New sub-$1000 digital cameras strike a practical balance between price and image quality
Alan Morgan and Scott Wallace
The benefits of digital photography -- filmless cameras that feed images directly to your computer -- have always been obvious, especially for field work such as insurance and real estate applications. The high cost of this new technology has been just as obvious. But now affordable digital cameras, priced just under $1000, support new ways of using digital images in business, scientific, and publishing applications. Though they can't rival scanners in resolution or fidelity, they dramatically improve ease of use and reduce production time.
The
trio of cameras reviewed here
-- from Apple, Kodak, and Logitech -- are based on the same Kodak core. Th
ese 24-bit cameras are similar in form and function but differentiate themselves in storage capacity, operator controls, and approach to image processing. Casio's new QV-10 is a different breed altogether (see the sidebar "Casio's QV-10: Portable Presentations"), and suggests the direction future digital cameras may follow.
The three Kodak-based cameras all share the lightweight feel of a point-and-shoot film camera, including built-in flash and removable batteries. The Kodak and Logitech cameras can also take some third-party lenses. All three store image data in EPROM flash memory, which retains images even when batteries go dead.
The bundled Macintosh or Windows software supports simple image manipulation as well as several compression protocols, such as JPEG and TIFF, for migration to professional-quality applications.
Price still limits image resolution, but increasingly sophisticated processing makes relatively low-resolution data more realistic (see the sidebar "Imaging Without Film")
. Though they still don't deliver the vibrancy and sharpness of film-based cameras, the new Kodak-based cameras provide significantly better quality than less expensive digital cameras.
Kodak's DC40
Like Logitech's FotoMan Pixtura, Kodak's DC40 (Digital Camera 40) offers more storage capacity than Apple's QuickTake (4 MB versus 1 MB) and higher image resolution (768 by 512 pixels versus 640 by 480). After analyzing captured data with a "nearest neighbor" algorithm, all three cameras compress it with Kodak's proprietary RADC algorithm. RADC creates some edge artifacts but otherwise packs information into less memory with less quality loss than Kodak's older 80PCM algorithm (used in Apple's QuickTake 100).
Easy to set up, the DC40 combines plug and play with point and shoot. The controls are easy to use. The camera's four AA lithium batteries are good for about 500 pictures (depending on flash use and how many images you download to a PC) and support a 5-second cycle time be
tween shots when fresh.
Storage capacity and resolution options are the primary differences between the three cameras. The Kodak camera takes 48 or 99 pictures, depending on compression, but you must make the choice from your PC when the camera is empty. Choose the higher compression rate only when you'll display the pictures very small or in gray scale.
The PC connection is quick -- simply run the cable from your serial port to the camera. With the bundled PhotoEnhancer software, you can view stored images as slides and download them to your computer. The software lets you perform any of a simple menu of image manipulations with ease. A helpful preview feature displays nine variations of the image at once. Kodak released Mac software in July.
The Kodak and Logitech cameras offer you more control than the Apple, as you can alter exposure +/-2EV on the fly. Telephoto and wide-angle lenses are available from such manufacturers as Tiffen to augment the built-in 42mm-equivalent lens.
Apple's QuickTake 150
Not surprising, Apple's QuickTake 150 works with both Windows-based PCs and Apple Macintosh computers. Both versions ($739) come with appropriate cables and bundled software; the Macintosh software provides more features.
Although the Kodak-manufactured QuickTake 150 looks similar to the DC40, Apple cut the price 25 percent partly by not using unnecessary CCD (charge-coupled device) pixels. Using only a 640- by 480-pixel matrix, the QuickTake matches the most common monitor resolution. Having 86,016 fewer pixels to process speeds up operations from capture through transfer to display, and saves disk space, too. Additional cost savings come from reduced storage memory, simpler controls, fewer batteries, and elimination of the lens mount. The resulting lighter camera feels less substantial than the DC40 or the Pixtura, but delivers comparable images.
The QuickTake's 1 MB of memory holds only 16 to 32 images, but you can mix different quality shots in the sam
e session. For lower-quality shots, both Apple and Kodak decided that compressing pixel data causes less "quality loss" than sampling fewer pixels -- the approach taken by most cameras, including the Pixtura.
Of the three, the QuickTake is the simplest to operate, with fewer display-panel options and controls that are easier to figure out. The cycle time of 4 seconds between shots is faster than that of the DC40. Three AA batteries support only 200 pictures, but an optional external battery pack with eight AA cells can take thousands.
The fixed 50mm-equivalent lens focuses from four feet to infinity, and a snap-on close-up adapter with flash diffuser allows pictures in the 10- to 14-inch range. A parallax-correction lens is included for the view finder, which, like the other cameras, is not WYSIWYG.
Logitech's FotoMan Pixtura
The FotoMan Pixtura and the DC40 cameras are identical in appearance and nearly identical in features. At its default resolution, however, the
Pixtura holds 144 pictures in its 4-MB memory, more images than any of the tested cameras. Logitech achieves this by making "standard" resolution 384 by 256 pixels and "high" resolution 768 by 512 pixels, rather than using increased compression as Kodak and Apple do. A memory management quirk shared by the Pixtura and the DC40 is that if you enable the "delete last picture" option, it reduces the capacity for high-resolution images from 48 to 31.
The Pixtura's Digital Eyes software (from Day One) supports a function not included with the others. You can adjust the compression rate for exported JPEG format files on a continuous scale from minimum to maximum, which lets you reduce file size greatly if your application can stand the data loss.
Parting Shot
With improved resolution and image processing, these midrange digital cameras will increase use of digital photography in business and professional applications. We preferred the QuickTake's controls and price; at $739, it'
s $250 under the others. However, the DC40 and Pixtura have a hand strap, higher capacity, and the ability to take additional lenses. Overall, Apple's QuickTake 150 is still the best buy.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Digital Camera 40 $995
Eastman Kodak Co.
Rochester, NY 14650
(800) 235-6325
(716) 724-4000
http://www.kodak.com
FotoMan Pixtura $995
Logitech, Inc.
Fremont, CA
(800) 231-7717
(510) 795-8500
fax: (510) 792-8901
QuickTake 150 $739
Apple Computer, Inc.
Cupertino, CA 95014
(800) 538-9696
(408) 996-1010
fax: (800) 462-4396
http://www.apple.com
QV-10 $995
Casio, Inc.
Dover, NJ
(800) 962-2746
(201) 361-5400
fa
x: (201) 361-3819
casiotech@aol.com
photo_link (21 Kbytes)
Three digital cameras from Apple (top), Kodak (right), and Logitech (left) are all based on a Kodak core product. The Apple has the lowest price ($739) and works with both Macintosh and Windows PC platforms.
Alan Morgan, a programmer for 15 years, is a freelance writer and photographer who no longer looks down his nose at digital cameras. You can reach him at
amorgan@equinox.ShaysNet.com
. Scott Wallace is a former BYTE technical editor who can be reached at
edito
rs@bix.com
.
Digital Cameras for Real Work
