Sarah Latour

With amateur photography gaining in popularity, digital cameras are becoming the norm. The convenience of digital cameras over traditional film cameras coupled with recent advancements in picture quality have meant more pictures conveying happy holiday memories than ever before.

Back in 2003 12.8 million digital cameras were owned, a marginally larger number than film cameras, 33% of households were seen to own a digital camera by the end of the year.

Cameras such as these in combination with other digital products such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and MP3 players all require media on which to store the digital data. Flash media, memory cards and microdrives were designed in combination with these digital products. Unfortunately, as with computers, digital media does occasionally suffer from corruption which in turn can cause stored information to become locked away in the storage media, supposedly inaccessible.

A wide variety of digital storage media forms exist today, all with varying storage capacities dependant upon make and model. 8MB through to larger 6GB microdrives are now possible.

First placed into this market by SanDisk Corporation in 1994, CompactFlash Memory has become the most popular storage media of late. This media uses flash memory semiconductor technology able to house audio, text, video and images on flash chips. Being non-volatile and also solid state (no battery is required to keep the data stored and no moving parts exist) has made this technology tough and reliable, just right for portable digital products.

Sony and Toshiba created Memory Sticks and SmartMedia cards, respectively, which also turned out to be very popular. Memory Sticks have become the dominant storage media type for their own products, digital cameras, Clie’ handhelds and computers. Other manufacturers also use Memory Sticks, in particular Konica. SmartMedia cards tend to be rather thin and fragile, and have a top capacity of 128MB. Similar to solid state technology, no moving parts and a small size are perfect for active and constant transfers between digital devices.

Initially introduced in 1998 with a capacity of 170MB, IBM Microdrives are also now popular and have grown in storage size to be able to cope with 2GB. Although solid state memory cards like CompactFlash are more impact resistant, microdrives have been seen as reliable and very economic with regards to digital devices.

Whatever format you use, be it one of the afore mentioned, or some of the other varieties e.g. SecureDigital, xD Picture Card, MultiMedia Card, Mini CD-R/CD-RW, more and more people are relying on digital media and its associated problems, rather than traditional film.

Gone are the cases of film overexposure and damaged film rolls, in come the hardware failures and data corruption. Data organization and storage now uses the FAT file system. Corruption of this filing system results in the digital device that houses the memory card not being able to locate the data, whatever is stored being ‘lost’, although still remaining on the memory card.

Corruption typically occurs when a device is low on power or when memory cards are removed whilst the power is still on. Such circumstances result in the file systems not pointing to the data. Hardware failure tends to come from damage, e.g. by rough handling or accidental breakage, to the digital media so that it is unable to properly connect with the associated device which needs to read the data.

Various data recovery companies, such as Vogon, MJM, Storagesearch, CBL-Tech and Ontrack, are readily available for any of the data recovery difficulties you may encounter with digital storage medias and their associated devices. A wealth of experience and data recovery innovations mean that most data that is ‘lost’ is in fact retrievable with the right techniques.

Alex Rider
http://www.articlesbase.com/gps-articles/memory-saving-in-what-is-now-a-digital-age-73187.html

Leaving behind the ‘serious’ looks rampant with today’s 3G smartphones, Sony Ericsson have came up with a petite looking clamshell that is fully packed with 3G mobile technology. The Sony Ericsson Z610i have set new standard in mobile phone design. The smooth glossy texture of the handset has a nice feel to it. The external OLED monochrome display is cleverly hidden by mirror effect and does not give away its presence till you receive a call or text.

Internal screen of the Sony Ericsson Z610i is 176 x 220 pixel, TFT that delivers more than 262k accurate and vibrant colours. The display is the perfect viewfinder for the primary camera and also produces high definition images while on video calls. The keys are well differentiated so number of wrong presses can be kept to a bare minimum.

The Sony Ericsson Z610i is endowed with a 2.0 megapixel camera. A secondary VGA camera is located on the top of the primary display so that you can make video calls across UMTS networks. The camera includes basic features like digital zoom and video recording but lacks flash and auto-focus. However, there are many fun features like Picture Blogging, clubbed with the integrated camera to keep you engrossed.

Other than UMTS, the Sony Ericsson Z610i supports triband GSM mobile network and automatically changes band. This makes the handset functional across five continents. Enjoy download speed of broadband through 3G network other than GPRS. Easy surfing through the built in NetFront browser of the Sony Ericsson Z610i makes it easier to search and download all your favourite contents directly to the device. The phone’s internal memory is about 16 Mb and it supports external memory cards. Bluetooth and USB connectivity of the device is ideal for quick exchange and synchronization of information.

