I am under the impression that digital images do have the "grains" apart from "noise".

I need some education here sire!!

I got the 1.8 and its been a pleasant lens to shoot with with so far. Good value for money for someone switching from Tele/Macro to Portraits, Much appreciate your feedback.

A bit looseness in autofocus zoom lens is normal .. they are not rigid . Don't wiggle it that much just to check it though . Digital photographs don't have grain . Grains are totally a silver-halide film phenomenon . Digital pics taken in low light ( high iso speeds ) will have some noise .. the digital equivalent of "grains" . Take pics in bright daylight and short focal length ( wide angle ), check again for "grains" . Hopefully they won't be there anymore .

Help

HELP ME ..

A dumbass relative f**ked up my brand new sony cybershot DSC-HX100V recently purchased from US.

she put it somewhere near electric heater (used for cooking), its strap melted away (obviously strap must have been touching the heater), the part of strap that melted - was very near to camera- say 3 inches away from camera-so obviously camera also took a lot of heat. and then may be she even knocked it down, as its lens is now a bit loose with sideways movement.

although there are no other visible damage- i find the pictures now are have a lot more grains.

the problem is if i tell all this to service center guys- they will say-either-

1) boss, everything looks normal so dont worry camera is fine, that grains u see are because u are too much worried.

or

2) boss, your camera has suffered serious damage and it will cost a bomb to repair.

is there any real method to check if everything is fine? is there some serious problem or just my imagination that i am seeing grains.?

my camera is barely a few months old and since it is purchased from US, it does not have a warranty in india.

i feel like crying ....man.

A little help here please...

Thanks for the wonderful explanation

Suggestions needed for landscapes and indoor photography

Hi All,

I am very new to photography and i have never used anything other than a simple P&S camera. Currently own a s3000Coolpix nikon and am looking for something that offers better quality. I am looking for something that helps me captures the lansdscapes and sceneries. Also, it should be good for capturing indoor pics.

Do keep in mind that i have to ride as well (something not too delicate preferred) and so it shouldnt be too complicated or fussy to use neither too big. People have suggested p500. Budget <20k

Your suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Abhishek

I see that you need to click lots of frames in a day with single charge .. and if you need the LCD display to compose , then you have to keep it on all the time , that by itself will consume a lot of battery charge too . So naturally you need to maximize the battery capacity . Current Lithium-Ion battery is very high capacity , quickly recharged and maximum energy density ( energy per unit of weight ) among consumer battery types today . Correct choice you have made for your photography style , Prince'jee .. no doubts .
My needs differs because my shooting style is different . I started photography when there was 12 frames to one roll of film . 120 Roll-film in a kodak Brownie . Then came the wonderful 35mm perforated film which took 36 frames to a little cartridge !! AMAZING !!
So naturally my picture taking is very disciplined by force of habit ... I try take a frame that I will not discard later , waiting patiently for perfect light ,composition & opportunity ... so I click less . Battery capacity has never been a problem for me . Max 50 frames a day is very good for me . The problem I really suffered from was self-discharge . That is the property of batteries to lose all their charge by themselves if left unused for a couple of weeks after charging . What I need , is the camera to be ready , whenever I pull it out ( I carry it always in my side-pouch ) , even if I have not remembered to recharge it for a long time ( months sometimes ) . So Sanyo eneloop became my hot favourite ever since it was released .

^^, yes, your point taken. advantages of AA batteries is that, universal size, buy anywhere, charge anywhere, and as you said, the eneloop retains charge longer, after weeks or years also it will have sufficient charge left in them. but this benifit is of no importance to most of us.

i was using them in my nikon and cannon, and it was very frustrating that can't last a single day filled with lots of shooting, so to save battery we have to switch off the display and use viewfinder instead, and also as little flash as possible. and to be frank i don't like to compromise on these two things.

so i use Li-ion battery now, charge in night and happy shooting whole day with display on and use flash whenever u want it. come back in night to hotel charge overnight, there you go again next day.

so my choice is surely Li-ion.

Yes agreed , lithium-ion batteries that come with most cameras now have larger capacity than AA NiMH by weight . But practically it is not an advantage in the long run . Lithium ions lose their charge in 3-5 weeks (self discharge) even when new. quicker when they get a year old . So same problem .. took out camera to shoot after few weeks and no battery juice . The camera shop didn't even have a spare battery for the Nikon PS camera I have . This is now ... think how I can get this battery 5 years later ! Canon battery doesn't fit nikon or pentax , even Nikon other model's battery doesn't fit . Nor are their chargers interchangeable . Heck , I can't even find the battery for my 4 year old Motorola F3 phone anymore - otherwise the phone is ok .. have to throw away just because of dead battery . This is the problem with proprietary size/type battery .

