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<code>''Extensible tripods and stands are best for highly movable photography, while being easily packed in bags. Sophisticated tripods require luggage space and are more difficult to carry. In time, and based upon your activities, you will get used to different stands and opt for the best choice. Experiment with tripods and stands.''</code> | <code>''Extensible tripods and stands are best for highly movable photography, while being easily packed in bags. Sophisticated tripods require luggage space and are more difficult to carry. In time, and based upon your activities, you will get used to different stands and opt for the best choice. Experiment with tripods and stands.''</code> | ||
== Lenses, Magnification (X or zoom factor) == | |||
All cameras no matter their type, have a lens system that allows them to capture images. Smartphone cameras have mostly fixed lenses, while professional cameras have removable lenses, giving them the best flexibility but also making them highly expensive. Lenses can be characterized by focal length, aperture, distortion, astigmatism and many other physical properties. For most users, however, the focal length is the single most important factor. While professional photographers discuss from about 18mm to 55mm focal lengths, hobby photographers use 1x, 4x, 8x, or zoom factor properties. As this material is aimed more at beginners and semiprofessional users, the zoom factor will be used instead. | |||
When operating in the default mode, all cameras have a 1X or no magnification factor. This allows a camera to take a picture that is close to what our eyes perceive. Our eyes also have a lens, although our lens is extremely flexible compared to our cameras. In order to take a wider picture than our eyes see, such as for a panorama, you need less than 1X zoom factor, while for closeup pictures, such as on subjects at events, pictured from a distance, you need at least 8x to 16x zoom factors to end up with usable pictures. | |||
Most consumer and semi-professional cameras will advertise the zoom factor in two ways: an optical one and a digital one. The optical zoom factor is the most important and the single definite argument to make a device more flexible. A good camera should be able to accomodate high zoom factors although this will also make it more expensive, as lens systems that are able to achieve such results are more complex to manufacture and configure. Digital zoom factor is created by applying various post-processing techniques, leading to slightly more blurred images, as you would create if your image would be stretched or zoomed in your image editor. There are various ways in which a camera signals transitioning from an optical to a digital zoom, and you need to avoid going over the known zooom factor limitations of your current lens. | |||
It is advisable to observe that the higher your optical zoom factor or lens focal length, the more your camera will be prone to suffer from the slightest movement or instability. When creating closeup pictures, it is better to have an extremely steady hand but it is the best to capture images using tripods and stands. | |||
<code>''Get used to different lenses and zoom factors, but avoid ever using digital zoom or higher than optical zoom magnifications while taking pictures, to avoid reducing image clarity. Use tripods and stands to have steady shots at closeup captures.''</code> | |||
== Smartphone cameras == | == Smartphone cameras == | ||