Black and White Photography
The leading brands in the global arena of digital still cameras are the same names we knew that produced the best photo-film cameras. The list is familiar: Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Fuji, Kodak, Minolta-Konica, Mamiya. But there are also prominent additions to this circle of manufacturers coming from the electronics industry: Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo, Casio. A few others come from the computer hardware industry: Hewlett-Packard, Kyocera, even Intel and Creative. The high-end European names are also still around and continue to make the most expensive digital cameras, some of which are preferred for industrial, architectural and space photography: Hasselblad (Sweden), Sinar (Switzerland), Linhof (Germany), Leica (Germany), and Rollei (Germany). More and more digital still cameras are now Wi-Fi capable—that is, they can directly connect to a wireless local area network (LAN) in order to save photos in a computer or print them with the network’s printer.
The three subcategories of consumer-type digital still cameras are a) point-and-shoot cameras; b) semi-professional cameras; and c) digital single-lens-reflex (SLR) cameras. The first subcategory comprises the type of cameras that people use just for taking snapshots of family events and gatherings. They are typically compact and thin for people to bring them anywhere conveniently. They have an optical zoom (wide angle to telephoto) range of typically 3x or 4x, which is generally sufficient for most purposes. The highest resolutions are 4 to 5 megapixels. Some advanced cellphone cameras could be included in this category, although they have only digital, not optical, zoom—the lens does not move and the image is only enlarged and cropped.
The second subcategory, semi-professional, includes slightly more advanced models and offer zoom ranges of up to 12x and resolutions of 10 to 12 megapixels. They are designed for hobbyists and more serious photographers who want slightly more advanced features and functionality than those found in compact cameras. These features include manual focus and exposure control, burst (multiple-exposure) shooting, exposure bracketing, interval shooting, uncompressed picture data, and multiple flash use.
The third category, professional, consists of digital SLRs. These cameras are designed for professional and advanced photographers. SLRs have interchangeable lenses to allow for a wide variety of zoom ranges, and specific prime (non-zoom) focal lengths that deliver distortion-free pictures not possible with zoom lenses. The resolutions range from a low of 10 megapixels to a high of 50 megapixels with medium- to large-format cameras such as the Hasselblad, which is a favourite of the NASA space program. These cameras offer even greater functionality than the semi-professional type.