Enjoy The Ease of Digital Photo Printing

When cameras were analogue in nature, based upon the use of rolls of celluloid film, the process of photo printing was a long, complicated and expensive one. The journey from the click of a shutter to holding the photo prints in your hands was a lengthy and arduous one, and this had a negative effect upon the number of photographs which most people felt able to take.

Prior to the advent of digital photography, cameras worked around the principle of a physical roll of film which had to be exposed to light and then developed. Because of the complicated nature of this process, and the specialist equipment and chemicals which had to be used, photo developing was something which the vast majority of people felt unable to carry out on their own behalf. This meant that it was left to specialist professionals to print photos, a fact which had a negative knock on effect on the length of time the process tended to take, and the amount it cost people. If you wanted to take a look at the photographs you’d taken during the course of a holiday, for example, you had to wait until getting home and then hand the roll of film over to the nearest chemist, a specialist lab or even post it to a plant-based in another part of the country altogether. There would then follow a wait until you finally got you photo prints in your hands, and if you wanted to get the process done any more quickly it would involve paying a premium on top of what was already a pretty steep price.

All of this tended to militate against people being able to make the most of their cameras and meant that few of them took as many photographs as they would actually have liked to, or had multiple copies made so that they could share favourites with friends and family. Digital photo printing, on the other hand, has been made as simple as it can be and works in a way which means that people with digital cameras feel free to take as many photographs as they wish, safe in the knowledge that it will then be easy to go through these images and select the ones which they wish to keep. Once they’ve done this, turning the images stored electronically on their camera into actual prints is so easy that anyone with access to a computer and a printer can do it in the comfort of their own home with only a few clicks of the mouse.

Digital technology, however, doesn’t only make it easy to turn your images into photographs, but it’s equally simple to take these photographs and then use them to create a wide range of photo gifts and bespoke items. If you have a particularly pleasing shot of your family, for example, or a stunning landscape shot, then uploading it to the right website and then using the simple software provided will enable you to turn it into a stunning canvas print, produced to the standard you could usually expect to see on the walls of a gallery or art shop. Read the rest of this entry »

3 Reasons Why Buying a Used Digital Camera Is Better Than a New One

Digital cameras aren’t new anymore. There was a time when this was a fresh technology and everyone traded their used cameras in just like they do their used cars. But this may no longer make sense anymore.

In 2001 I saw my first professional digital camera. It was a Canon 1D and I was in Edinburgh, Scotland. I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Being an avid photographer but not pro yet, there was no need for me to have such an advanced machine, but I longed for one. And four years after it came out I bought one for a fraction of the price when new.

After using it for a while I realized that although it was an exceptional camera, it lacked quite a few features that I figured might be coming in future releases. So when the Canon 1D Mark II N came out I sold the 1D for a small loss and traded up.

Looking back on it now the 1D Mark II N was an phenomenal camera. It was quick, took great images and if the camera manufacturers turned around the next day and said we’re never making another upgrade to a camera again, I would probably have been ok with that. But they didn’t. They just kept coming out with new and updated cameras. About one every two years.

Digital cameras are in essence disposable cameras. We buy them for huge amounts of money, take however many photos we need and sell them. Usually for a substantial loss. I have literally lost thousands dollars on buying and selling my used camera equipment.

But it’s my belief that we have reached a time in this still infant technology that we no longer need to trade up every two years. That to do so is just a waste of money.

In 2005 the top of the line camera (not including medium format backs, which cost about the same as a new Audi A4) was the Canon 1DS Mark II. It had 16.7 megapixels, more than most lenses could handle in 2005, a 2 inch screen and was hailed by most professionals and camera junkies as the single greatest thing to happen to cameras since the Kodak Brownie.

Seven years later and nobody talks about the Canon 1DS Mark II anymore, but they want the 21.1 megapixel, 3 inch screen of the Canon 1DS Mark III or the uber-cool, ultra luxurious Canon 1DX. I’m not trying to exclude Nikon, Sony, Leica or any other camera manufacturer, but being a Canon guy this is what I know best. It makes no difference as each manufacturer makes about the same product, but changes the body and slaps their own sticker on it. The point is the same throughout.

Just think about it, if you looked through the portfolio of some of the best photographers in the world in 2005 they would be shooting with what is now, a throwaway camera. But these cameras are perfectly capable of producing images that most of us will never even make in our entire lives. We don’t need anything else.

Which is why I believe it’s better to buy a used professional grade digital camera than any new consumer grade model. Here’s why:

• Price – buying a used digital camera on an auction or classified site can save you thousands. Take the Canon 1DS Mark II for example. Currently they are selling on eBay for about $1,000-$1,800, depending on the shutter actuations (how many times the shutter has clicked) a fraction of the $8,000 it was new just seven years ago. Read the rest of this entry »