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Definisi Kamera Makin lari dari Sejarah

By Hendrik Tan disadur dari Kompas, Selasa, 23 Desember 2014,  Tips&Catatan : Arbain Rambey, sayangnya gambar-gambar diambil dari Google

# Foto udara konser music saat hari pelantikan Jokowi sebagai Presiden Ketujuh RI tanggal 20 Oktober 2014. Kamera yang bisa diterbangkan adalah tren yang mengemuka selama 2014 dan akan sangat berkembang di tahun-tahun berikutnya.

KALAU ada fotografer yang hidup tahun 1930-an dibawa kemasa kini, dia pasti bingung dengan definisi kamera yang ada. Kamera saat ini makin beragam bentuk dan fungsinya, dengan mutu yang maki bagus pula.

Saati ini, jangan lagi bertanya, “bagus tidak?” saat ada kamera baru diluncurkan. Sejak akhir 2013 pun, semua kamera telepon genggam sudah punya mutu yang sangat bagus utnuk standar fotografi umum, yaitu dilihat, dipamerkan, lalu dicetak, dan dipajang di rumah. Tidaklah heran kalau dalam setahun terakhir makin sedikit orang yang membeli kamera saku. Kalau telepon sudah bisa, buat apa beli kamera saku lagi bukan?

Selain itu, kini kamera mirrorless sedang booming. Perusahaan Panasonic dan Olympus yang merintis jenis kamera ini pada 2009 sudah memutuskan berhenti membuat DSLR (Digital Single Lense Reflex). Hal ini lalu diikuti merek-merek lain, seperti Pentax, Sony, Samsung, dan Fuji. Bahkan saat ini dengan deretan kamera mirrorless-nya yang cukup menggebrak pasar dengan ujung tombak XT-1.

Di sisi lain, Sony agak “kebingungan” dengan standar lensa yang mereka anut. Di awal membuat kamera serius dengna mengakuisisi Konica dan Minolta, sony punya kedudukan lensa bayonet yang menganut sistem Minolta pada seri Alfa. Kemudian saat mulai membaut kamera mirrorless dengan nama Nex, Sony membuat sistem lensa baru saat mereka meluncurkan seri mirrorless full frame yang kembali memakai nama seri Alfa.

Di satu sisi, sistem lensa New Alfa dari Sony ini membuka harapan baru pada sistem mirrorless yang sangat canggih, di sisi lain hal ini membuat bingung konsumen yang jelas berkeberatan membeli ankea sistem lensa sekaligus.

Dalam kancah kamera sangat ringan, upaya Samsung yang menggabungkan kamera saku dan telepon genggam seperti Galaxy S4 Zoom mulai menjadi gejala yang pasti sedang dilirik ankea perusahaan kamera/telepon lain.

Bagaimana Tren Kamera pada Tahun 2015 mendatang?

#Kini hampir tiap orang senagn memotret sehingga Casio membaut sebuah kamera yang bisa dipakai normal. Kamera ini bisa diputar sebagai kamera selfie dan bisa dijadikan kamera denga control jarak jauh dengan memisahkan kedua bagian utamanya, bahkan bisa diterbangkan

Mengamati apa yang terjadi selama tahun 2014, ada hal penting yang bisa kita sepakati. Saat ini kamera terbagi dua hal besar, yaitu utnuk skala industry (iklan dan aneka keperluan khusus seperti pemetaan) dan untuk skala umum. Jurnalistik bisa dikatakan masuk kategori umum karena dia tidak menuntut mutu terlalu tinggi, sementara secara umum kamera apa pun sudah bermutu bagus.

Yang marak pula adalah menerbangkan kamera karena kini kamera bisa sangat mungil dan ringan. Selama 2014, kita lihat kamera ringan yang bisa dikontrol dari jauh makin banyak beredar di pasaran, seperti GoPro, sony, Brica, bahkan HTC, dan juga Casio. Dengan kemampuan dikendalikan dari jarak jauh, kamera-kamera ini kemudian dipasang pada pesawat terbang ringan untuk bisa memotret aneka keperluan. Konser rakyat 5 Juli 2014 di Gelora Bung Karno dan juga pelantikan Jokowi sebagai presiden pada 20 Oktober lalu diwarnai banyaknya kamera yang terbang di udara.

Kamera-kamera terbang ini mutunya sangat jelas bukan papan atas karena selain sensornya berukuran kecil, lensanya pun bukanlah lensa mutu tinggi yang bisa dilepaspasangkan. Tetapi secara umum, kini kamera-kamera  ini juga dipakai untuk aneka keperluan serius, seperti iklan dan jgua film komersial karena juga sudah masuk kelas 4K.

Untuk tahun 2015 mendatang, kecenderungan fotografi adalah sebagai berikut.

