All digital cameras and some camera accessories rely on batteries. Some accessories like flashguns may use regular AA batteries, but almost all cameras now use rechargeable lithium ion cells which have a longer life and deliver a more consistent power output between charges. AA batteries, as used in some flashguns and older battery grips, come […]
Main Content
Recent
Sensor spots and what to do about them
Any DSLR or mirrorless camera that takes interchangeable lenses can collect dust or other debris on the sensor surface. Sensor dust can be annoying at best, because it produces dark diffuse spots in your images that become more even more obvious if you use heavy contrast and sharpening adjustments. The risk of getting dust on […]
Video basics: resolution and frame rate
Video jargon can quickly get complicated, and can seem even worse to stills photographers who’ve learned a whole lexicon of photography concepts and terms and now have to do the same with the very different world of video. But the video basics are comparatively simple and easily learned, and the rest can follow from that. […]
LCD displays on cameras
Just about all cameras have an LCD display on the back. It’s used for playing back photos when they’ve been captured and for camera settings and menu navigation. On most cameras it’s also used for composing pictures – in fact, on cameras without viewfinders, it’s the ONLY way to compose your shots. These screens are […]
Tripod heads and the different types
Tripods essentially come in two parts: the tripod legs, used for support and height, and the tripod head, which is used for positioning and pointing the camera. Often, a tripod is sold with a head as a single item, but with more upmarket tripods the legs and head are usually sold separately so that you […]
Read more
Lens aberrations and what you can do about them
No lens is optically perfect. In the ideal world, every lens would produce a sharp, undistorted, evenly illuminated image that’s sharp from edge to edge. Some lenses come close, but the fact is that lens designers have to work within the limitations of the laws of physics and the glass materials they have available, and […]
Shutters: what they do and how they work
All cameras have a shutter mechanism to expose the sensor for exactly the right amount of time. The shutter opens to begin the exposure and then closes again to end it. Most cameras have mechanical shutters, though you can also get electronic shutters, which we’ll come to a little later. Mechanical shutters come in two […]
Lens aperture and how it works
Lens aperture is one of the key tools for photographers for adjusting the exposure and for achieving specific creative depth of field effects. The lens aperture is an adjustable hole created by a diaphragm within the camera lens. When you change the size of this hole, you change the amount of light allowed to pass […]
Depth of field and bokeh
Depth of field is the near to far sharpness in your pictures. A picture with shallow depth of field has only the main subject in focus, and everything in front of it and behind it is blurred. The opposite is a picture with deep depth of field, where everything is sharp from right up close […]