Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Know Your Camera

1. your camera (manufacturer & model)
answer:
- Nikon D100 (Older model of camera)

2. the sensor size (in mm: ? x ?), maximum megapixel rating, sensor type (eg “APS-H”)
answer: Sensor Size: APS-C (23.7 x 15.5 mm) Sensor Type: CCD 

3lenses you own & can use on your video recording-capable camera 
    — in 35mm equivalent focal length range, associated widest apertures
answer:
-  18 x 70

4. biggest memory card you own in terms of capacity (in GB), class (eg “class 10”), 
   and card speed (eg. x 133)
   If it’s an SD type card, which class is it?  (e.g.. class 10)
   Read the following article from B&H PhotoVideo which indicates all relevant aspects of cards:
   Memory Cards Explained
   Which class of card do you need for shooting video? What does your SD card classification 
   mean in terms of writing speed: is it fast enough to be shooting video?
answers:
-  My camera model is too old to shoot video There is no available setting for shooting video. Largest memory card I own is a 16GB Sandisk Ultra, 30 MB/s.


5. How many minutes of video capacity does your biggest memory card have shooting at both the 
     highest & lowest resolution capture settings?
     Also, does your camera have a limit on the amount of video shooting time?
     What is the technical reason for limiting single shot video shooting time?
     State your answers as memory card size / recording quality (resolution & mode) & maximum minutes
     ( eg. 8GB memory card / 1280 x 720p [SD mode] yields 20 min. of video)
     (NB. you will probably have to test this out by turning on your camera with your empty reformatted
     memory card installed, the display set to indicate total frames remaining/total video time available,
     video quality set to highest and then lowest resolutions)
answers:
- highest resolution no. of minutes: N/A
- lowest resolution no. of minutes: N/A


6. maximum file size per clip        
answer: N/A


8format of movie files created (eg. QuickTime Motion JPEG, AVCHD, MPEG4, etc.)
    (... there’ll probably be more than one, depending on camera and resolution sizes & modes
answers: JPG

9. which video output resolutions does your camera produce? 
     try to include all of the following info for each level of video resolution your camera produces:
- (sample answer might be:     720p / 1280 x 720 pixels/ SD / 4:3 / 30fps)
               answers: N/A


10. looking at the above resolution dimensions available, are they using the same aspect ratio or not? 
      (eg. 800 x 600 is a 4:3 aspect ratio while 1920 x 1080 is a 16:9 aspect ratio). 
      What are the differing aspect ratios for each of your camera's video format resolutions?
answers: N/A


11shutter speed range your camera can record video in: does your camera permit you to set shutter 
      speed when recording video? (Can you in fact set manual setting for video shooting?) Whether it 
      does or not, what shutter speeds can you set on your camera for shooting video?
answers: Bulb - 4000 shutter standard. Does not shoot video. 


12aperture: does your camera permit you to set the aperture when recording video?
             answers: Aperture range: 3.5 - 22


    
13shutter speed & aperture restrictions — answer this only if your camera does not permit you to 
       choose manual video shooting settings. 
       If your camera doesn’t have manual setting capabilities, what other camera setting can you use to 
       control exposure then?
  answers: White Balance, ISO


14focus: how does your camera focus when shooting video? Does it permit you to manually focus
       or are you left with autofocus only?
eg. — The most important thing to know about the Nikon D5000’s video controls is the fact that the camera cannot 
autofocus while video is being recorded. You can autofocus the image before recording begins (by pressing the shutter 
button halfway down, just like you do with still images), but once you start recording you must manually focus 
everything..When you try to autofocus while recording, the camera lens moves and changes exposure just as if 
you’re autofocusing a still image.
answers: Allows to focus on something specific or general. 




15. your camera records video at what data rate (expressed in MB/sec. or mbps)
answer: N/A



16. specific and particular settings recommended for your camera model — the best way to 
      do this is to look at the camera reviews for your model on preview.com and/or imaging resource.com
      and read their review section on the video functioning (often listed as “video” or “movie” review section). 
      You can also research this in a Google search —eg. at least one very popular camera (hint: 5D) has
      suggested settings for ISO to obtain the least noise in video mode.
answers: Does not apply to my camera. Older model. 

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Lab 3: Noise Reduction & WB

Using the setting noise reduction on my camera did make a difference even though the effect of this setting is very subtle. I barely noticed it just looking at the images but you can tell the difference once zoomed in to the details in the images. I don't think my images lost any detail but that could also be because I chose an area with a lot of contrast so it might have been easier for my camera to focus and meter. I definitely will continue to use this setting when taking pictures, it really proves to make a difference if you want a well detailed image. I saw that it proved to be most effective at the lowest ISO for my image series. The best one in my opinion without losing sharpness was the first image for sure at 200 ISO and my noise reduction setting on.

Image 1: A=18 Sh=15 (on) ISO=200
Image 2: A=18 Sh=8 (off) ISO=200
Image 3: A=18 Sh=40 (on) ISO=800
Image 4: A=18 Sh= 40 (off) ISO=800
Image 5: A=18 Sh=125 (on) ISO=1600 (highest)
Image 6: A=18 Sh=160 (off) ISO=1600 (highest)







For the WB exercise, the setting 'AWB' is what made the image look the sharpest and most natural of the 3. Once I switched to the 'shade' setting, the image colour became very warm and there was a lot more contrast, although the image still came out very sharp. Finally the 'florescent' image made the image very cool compared the shade preset. Again the image came out very sharp still. The WB changes only changed the overall colour composite of each image but not the quality. 




Last but not least, I chose the 'incandescent' WB setting for my last image and again it only changed the colour composite of the image. It made the colour scheme very cool by turning my entire image blue, although I also noticed the image was much darker than the other ones.

Monday, 12 February 2018