New ARRI ALEXA Hits Our Shores

Australian , Matched Image Camera Hire, will be among the first to be able to offer Australia the ARRI ALEXA digital cinema camera. Built on the technical expertise of the ARRIFLEX D-21, ARRI has launched the new ARRI camera the ALEXA part of a new generation of digital motion picture cameras. Like the D-21, ALEXA creates rich, organic images, with the look and feel of 35 mm film.

The ARRI ALEXA is planned to be used with 35 mm accessories and lenses, so will fit into established working practices and minimise production delays. Matched Image are offering the new digital cinema ARRI ALEXA camera with and without lenses, in lightweight and full production packages. Now taking bookings for this exciting and much anticipated digital camera, Matched Image have a full suite of products on offer to support your ALEXA hire including audio equipment hire, lighting hire, grip equipment rental, edit suite rental, crew hire, production van rental and all camera accessories.

At the heart of the ARRI ALEXA camera system is ARRIs own 3.5K Super 35mm format ALEV-III CMOS Bayer sensor. Through extended research and experimentation with sensor and pixel technologies ARRI made some great discoveries and applied these to the production of the ALEXA. Top-quality image quality is achieved through a fine balance between detail, colour reproduction and sensitivity. While some competitors strive to improve camera statistics on paper by cramming more and more pixels into a 35mm frame, ARRI employed a proof is in the pudding approach with the ALEXA digital camera maintaining that optimum image quality is achieved through slightly fewer, yet larger, pixels filling the available space on a 35mm sensor.

Buying a Sony DSC-WX1 Digital Camera? A Basic Write-Up

In case you mean to buy a new camera, there are a range of facets you must bear in mind. For example, for people who’d look forward to have an accessible camera all the time, battery durability would play an eminent part. On the other hand, if you’re viewing this as a specialist, your necessities would comprise of picture lucidity, zoom preferences, etc.

Take a look at the special Casio Exilim EXZ280 Digital Camera

Also consider these:
* Leica DLUX 4
* Olympus EP2
* Panasonic Lumix DMCGH1
* Samsung ES55
* Canon PowerShot SX20IS

Besides, it is important that you recognize the crucial technical aspects of such prior to purchasing any one. A rather influential facet which is generally at the fore is the camera’s mega-pixel (MP). This would essentially denote how clear the resultant photos would be. Each pixel is a single dot in the picture. Pixels aren’t restricted to digital pictures, and the same are also found in computer monitors.

For folks looking forward to print pictures that are downloaded on a computer, cameras which come with 5 MP resolution should meet your requirements. For folks looking at show-casing the photographs on a digital picture frame or a computer screen, a three point two MP camera ought to suffice. New makes come with noticeably superior resolutions and one may well look forward to find cameras that boast of up-to 15 MP nowadays.

The Rise in Popularity of Canvas Prints

The latest art trend has seen an increase in canvas art reproduction, for the most part because of the digital photo revolution. Nowadays individuals can take their own photographs with their cameras, then go to a canvas printshop and get their holiday / family pictures represented on canvas. Or even perhaps their favourite holiday location, pet dog, and favourite car. Anything photographed can be printed on canvas sheet in minutes and be art on your house walls.

Digital cameras and photo editing software such as Photoshop have all of a sudden made it viable to practically produce your own artwork on canvas - not only saving you some cash by not having to purchase original artwork, but also adding some creative thinking and fun to the task of decorating your surroundings with artwork as well.

There are loads of websites now that give you the option to upload your photograph, select your size of canvas, and then buy it. Usually these pictures are placed on canvas outstretched utilising stretcher-bars.

If you have a canvas printshop near you, you can walk in to the shop with your photo, and leave 30 minutes afterwards with a canvas art of one of your picture - it’s that easy.

What about some examples? Try these : Twiggy pop-art canvas art. If you’re stuck for inspiration, go to a website with photographs that are royalty free - then take your bought photos to a printshop or website that produces canvas prints and have them reproduced onto canvas.

Photo Copyright Concerns

Copyright in most works of art, which includes writing, photography and digital images occur as the work is created. To put it as simply as possible, the second you click the shutter button, the resulting image belongs to you.

No formal registration is needed in more that 140 countries in the world, to receive basic legal protection. But regardless, if you do feel that you don’t understand certain legal points, you would be well advised to speak to your legal advisors.

Although the law protects your copyright from the moment the shutter is released and there is no other formalities to be observed, I would strongly advise that you mark every single photograph with the word “copyright” followed by your name, or use the international copyright symbol followed by your name: © - TJ Tierney.

Don’t write on the original image; if you’re using slide film write on the white plastic border. If you are submitting original prints to a magazine photo editor, state that the images are subject to copyright on a cover letter.

When you do sell an image understand the reproduction rights. If you agree to “single reproduction rights” you are granting the magazine or publisher rights to use the image once. If they decide to use the same print in a few months time, you’re entitled to further reproduction fees.

It would be wise to state in a cover letter when submitting images that reproduction fees are negotiated before use.

Don’t ever sell your images as “royalty free”. You may receive an “ok payment”, but the publisher that has paid for the royalties can sell your images to whoever he wants; and you won’t receive a single cent.

If in three months time you see an image that belongs to you on the cover page of some magazine; and know full well that they are in breach of your copyright, don’t be afraid to send them an invoice, adding on a little extra for their cheekiness. Let them know that you know the law and that if the payment isn’t received by a certain date that further action will be taken; you’ll have a cheque in the door within a few days.