With AA/AAA NiMH , they are cheap and easy to get anywhere , I carry three charged Eneloop pairs when on a tour . I don't use flash much so I can click at-least 500 pics on them alone ;without recharging . For me 500 pics is like 5-7 days of full use .. by that time I get an opportunity to recharge them too . If not , I can shoot 50 pics with a pair of common Duracell / Energizer ( alkaline) cells ; available in grocery shops even .

Yes , like I said , use AA Alkalines only in an emergency .... For regular use keep NiMH Eneloops . NiCD (nickel-cadmium) is obsolete now . If your camera takes AA .. at-least you have the ability to deal with those "gotta get these pics" situations with Alkalines . Two Alkaline AA duracells will take 25-50 pics on a PS digital-camera , depending upon flash usage .

the AA sized alkalines drain extremely fast. The AA sized NiMh/NiCd last longer

Thanks mahajan'jee .. yes I got what you meant to say .... no prob . Actually I have learnt a lot about batteries by now from my early mistakes and lost money ... nowadays we have too many battery operated devices in our life to manage ... so make your battery choices wisely right when you buy , else it can frustrate you to hell .

The Sanyo Eneloop is an NiMH battery available in the standard AA & AAA sizes only . It is low capacity compared to the other NIMH batteries available in the market today . The AA size is of 2000mAh & AAA is of 800mAh only .

The Eneloop's only claim to fame is it's low self discharge . Extremely low self discharge really , as I found out !!! If you keep your fully charged Eneloop away for one full year , it shall have 85% of it's charge left over when you take it out again . After 3 years of storage , it retains 75% of the original charge . So low is the self discharge that packaged Eneloop NiMH batteries come Pre-Charged from the Sanyo factory .... you can just take it out from the pack and use it without any charging .

Well now this is a practical boon in many ways . As prince'jee correctly points out the main problem I faced with my first set of NiMH cells is that whenever I wanted to click some pics and took my camera out after a few weeks , the battery had lost almost all it's charge by then and needed a overnight charging . Blast !!! Missed my little niece's birthdays pics like this .. and many other important photo opportunities this way .

Now with my set of new AA eneloops ( you need a Sanyo eneloop charger or any Sanyo charger pref ) ... whenever I take out my camera ... be it after six months , a full year or two .... I can click at-least 100 pics with it . It is almost fully charged , even after such long storage without any recharging . I keep a spare set of AA Eneloops with my camera now , seldom used .. they have been in the case side pouch for more than a year now .. without recharging ... and still almost fully charged now .

Forgive my long rant -- after my frustrating experience with standard NiMH ; now I just love this battery . I have 14 of them now for various things . Because they retain charge so well , you can use them for very low drain devices like quartz wallclocks alarm clocks or TV/DVD/AC remote controls calculators children's toys torch-light !! Simply Awesum !!! Isn't it ??

Two other things to keep in mind about NiNH cells is to care for them correctly . Never drop them or let them knock about with other things or even themselves ,they have very thin fragile glass tubes inside . Store them in cool place . Do not overcharge ever . That's all .

They look nice too , no ?


SANYO eneloop | Ready to use Rechargeable Battery - The only battery you will ever need

AA size batteries get discharged very soon, if you are very fond of shooting alot of pictures on tours, you have to carry a lot of AA size batteries, as one set will not last even one day.

Yes, I understand that NiMH is a battery type and AA is a size. What I meant is already clear to you.

You have pointed out a good reason for preferring cameras which can take AA size batteries. I will think over it.

Btw..what's so special abt Sanyo Eneloop? Pardon my ignorance

Your question is not qualified - NiMH is a battery type ( nickel metal hydride battery ) while AA is a battery size only . Many battery types occur in the AA size like Zinc-chloride/Alkaline/NiMH/Ni-cad/Lithium etc .
Assuming that you are trying to choose between a proprietary NiMH / Lithium ( that comes with the cameras ) and standard AA size NiMH ... my prefecrence is for cameras that take the AA size battery . I have many reasons for this prefefence . Number one being that ten years from now Nikon may stop making the battery needed for it's old camera models ( like canon suddenly abandoned my the FD camera's ) or say nikon goes out of business , but AA size batteries has been & shall be available for ever and my camera shall keep clicking . Similarly if I run out of battery juice in nowhere , I can just buy a few AA duracells from a nearby paan-shop & keep clicking . Number two being that the Sanyo Eneloop is available only in the AA and AAA sizes .