1. Fotografi selfie yang makin marak. Bagaimanapun orang senang memotret dirinya sendiri karena memang ini hakiat kamera secara umum. Pada awal abad ke-20, George Eastman, pendiri perusahaan Kodak, berpikir bagaimana bsia membuat kamera yang berukuran kecil. Bagi Eastman, bisa memotret dan bisa berpotret saat berpergian adala hhal yagn sangat menarik. Dan Eastman menciptakan Kodan Brownie yang menjadi cikal bakal semua kamera yang ada sekarang.

2. Kamera makin murah dan semua orang ingin memiliki kamera. Maka, kamera yang akan banyak terjual adalah kamera yang bisa memenuhi sebanyak mungkin kebutuhan manusia. Orang jelas ingin bisa memotret kapan pun karena kameranya mungil dan ringan. Orang juga kadang ingin mengendalikan kameranya secara remote.

3. Dunia foto jurnalistik makin meninggalkan DSLR, sementar DSLR pun mulai digeser kelas prosumer untuk merekam video. Saat ini kamera kelas prosumer sudah ada yang mampu merekam video 4K dengan sangat baik, seperti Lumix GH4. Dalam skala agak lebih rendah, telepon cerdas seperti Sony Z3 pun bisa merekam video 4K.

4. Akan muncul telepon cerdas dengan lensa yang bisa diatur diafragmanya. Selama ini, kamera telepon hanya mengandalkan ISO dan rana elektronik untuk mengatur pencahayaan. Kamera hybrid seperti Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom akan mengerucut menjadi makin tipis.

5. Video 4K adalah hal umum pada kamera prosumer keatas mulai tahun 2015, disertai makin cepatnya kartu memori yang ada dipasaran.

Kecenderungan 2015 sudah terlihat di Desember ini dengna munculnya kamera Casio FR-10 dan Exilim MR-1. Kamera FR-10 sungguh memberontak terhadap definisi kamera yang selama ini kita tahu baik dalam bentuk maupun dalam fungsi.

FR-10 bsia diperlukan seperti gantungan kunci yang ditaruh di pinggang dengan penggantung khususnya. Lensanya bisa diarahkan ke arah sesuka hati kita, bahkan unik lensa bisa dipisahkan dari induknya untuk dikendalikan jarak jauh lewat saluran Bluetooth yang stabil.

Sedangakan MR-1 adalah contoh konkret bahwa fotografi selfie sudah dianggap serius di mata produser. Kamera ini memang dibuat khusus utnuk memotret diri sendiri dengan nyaman dan akurat.

#Kecenderungan orang untuk memotret dirinya sendiri atau melakukan selfie dijawab produsen dengna kamera khusus selfie ini. Baigan depan kamera ditutup dengan cermin cembung untuk membantu pemotret membaut kompisisi yang akurat. Hasil pemotretaan yang memakai lensa setara 21 mm format 135 tidaklah cembung seperti preview-nya

Hak lain yang konon akan terjadi tahun 2015 adalah munculnya kamera-kamera mirrorless yang mengejutkan dari Canon dan Nikon (yang selama ini terkesan tidak serius di mirrorless), kemudian munculnya aneka kamera ala GoPro dari merek-merek besar lain, dan juga telepon cerdas yang memakai lensa berdiafragma.

Produsen makin berlomba menghasilkan produk inovatif. Kita sebagai pemakai tentu tinggal tersenyum senang dan menikmatinya bukan?

Best Compact Digital Cameras

Find the Best Digital Camera for Your Needs and Maximum Enjoyment

By Hendrik Tan

Digital Cameras have become a common site wherever you go. If you're getting ready to purchase your first digital camera, or maybe you're looking to replace one you already have, it is best to familiarize yourself with the knowledge of what makes one digital camera different from another and choose the one that is right for you. In this article we'll cover one of the most significant factors in picture quality. This is the "digital film."

Just like with a film camera, the digital camera has a lens which brings light into focus on a bed of light sensitive material. In the digital camera, that light sensitive material is a circuit bed called a "CCD." The CCD plays the same role as film in a film camera and the lens allows light to fall onto the CCD which is then converted into a digital image. The quality of the lens can make a significant difference in the clarity of that image. Very cheap digital cameras may even use a piece of plastic as the lens, which will usually have an uneven surface and light transmission. This will be noticeable in the picture but may not be an issue for a security camera or a web cam. Better quality digital cameras will have ground-glass lens and high-end digital cameras will even have interchangeable lenses as do high-end film cameras. The lens still plays the important role of bringing light clearly to the CCD surface for a distortion free picture.

A CCD also provides an interesting advantage to the digital camera. It is possible to automatically adjust light sensitivity to improve contrast, shoot in dim light, or even take black and white, sepia or infrared and ultraviolet light pictures with the touch of a button. Because any of these images are stored as the same data on the memory card, a digital camera can offer unsurpassed versatility without the need to change film types. Not all digital cameras have these features built in, but they are options you may see in some cameras. While the possibilities are cool, ask yourself if you that is a feature you need in a digital camera.

