Camera Photo comparison

Digital Camera Photo Comparison

Ok, so I'm a technology and marketing geek. I actually enjoy hanging out at Best Buy to listen to the questions people ask the Best Buy employees about products and technologies (digital cameras, wireless 802.11 networks, laptops, backup hard drives, etc.).

Digital cameras have come a long way. My first digital camera was the original Apple QuickTake back in 1995. Over the years, I've purchased many cameras as the technology and products improved. I know how hard it is to determine which camera is the right one for you. I would search Google for "digital camera review" to see what others say about the current crop of cameras on the market.

Here are some things I've learned over the years:

- If you are planning to use the camera on trips, size is important. You'll probably have the camera with you more if it's smaller, so you'll have it when you see a good photo opportunity.

- Having a camera that uses regular batteries is a plus. If you're out somewhere and your batteries die, it's nice to be able to pop into a store, but some batteries, and start taking photos again. If the camera requires a special battery, you'll want to buy a couple and keep multiple ones charged to take with you (another challenge is to keep track of which ones are charged). The good news is that battery technology is also improving so some of the custom ones these days will let you take 150+ photos before needing a recharge.

If you plan to use the camera for real estate, a wide angle lens is a must have, IMO. Property photos are used in everything you produce to market a listing (MLS, flyer, print ads, websites, Realtor.com, Just Listed postcards, etc.) so you want to take photos that make the property look good.

Below is a comparison I did between different types of cameras and lens sizes. I chose a variety of cameras from inexpensive ($29.95) to a Digital SLR with accessories ($2000).

Introducing the cameras:

Ion- This was a $29.95 camera I picked up in Target in December 2005. No flash, no zoom. Only outputs 640 x 480 photos.

HP317 - I picked this up for $89 at Walmart the day after Thanksgiving 2005. It's 5 MegaPixels. The thing I really didn't like about this camera was that it didn't have a view finder to look through. You had to look at the LCD display to line up your shot. If you're taking outdoor photography, chances are you can't see the LCD display too well if it's bright out.

HP R817 - This camera cost $400 and I purchased it in November 2005. It's also 5 Megapixels. Just because I have two HP cameras in this comparison, don't think I'm a fan. I've only owned one other HP camera and that one was for my pre-teenage daughter a few years ago. I own multiple Canon cameras (Digital Elph) and have been very happy with them. The reason I chose the HP R817 camera to represent the $400 priced camera is because they advertised that you can do photo stitching in the camera to create panoramas (rather than having to have a software program to do it). I thought that if you could easily do this, it would be like a poor-man's wide angle lens. What I found was that when you put the camera in panorama mode, the flash is disabled making it almost impossible to take good interior panoramas without a lot of tweaking of the settings. Since doing the stitching in the camera is an ease-of-use feature, requiring manual settings doesn't make it easy to use anymore. This camera also is missing a viewfinder which I don't recommend not having.

Nikon 5400 - I've had this camera for a few years. It was one of the first 5 MegaPixel cameras on the market. It has a built-in 28 mm wide angle lens so this is an example of what photos would look like with this size of lens.

Nikon D70s - I purchased this 6 MegaPixel Digital SLR back in May 2005. You can get the camera with a 18mm- 70mm lens for $995. I also purchased a Nikon 12-24mm wide angle lens that costs $900 (ouch!). In the comparison below, I also noted when I used the SB 600 external flash ($180). The SB 600 flash allows you to bounce the flash off the ceiling.

I recently purchased the new Kodak v570 which contains two lenses including a 23mm wide angle. You can see a comparison of this camera here.

All photos below were taken using the "Auto" feature on the cameras where applicable. Flash means the built-in camera's flash, except when the SB-600 Speed light was used on the Nikon d70s. If you click on the photos below, they'll display the image captured and saved on the camera. No editing was done on these photos. If you want to see how some of the d70s turned out after doing some photo editing in Photoshop, you can see them in this Virtual Tour.

I hope this helps you see the differences with digital cameras and helps you make a good choice.

- Keith Byrd
San Luis Obispo Real Estate

Comparison of Camera Photos

Ion	ion - no flash - 640 x 480	ion - no flash - 640 x 480	ion - no flash - 640 x 480	ion - no flash - 640 x 480	ion - no flash - 640 x 480
HP e317	e317 - flash - 2560 x 1920	e317 - flash - 2560 x 1920	e317 - flash - 2560 x 1920	e317 - flash - 2560 x 1920	e317 - flash - 2560 x 1920
HP r817	hp r817 - flash - 2592 x 1936	hp r817 - flash - 2592 x 1936	hp r817 - flash - 2592 x 1936
Nikon 5400	Nikon 5400 28mm							(didn't get this shot)
Nikon D70s	18 mm	18 mm - no flash	18 mm	18 mm	22 mm	18 mm	18 mm taken at 9:30 am	18 mm
Nikon D70s	12 mm	12 mm	15 mm w/SB 600 flash	12 mm			12 mm taken at 12:30 pm	12 mm
Nikon D70s			12 mm w/ SB 600 flash
Nikon D70s			20 mm w/ SB 600 flash