| |
|
This article has nothing
to do with advertising of the product and there is no relationship with the manufacturer.
It is only the sharing of experiences and based on the use of Sony Digital Camera
MVC-CD300 model. |
|
1) |
Read the Manual Carefully. The manual is easy to understand, but try to do some
simple thing first.
For example, when you insert a CD-R or CD-RW into the camera the first thing to do
is to initialize the
CD and this is simple. But because the dial is so small you have to be sure that
you press it correctly.
 |
Once the CD
is initialized you can start taking pictures. For new users it is
recommended that you use CD-RW rightaway. Don't worry about taking many
pictures and will use up the disk space. With one CD-RW you can take at
least 81 pictures at 2,048 pixels. The picture number is automatically assigned
by the camera in sequences. I started many experiments with several settings
to see how the pictures come out. New users should do the experiments,
for example, take the same picture with different Exposure Value (EV) settings,
set the Focusing Methods to Spot Metering or Center Metering and compare
the results. |
|
|
2) |
Auto Functions. Normally it is safer to set everything to Auto
and Normal. Be careful to check
the White Balance setting because this can change the colors of your picture. For
outdoor landscape
picture it is recommended to use SETUP button and set to Landscape, and when taking
picture in
bright daylight it looks like I have a better picture when I set the White Balance
to Outdoor rather
than Auto. |
|
3) |
Exposure Value Setting.
EV setting at +0.7
|
EV setting at +0.3
|
I took
several pictures with exposure value settings
differently and finally found that for bright daylight
outdoor case the good pictures came out with the
Exposure Value settings at EV +0.3 to +0.7. |
|
|
4) |
Taking Pictures Indoor.
 |
Digital
camera has the advantage of requiring small amount of light
just like video camera. Thus for indoor use the picture effect comes out
nicely even when we force the flash not firing. Surprisingly I took many
indoor pictures without using the flash and the pictures came out
beautifully. Normally, the ISO is set at 100 but for indoor use without
flash the ISO can be adjusted higher, e.g. 200, and thus the shutter
speed can be at least 1/30 sec. |
|
|
5) |
Compare the Pictures in Your
PC. If you look at the LCD on the
camera the pictures
are mostly beautiful and it is very difficult to see the details. Load pictures
into your PC and use
software, e.g. PhotoShop, to change the picture size to, say, 600 pixels in width
and compare the
colors, sharpness, and other details. Now you may want to sharpen the picture and
small adjustment
can also be made. |
|
6) |
The Use of PL Filter.
 |
The
polarizing filter (PL) is normally very effective in SLR camera. But I am
still playing with the expensive Sony PL Filter kit, trying to get better
pictures. Actually, from very short experience, the picture quality is
improved if we use it properly. However, by looking thru the LCD during
taking picture outdoor it is difficult to notice the effect of turning the PL
filter
ring. Thus I took many pictures by turning the PL filter ring 45 degrees
each time and compare the results. This is a clumsy way to take picture
in daylight, outdoor.The picture quality is not much different and sometimes
the quality is even deteriated. |
|
|
7) |
Connecting to Your Computer.
 |
By installing the
supplied software it is easy to transfer
pictures from MVC-CD300 to the computer using USB cable. However, it is easier if
you have a CD-RW drive installed in your computer so that only a CD-RW disc is used
without worrying
about the camera and the battery usage. Be sure to select a MultiRead CD-RW drive
of good brand so that it can read
CD-RW disc from your camera (without finalization). If you
have some problems on that try to change the Version of the
DirectCD software by down load it from the supplier's web site. |
|
|
8) |
Preliminary Conclusion. So far I have already taken hundreds of
pictures using Sony
MVC-CD300 digital camera. We have to accept that digital camera has many advantages
and save our time. Picture quality is acceptable but for certain case SLR camera is
still
needed. For most of my work this camera can be of great help and will prove to be
economical
when I have taken up to about 5,000 pictures!.
Update : As of October 12,
2002 I have already taken 6,900 pictures with Sony CD300. |
|
|
.
Somkiet Phaloprakarn September 2, 2001
Continue on Page 2 Back to Main |