With digital cameras, CCD is a grid of light sensitive points which capture the image for conversion into a digital image. The number of points on the CCD is measured in terms of "mega pixels." The mega pixel rating is a completely new bit of terminology and is unique to the digital camera. The mega pixel rating is a measure of the resolution of the camera, or its ability to store details of an image. For example, a digital camera with a maximum resolution of 1280 by 768 pixels (dots) comes out to a total of 983,040 pixels with which to describe the digital image. As each mega pixel represents one million pixels, we can see this isn't even one mega pixel. Some digital cameras have mega pixel ratings at 5.1 and even 7.1 mega pixels. What does this mean to you? The more pixels the more detail stored. If the image is going to be viewed on a screen or a TV, this isn't very meaningful because video displays have resolutions which are usually well below one mega pixel. However, when printing on a high quality photo printer, the difference between a 3 mega pixel digital camera and a 5 mega pixel digital camera can be very obvious.

Some people will try to evaluate a mega pixel rating by how large a print can be made from the digital camera's image. The truth is that any digital image can be printed to any size. The real issue is what it looks like. Most people print their film to 4x6 prints and many are now doing the same with their digital cameras. Ask to see printed samples of pictures which are like the type you would normally take and compare the same prints between different cameras. Many stores will try to dazzle you with colorful still life images of piles of multi-colored fruits and hot air balloons. Do you take pictures like that? Probably not, so perhaps they're not the best images to be scrutinizing. If you take pictures of friends standing around, use each camera to take pictures of people standing around. Then use a demonstration printer at the store to make prints and look at the results. Do you see little dots in the middle of solid colors? Does the image look like it was taken with a poor quality film camera? Don't seek out the digital camera that happens to take perfect pictures in a perfect setting, contrived by the marketing department of the digital camera's manufacturer. Look for the digital camera that takes pictures you like in the settings in which you most commonly find yourself.

Another issue to consider is that some digital cameras are designed for "point and click" use while other cameras are designed with lots of settings which must be manipulated for optimal results. In my personal experience, I have found that Kodak makes digital cameras which are ideally suited for simple "point and click" use and consistently take great looking pictures in a wide variety of settings. I have also personally found that digital cameras from Nikon work best when you set them to "manual" and do not rely on the automatic settings. This seems to be true of their film cameras as well. Does this make one digital camera better than another? Only if one fits your needs and skills, and the other does not.

There are many magazines available on digital cameras today. Most recognize these differences in digital camera quality, based on needs and intended use of the owner. Before buying your new digital camera, pick up a few of these magazines and familiarize yourself with the latest reviews. Remember that the pros and cons are still written "through the lens" of the reviewer. If you see a negative about a digital camera that you otherwise like, ask yourself if that negative is meaningful to your needs. Next ask yourself if that negative might be meaningful to your needs as you become more experienced. If the answer is yes, ask yourself if you would still be using that camera as a more experienced photographer in the future or would you perhaps sell it and buy an entirely new digital camera? It's unlikely that the digital camera you buy today is going to be the only one you'll ever have. Buy the digital camera that most reasonably meets your needs and how you normally plan to take pictures.

Memory cards and battery life are also consideration factors which will be covered in other articles. For now, I hope this information has taught you more about the workings of a digital camera and some of the factors to consider when choosing one. Take your time and learn a bit about digital cameras before your purchase. Sure, it's not like buying a car, but photography is a very personal experience and the right digital camera will truly make a difference in your enjoyment of capturing the moment with digital photography.

Best Buy Digital Cameras

By Hendrik Tan

Today, there are a wide range of digital cameras on the market. As well, every year many more new cameras are introduced. Each camera promotes a variety of features such as: design, file formats, resolution, usability, and much more. It can be very difficult trying to pick the best digital camera that meets your needs. Because there is not one single digital camera that can be considered the best of all cameras, the best thing a person can do is acquire an understanding of the beneficial features that will make a digital camera a good investment.

The following is a list of tips on how to choose a digital camera:

Resolution: It is important to get a high resolution camera. A camera of 2 to 3 megapixels is a good choice. If you will be printing a lot of photos, you should get a camera of 3 to 4 megapixels. If you are going to enlarge photos, get at least 5 to 6 megapixels. The type of resolution you choose will depend on what the camera will be used for.

Zoom: The type of zoom you choose will depend on how you will use the digital camera. The two types of zoom are optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom allows you to take close up pictures without affecting the quality of the picture. Digital zoom will allow you to get a close up picture of the subject but the detail and clarity may be affected negatively. A smaller zoom is good for family shots (1x - 4x.) A 5x zoom and higher is good for action shots. A 10x or 12x is good for long distant nature shots.

