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IAS
CompUCast #2
Hello
and Welcome to the 2nd episode of Internet AdCom Services’ CompUCast
– our official Podcast.
As
an added benefit to our clients and for the Tech community as a whole, I
will be posting periodically these Podcasts covering the hot trends in the
Consumer and Technology communities, as well as covering some important
How-To information about the various computer systems available.
For
CompUCast, This is Todd Eglow!
In
my 2nd Podcast, I will be focusing on Digital Photography.
The year 2006 may be the year that is remembered for the beginning of
the end of conventional Film photography
CompUCasts
will also discuss current technology news and trends of interest.
To
set up an appointment for an in-house consultation, please send an email to ias@interadcom.com
or call us at 646-808-0764.
Hot
News
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And
in Microsoft news.... It appears the we'll have to wait a bit longer for
the new Windows Operating System (OS).
Vista
has been delayed, at least for the Consumer version, until January 2007.
In the long term picture, this probably is a good thing, especially if
Microsoft pays more attention to fixing any security leaks and bugs and
includes some of the newer features that were going to be pulled the
software due to an early release.
A few of the Hardware specification are beginning to leak out. As
of this writing, in late March 2006, according to a CNET report,
Microsoft has recommended at least 512MB of memory, a "modern"
Intel or AMD processor and a DirectX 9.0 graphics card. You can't
have just any DX9-compatible card either. If you're into gaming,
and if you're thinking about upgrading your video card for Windows
Vista, consider waiting a little while for ATI and Nvidia to release
their DirectX 10 graphics cards. DirectX 9.0 cards will work great on
the desktop and in legacy DirectX 9 games, but you'll need DirectX 10
hardware for advanced Windows Vista games.
http://computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/windows/story/0,10801,109783,00.html
http://news.com.com/An+inside+look+at+Windows+Vista/2100-1043_3-6051736.html
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WiFi
protection
– many of us now are carrying around laptop computers with built-in
WiFi capabilities. WiFi
refers to the wireless connection that can be set up to allow users to
surf the Internet.
As I always stress in my consultation sessions, Securing a WiFi
connection is always the number 1 concern to users.
If you are planning on traveling, make sure that when you are not using
your WiFi capabilities, that you turn off your WiFi port and connection.
Even if you are not connected to the Internet, your WiFi
connection may still be open to allow some sort of malicious intrusion
into your computer. WPA is
the best available security on most WiFi adaptors at this time…. But
it is better to be safe than sorry!
Digital
Photography
In this edition of CompUCast’s in-Depth feature, let's take a look at Digital Photography. 2006 may be remembered as the year that Film Photography went away.
In January of this year, Konica Minolta stated that they were planning on withdrawing from the Camera business. The company explained that this is due to a market that had become too competitive. It plans on selling its digital camera business to Sony -
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/19/1343207&from=rss
So Digital is the future and the future is now. Some of the technical aspects to consider when purchasing a digital camera include the following:
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Do you simply want a Point-and-Shoot format or a more professional Digital Single Lens Reflex format?
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What do you plan on doing with your photos? Are you going to print most of your pictures or simply view your pictures on your computer?
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What Price range are you budgeting for your purchase?
Let's start with the Camera Format.... If you are purely an amateur and simply want to take snap shots.... stick with a Point-and-Shoot format. Sony, Canon, Fuji, Kodak and Nikon, are but a few of the Cameral companies that produce a wide range of these cameras.
A few things I would recommend would be the following:
Feel the camera.... make sure that you are comfortable with the camera in your hands and that you feel confident about your steadiness in holding the camera. Many cameras are starting to incorporate stabilization features which will help with this.
Next, try to stay away from proprietary features. Make sure, for example, that the memory and batteries are not those that are purely sold by that company. Don't be gaga eyed by Zoom numbers... Digital Zoom is a waste of money. Stick with Optical Zoom numbers.
Concerning my 2nd overall question.... what do you plan on doing with your pictures - if you plan on simply collecting your photos on your computers' Hard Drive, then Resolution is not a major concern to you. Short and sweet, a Digital Camera’s Resolution is used to describe the size of the digital image the camera produces, and is usually expressed in terms of "Megapixels" or how many million pixels it can record in a single image. The number of pixels a camera captures is called the camera's resolution.
For example, a camera that captures 1600 x 1200 pixels produces an image with a resolution of 1.92 million pixels and would be referred to as a 2.0 Megapixel camera. You get to 1.92 million pixels by multiplying the vertical and horizontal dimensions. That number is then rounded off to 2 for marketing purposes.
http://www.vividlight.com/Articles/3116.htm
However, if you plan on printing or enlarging your photos, then Resolution is a very important purchasing criteria. The important piece of the hardware puzzle is a part referred to as the Charged Coupling Device, also known as the CCD chip. in general, the higher the Resolution of this CCD chip, the larger you will be able to enlarge your photograph.
With prices plunging over the years, a 5 Megapixel camera can be had for under $300. And with 5 Megapixels, you can easily enlarge a photo to 8" x 10", with some possible good results up to 11" x 14".
Not all pixels are created equally however.... this is an example where price does make a difference. A CCD in a $2000 camera is generally going to produce larger pixels than a $500 camera, even if both cameras are rated at the same overall Megapixel, say 6 total Megapixels. The larger the Pixel, usually the better the resulting image quality.
To bring this discussion to a close in this Podcast, let’s complete the final part of the Digital Film equation…. While the CCD is one piece of the puzzle, providing the sensors for putting the colors together, the 2nd part is the storage.
As mentioned earlier, make sure your digital camera utilizes physical memory that is easily removable and non-proprietary. Compact Flash and Secure Digital are 2 of the more common types of storage. The larger the overall Megapixels your camera can shoot at, the more memory you’ll need to store images before having to download the images off of the storage card.
Closing
That’s
it for CompUCast Episode #1. If
you have any questions, please surf to our Web Site, located at www.InterAdCom.com
and click on the Email link. We
have also set up an RSS feed for these Podcasts.
Simply surf to our Web Site and copy and paste this RSS Address into
a client software application such as iTunes to receive these podcasts
automatically in the future. If
you need assistance in setting this up, please call.
We
can be reached via Skype by typing in “interadcom”, all in small letters.
We
also have a new NYC Phone number – 646-808-0764
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