Digital photography business begins to boom

by Ruth Bremer

SBJ Contributing Writer

Digital cameras, which created a stir when they first appeared in the 1980s, are soaring in popularity today, and the Springfield area is no exception.

"They're a pretty major part of our sales," said Jim Wygant, salesman at Lawrence Photo & Video, 2550 S. Campbell. "In the 80s, everybody had to have a video camera. Now everybody wants a digital camera."

Pixels

The camera's success is based on its ability to produce digital images. Digital images are simply images made up of pixels, or dots. They can be produced by digital cameras, scanners or computer software. Once a digital image is created, it can be displayed on screen or electronically stored, transmitted or printed out.

"It's not like film," Wygant said. "You don't have to develop all of the pictures you take, and if you don't like a picture you can erase it. There is also photo-editing software you can use to manipulate the images on the computer."

Once digital pictures are stored, he said, they can be sent as e-mail attachments, used on Web pages, or printed off as photos.

Lower prices

Contributing to digital cameras' increasing popularity is a rapidly advancing technology resulting in higher-quality pictures and an accompanying drop in prices.

Another major selling point is that most cameras have a small LED (light emitting diode) viewing screen on the back, which allows viewing photos immediately after taking them. Unwanted pictures can be erased to make more room for other shots.

Memory cards

Most digital cameras store images on a small removable memory card, Wygant said. "Cameras usually come with a fairly small memory card containing 8 to16 megabytes of memory." Many sizes of cards are available, he said, some with up to 200 megabytes of storage space. Sony, however, has developed a new line of cameras that store images on a 3.5-inch floppy disk.

Digital cameras as a rule come with software that allows downloading pictures to a computer at will.

Accessories may include add-on lenses, rechargeable batteries, and additional memory cards.

Digital cameras come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Wygant said that while some of the more advanced cameras provide manual controls for shutter speed and other variables, they are generally very easy to use. "Most of them are similar to a compact 35mm camera," he added, with autofocus and built-in flash.

Some newer higher-end digital cameras

lution," Wygant said. A lower-priced digital camera will have 1.3 to 1.6 megapixels. "That gives you a decent quality picture," he said, "but it's not the best."

Mid-priced cameras have better resolution with 2.1 megapixels and fall in the $300 to $500 price range, according to Wygant.

Higher-end cameras may range in price from $500 to $1,000, with 3.3 megapixels. "That's as close as you can get to a 35mm camera," he said. Wygant predicts that the next generation of digital cameras will have 4 and 5 megapixels.

Wygant added that the number of megapixels needed depends on what the images will be used for. If they're to be used for Web pages or sent by e-mail, a low- to mid-priced camera will work just fine.

Lower-resolution images make for smaller file sizes, a convenience on the Internet. They also don't take up as much storage space on the memory card. Higher-end cameras usually have a choice of resolution settings, he added, and higher-resolution cameras are best for photo applications. "If you're out to actually print the photographs, get the highest megapixel camera you can afford," he said.

There are several ways to print copies of digital photos. One option is to process them much like regular film. Lawrence Photo & Video's photo lab uses a highly sophisticated digital printer that can produce extremely high-resolution prints on photographic paper from digital photos. "It's the same principle as 35mm processing, only it's digital," said Mark Shipley, the company's processing services manager. He added, "Now, with the right input and the right printer, there are ways to exceed the quality of conventional photos."

Processing digital prints once cost about six times more than regular film processing, Shipley said.

"It still costs about 15 percent more to do digital compared to normal. But as time passes, the gap is going to narrow," he said.

Shipley added that digital photography's feature of that allows the users to preview and discard unwanted images, without having to develop them, makes the cost "about the same."

According to Ed Eaton, sales representative at Best Buy, located at 3450 S. Glenstone Ave., digital images, whatever their source, can be sent to BestBuy.com and processed as regular photographs. Most people, however, want to print their pictures themselves. "The main reason you're getting a digital camera is because you can print the pictures off yourself instead of having them processed," he said. "If you get a 3-megapixel camera, you'll be able to print off an 11-by-17 picture and you'll get a good picture."

Printing at home

Certainly one advantage of digital cameras is printing photos at home. "A decent inkjet printer is sufficient," Wygant said. "Any kind of paper" will work, he said, but photo quality paper will produce a picture more closely resembling a regular photograph. "There are a lot of improvements being made on the printing side of it. Manufacturers are concentrating a lot of effort on that right now."

One problem with inkjet prints is a lack of permanence, Wygant said. "After a few years the ink will start to fade." More permanent prints can be made with a dye sublimation printer, which uses an ink ribbon to laminate the ink onto the paper. "They're used more for businesses; they're a little expensive for the home printer right now."

Laser printers are another option for printing off digital photos. Kinko's uses a laser printer to produce pictures on either laser paper or glossy card stock, said Irfan Butt, assistant manager of technology at the company's store at 1722 S. GlenstoneAve. "The card stock looks more like a regular photograph." He said the quality depends on the images themselves. "If it's from a high-resolution camera, they will look pretty good."

Butt said images can be retrieved from a 3.5-inch disk or any kind of memory card. "We have adapters for all types." He added that Kinko's customers can print digital photos themselves on the Kodak Picture Maker, which prints pictures on actual Kodak photo paper. also come with a "movie mode" that will record a 15- to 30-second video segment, Wygant said. And most digital camcorders also can take low-resolution still shots. "The downside on digital cameras is that the video is not very long, and the downside on digital video cameras is the low resolution," he said. "But as time goes on, these will both improve."

Digital cameras come with varying levels of resolution, which is determined by the megapixel number. More megapixels means more dots, or pixels, per square inch, which results in finer detail. "Lower-priced cameras generally have lower resolution," Wygant said. A lower-priced digi