in some countries as the Powershot SD 550. If your purse can bear it, Canon's crossover camera might well help you make a painless transition from amateur to professional.
A. VISHNU
vishnua@hotmail.com
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
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