TJ Tierney. Award winning Irish Landscape Photographer. If you are looking for more tips visit Photo tips. To view some of his images visit his on-line gallery: Pictures of Ireland.

Understanding Digital Photography

Most serious photographers and all professionals use a Single Lens Reflex camera (SLR), the definition of an SLR camera is that the image is captured exactly as you see it in the viewfinder. However there are now two types of SLR the single lend reflex film (SLRF) and the single lens digital (SLD). They are both single lens camera, but digital does not use film and the resulting image can be processed at home with the aid of a photographic editor such as the chemical component in a traditional camera is film. When film is exposed to a real image, it makes a chemical record of the pattern of light, coming through the lens. Film has a collection of light sensitive frames, suspended on a strip of plastic. Colour film has three different layers of light sensitive material, which respond to red, green and blue (known as the (RBG) values. When the film is developed, it is exposed to chemicals, which dye the separate layers of film, into a color negative. All modern film is made up of silver halide crystals.

The digital revolution is the conversion of analog information, which is represented by a gradually fluctuating wave, to digital information represented by bits. This shift in technology has revolutionized both visual and audio information, in the form of cameras, televisions, and MP3 players. Whilst SLR cameras relied on a chemical process to transmit an image onto film, all digital cameras have their own inbuilt computers, which records images electronically. Essentially the digital camera represents a form the computer can understand, the information is collected in bits and bytes. Each part of the image is broken down into “pixels”, which is a contraction of picture element. When monitors display colors they are arranged in rows and columns, separated into thousands of little squares of color. They are so minute that they appear to be connected, but if you zoom into this the squares are quite separate. All these squares are the smallest dot that can be displayed by a monitor, and combined together they display the completed image.

Because of the enormous difference in the way the two types of camera work, there has been in many people’s mind a huge confusion as to what type of camera to buy. Added to that, there are three types of SLRD cameras. SLR cameras had conventional shapes, because it was necessary to have room for the film, and the light path, SLRD cameras do not have these constraints.

At the lower end of the market for the digital cameras are the “Point And Shoot”, there SLRF equivalent is known as “idiot Proof”. They have low resolutions of between 3,000.000 and 4,000,000 million pixels. The next level is the proconsumer camera typically with a resolution of 4-5 million pixels. At the top end of the market the resolution is between 6-12 million pixels. The greater the number of pixel resolution the better the quality of the resultant image.

As with any new technology there are pros and cons with both types of cameras, and it will be decades before digital cameras replace SLR, if indeed they ever do, more likely the SLR cameras will be retained for use in a specialist market. It is also fair to say that the quality of digital cameras has improved enormously in the last ten years, and the price has also reduced dramatically.

One major factor determining the choice of camera is weight. Typically the SLTD camera is half the weight of it’s SLR counterpart. The point and shoot is fully automatic, bit like their counterpart the idiot proof they do not give the photographer much creative control. They have earned their stripes, on the occasions when a photographic opportunity would have been missed with SLR. The middle of the range family of digital cameras represent the fastest growing demand for new cameras as they represent the ease of digital with a higher level of creative control. You can also make larger prints, as well as use the function of through the lens focusing.

The higher resolution top of the range digital cameras offer the same wider exposure controls and the ability to use different lens, in other words they offer the best of the features of analog photography to digital photography. The most recent development in digital cameras has been the development of a standard image sensor in the ratio of 4:3. As the image sensor has a standard size and shape, the mount for the lenses can be identical. That means that they will fit more than one type of camera, and will ultimately be cheaper to produce, as they can be produced in higher volume. Canon lenses for SLR film only fit Canon cameras, but they will now disappear. In future to add to the growing confusion, there will be a plethora of lenses from multiple manufacturers, to fit your camera, competition between the lens manufacturers should mean cheaper and better quality lenses. One factor not to be forgotten in deciding whether or not to go digital, is that the quality of the lens is still of paramount importance, it is still better to have a cheaper body and higher grade lens.

Another major factor is that digital image sensors are smaller than frames of film, which means that the lens can be correspondingly smaller and lighter. Until the development of the 4:3 ratio systems, digital cameras used conventional lenses.

The type of digital camera to choose is as complex as buying a car, it is a matter of personal choice, dictated by what it is used for, and the available amount of money to spend.

Fortunately there is a large amount of help in this respect already available on the Internet for you to research. At imaging resources you will find a large database dealing with individual camera models, the reviews also cover the scanners and printers as well. It includes member’s forums to assess individual comments as opposed to manufacturer’s claims. To review the cameras by make and price there are
Canon, Fuji, Kodak, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus and Sony.

One of the major drawbacks of using digital film, was that the quality of prints produced on a personal computer’s printer was less than satisfactory.

This obstacle has been overcome by the development of online printing centers. You upload the film to them via e-mail and they print the images and they are returned by post, with a professional standard. Kodak gallery offers you the opportunity to have your images improved and printed, and then to share your album via your computer, which means that your personal scanner is not necessary.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/colour_theory.shtml excellent article on colour to improve the final color of images

Publisher & author: Roy Barker. Roy is the author of the popular ebook, Income from Photography - a downloadable ebook which guides the reader on how to start up and market a Profitable Photography business. It can be viewed at http://www.profitable-photography.com. Other related and reviewed services & research sources can be found at http://profitable-photography-resources.com/ The information on this and adjoining pages may be reprinted and used on other sites providing all information remains unchanged and the article and all pages remain as they are found here in its current font size & image with all links in tact.