New Sony Digital Cameras

Sony have announced three new digital cameras. These are due in the shops in September 2007. Two of the cameras the DSC T70 and the DSC T200 are slimline, pocket sized cameras. The third camera is a super zoom digital camera with a 10x optical zoom lens.

The T70 and T200 are eight megapixel models. The T70 has a 3x zoom lens while the T200 has a longer 5x zoom. Other headline features include High Definition quality for playback on high definition televisions, 16:9 wide LCD touch screens and a special setting that detects a smile and automatically takes a photograph without the need for you to press the shutter button. The size of the LCD screens are larger than standard. The T70 has a 3 inch screen while the T200 has an even larger 3.5 inch screen.

Both cameras offer a choice of colours. The T70 is available in silver, black, white and pink. The T200 comes in silver, black and red.

Tapping the screen causes the camera to focus on the selected area of the shot. If you are taking a portrait shot touching the screen turns on face detection focusing.
Although not pocket sized the DSC H3 is much smaller than other super zoom cameras from Sony. It has dimensions of 106.0mm x 68.5mm x 47.5mm and weighs 246g. This is also an eight megapixel camera.

Other attractions include face detection software, in camera retouching of photos already taken and a special sports shooting mode to take advantage of the long zoom lens.

All three cameras offer image stabilisation.

Estate Agent Seeking Digital Camera to Photograph Rooms

An estate agent has contacted me asking if I would recommend a Canon IXUS 950 IS to photograph interiors of houses.

The answer is no. Standard advice for anyone who wishes to take this type of photograph is to select a camera with a wide angle lens. The advantage of a wide angle lens is that you can squeeze greater width into a shot. This means that as well as for photographing property a wide angle lens is useful for taking photos of groups of people and also landscape where you are trying to cram in a wide expanse of scene.

If you look at a specification for a digital camera you may have noticed an item called 35mm equivalent focal length (or something similar). This is the piece of information you use to judge whether or not a camera has a wide angle lens. You will also notice that any lens that can zoom in and out has two figures for the focal length. The first one is the ‘from’ figure and the second is the ‘to’ figure. For example a focal length of a digital camera with a standard 3x zoom lens may be quoted as 35 – 105mm. This means the camera can zoom from a focal length of 35mm to one of 105mm.

A camera lens is considered to be wide angle if the focal length starts from 35mm or less. In my opinion extra width than this really helps therefore for any genuine wide angle photography such as in this case I would suggest looking for cameras with a from or minimum focal length of 28mm. This counts out the Canon IXUS 950 IS. Within this range of cameras the Canon IXUS 850 IS would be the one to go for. It has a similar specification, but also offers a wide angle lens with a minimum focal length of 28mm.

One other point worth raising is that for the best quality shots I would always suggest a digital SLR with a decent wide angle lens. This is the ideal solution, but is a lot more expensive and is therefore out of the price range for a lot of people.

Does face detection software make a difference?

Although I wouldn’t quite say that face detection software is all the rage more and more digital cameras are now using this. Fuji goes as far as to include FD for face detection in the name of their cameras that have this feature. This certainly gives the impression that the software is something special.

What is face detection software?
All this is really is an extra focusing method. You switch to this type of focusing when you wish to take a portrait shot. The idea is that it helps to produce a more sharply focused face in the photo.

How does face detection work?
Face detection software is intelligent enough to pick out a face or a number of faces in a group shot. It is then able to place the main focus of the photograph on the face or faces in the shot.

Does it make a difference?
Well this is the big question! To be honest I never noticed cameras having that much difficulty before in producing sharp faces in portrait shots. In my tests I have not really noticed a great deal of difference when taking a portrait shot in good light. When light gets lower, especially under artificial lighting indoors I have noticed from time to time that when I turn face detection on it does produce a sharper image than without it.

One interesting point though is when looking at a range of cameras such as the Canon Powershot range I have never really had a problem producing a sharply focused portrait even when the light wasn’t brilliant. Now though without the face detection software turned on focusing for portraits is not quite so good. I must admit to having no idea why this should be!

So my verdict on the current batch of cameras I have tested is that I wouldn’t worry too much if the camera you are looking to buy doesn’t push a face detection feature as one of its main selling points.