LCD Display: You should have an LCD display on the back of the camera so that you can view the precise framing. A rotating LCD viewfinder is also a good feature to have as it is more accurate than the LCD.

RAM: It is important to get a camera with a lot of RAM so you can store plenty of pictures. Guidelines include: 128MB of memory for up to 4 megapixels, 256MB for 5-6 megapixels, and 512MB for 7+ megapixels.

Batteries: Because cameras consume a lot of power, it is important to get rechargeable batteries, including extra batteries so you can use the camera while one set of batteries is recharging.

Extra Features: There are a number of extra features that you may want to consider such as: self-timer, variable shutter speeds, interchangeable lenses, auto exposure, steady-shot, a battery-time-remaining indicator, voice memo, adjustable aperture, autofocus and macro features, shutter-release lag times, and USB or IEEE 1394 (FireWire) connectivity.

Flash: Because the majority of digital cameras come with a built-in flash, it is important to make sure you can turn the flash off.

Choosing a camera can be a time-consuming and difficult task. Fortunately, the Internet has several first-rate camera review sites. You can use these sites to help you narrow down your choices. When you know what features you need when searching for a camera, you will be able to find the best digital camera that meets your needs.

In 2014 many Americans will look to save as much money as possible as the economy continues to greatly struggle. One way to save money during the holiday season is to take advantage of 2014 Best Buy Black Friday sales. Some of the sales that will often be considered include the deals that are available on digital cameras. Each and every year more and more Americans buy cameras as they want to take pictures and save these pictures on a computer rather than having a printed copy.

When thinking about a 2014 Christmas gift idea it is often the case that many parents and grandparents think about giving their children and grandchildren a new camera. With the advancements in technology it is now the case that almost everyone in America wants a digital camera as they are light weight, small and can fit in your pocket. One of the major electronics retailers in the United States happens to be Best Buy and they often offer many deals and sales when it comes to these cameras on the day after Thanksgiving.

Before making any final decisions when it comes to buying a digital camera it is always important to do research and understand just what your loved ones want. When it comes to gadget devices it is often the case that many people are very picky. If you pick out the wrong type of advanced camera it may be the case that you have to return it on the day after Christmas as the person receiving the gift will want the camera that they had initially thought they were going to get.

Unfortunately, it tends to be the case that there are many options available when it comes to purchasing a digital camera on Black Friday. There are many companies that offer great new cameras and most of these companies are willing to put them on sale during the busiest times of the year. This makes it very difficult for those who want to come up with a completely unique gift for the loved ones in their life. Sometimes it is a wise decision to just ask which type of digital camera is best. Once again, it is unfortunate but each situation dictates which digital camera will be the best fit. One of the most important things to do is to just ask your loved ones to write down the exact name and model of the digital camera that they would like to have on Christmas morning.

One way to save on Best Buy digital camera sales is to do research in advance. The Black Friday and cyber Monday ads will likely be released at the beginning of November so make certain to check out which cameras are available. Remember to do research on this cameras as you will want to select a camera that is of good quality. Going to Consumer Reports could help with this process. Look for the popularity of these sales to grow this year as many people want to save money.

When thinking about 2014 Best Buy digital camera deals it is very important to do research and see what is available. The best offers on digital cameras often come during the Best Buy Black Friday sale which is the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Beginner DSLR Camera Reviews

by Hendrik Tan

If you're looking to get a new DSLR camera then look no further because with this article I'm going to review the best DSLR cameras for the beginner photographer, so keep on reading.

The first camera I'm going to tell you about is the Canon Rebel XS. The Canon Rebel XS is a great little camera that won't confuse you with any non essential buttons or options. The rebel XS is a great camera to start out with as it boasts an impressive 10.1megapixel CMOS sensor and can shoot at a respectable 3fps.

The Rebel XS is often packaged with an 18-55mm lens which is perfect for a wide range of everyday photography situations.

The Rebel XS is the most affordable entry level camera package and can be picked up for less than $550 with free postage.

The next camera I'm going to tell you about is an upgrade on the Rebel XS and it's called the Canon EOS Rebel T1i. The Canon EOS Rebel T1i is the bigger sister to the Rebel XS and comes with an impressive 15.1 megapixel sensor to capture even the finest details. The Rebel T1i also has the added function of being able to capture movies and the best part is that these movies are in full high definition.

The Rebel T1i can also function up to an ISO range of 12,800. Whereas the Rebel XS could only go up to ISO 1600.

Overall the Rebel T1i is an upgrade in every direction over the XS and if you have a little more money to spend then I would recommend the Canon Rebel T1i over the Rebel XS.

If you have more money to spend then I recommend getting the Rebel T1i, however if you're on a budget the Rebel XS is a great beginner DSLR Camera.