The Sony Ericsson Z610i is surely a novel way to say hello to 3G.

Bradley Ben
http://www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles/sony-ericsson-z610i-3g-in-a-stylish-way-107906.html

The anticipation of buying some digital camera accessories is just about as exciting as buying the camera itself. With so many trimmings to go with it, the digital camera will turn a simple hobby into a pleasurable profession with just a snap of the finger. When we begin looking at the digital camera of choice, we need to look at some of the accessories that will go with it. Some accessories will go with most cameras but some may be brand specific, so stay with the brand of the camera if you can when looking at their extras.

Accessories such as rechargeable batteries, a battery charger/AC adapter, memory card, soft camera case, camera bag, lens cleaning kit, tripod, external flash and filters, will all make the digital camera run more smoothly and efficiently. They add value to your photo shoots, and also increase the life of your camera. The worst thing in the world is to be out on a shoot, and have the battery go out or the memory card malfunctions.

There are some accessories more important than others, and some simply sell better than others. Right now, at the top of the accessory list for digital cameras are: (1) camera bags – for LCD scratches, general marks on the camera, with the Lowepor Micro Trekker 200 and the Lowepro Mini Trekker Classic as the two top selling bags; (2) memory cards – it is best to have one large card or a couple medium card.

(3) camera tripod – only purchase one of you are serious about photography; (4) photo printer – some of the best ones are the Canon i70/i80/i90 Portable Photo Printer, HP Photosmart 375 Photo Inkjet Printer, Epson PictureMate Personal Photo Lab Inkjet Printer, Kodak EasyShare Dock Plus Dye Sublimation Printer, and the Sony DFF-FP50 Digital Photo Inkjet Printer; and (5) Portable Storage Device and Card Reader – holds 7 memory card types and stores up to 100 GB of images; (6) photo editing software – always upgrade to a more advanced program; and (7) Digital Picture Frame – displays slide shows and receives photos across country.

One of the most important accessories, which really is a necessity, should be a lens cleaning kit to go along with the digital camera. You should never clean any optics of your camera using your shirt, fingers, water or breath. The kit, which costs a few dollars, includes a small blower brush, a soft cloth, a small plastic bottle containing the lens cleaning solution, and a number of lens cleaning tissues. Little specks of dirt on a photograph or smudges will cost a person time when they editing them out.

Digital cameras and their built-in flashes have a limited range of approximately ten feet, which is considered normal for most point-and-shoot cameras. This distance can be increased 18 feet on up to 40 feet, depending on the flash used as a slave flash, which is ANY photographic flash that has a sensor built into the unit. Many of these are sensitive enough to be activated 100 feet away in full sunlight, but are not restricted to outdoor use only.

Some of the new digital cameras that have “red eye reduction”, also called pre-flash, require a special digital flash unit to act as a slave unit. But the older digital cameras without pre-flash will still work with slave units. But the first thing was to purchase a camera with at least 2X on up to an 8X optical zoom – not digital. Optical is the highest quality digital camera available, as the digital will take blurry photographs.

Another very important accessory is a tripod, for those of us who have the shakes and an unsteady hand. The tripod is needed to prevent camera shake, especially when the shutter speed drops below 1/60 second at a wide angle shot. Some digital cameras are equipped with an LCD monitor, which flashes a blinking light as a warning when the shutter speed is likely to cause a camera shake.

Also, a tripod is necessary when the photographer is too close to the object in macro photography. There are mini tripods and the regular tripods, with the minis pretty popular anymore as they are lightweight and can be stored easily.

Almost all digital cameras come with a small starter memory card, 16 or 32 MB. However, a professional photographer or a shutterbug may need a larger memory card – the more pictures on it, the faster it will disappear in room. A larger card will have more room so more pictures can be taken; we won’t need to rush to our computer to transfer them off the memory card before we run out of room. We also have the option of using several small memory cards, sorted out per subject or job.

And last but not least, a battery charger or an AC adapter is very much needed, unless we keep a case of batteries on us at all times. But the battery charger is the number one choice as it allows us to continue charging spare batteries without interrupting our shooting. In the case of an AC adapter, the shooting will come to a halt while the battery is being charged.

It is also advisable to buy a spare set of rechargeable batteries as it saves us the embarrassment of getting stuck with drained out batteries during the middle of a photo shoot. Rechargeable batteries last longer, and will save us the bother of hunting for battery stores in desolate places. The price may be high at first, but it is better than losing a photography job or driving all the way to a camera store to repurchase what was forgotten in the first place!

Mike Singh
http://www.articlesbase.com/electronics-articles/digital-camera-accessories-the-top-7-accessories-you-cant-live-without-76970.html