Digital Photos: Easily Take and Share, Safely Carry and Save

The Samsung s1050 (Samsung, street $200) digital camera is a terrific, economical way to get started taking digital photos. On the surface, the camera is a point-and-shoot model that allows you to take your pictures quickly and easily. But its 10 megapixel sensor provides enough photo detail for poster-sized prints (although in our experience, the vast majority of prints you want will be the easy-to-share 4 x 6 inch size). The camera’s 5X optical zoom gets you close to the action.

Despite its point and shoot nature, the camera provides many features that will help you take better pictures. For example, nine scene settings automatically optimize camera settings for a variety of common picture taking events such as sunset, fireworks, beach or snow, text, children or landscape. Advanced settings allow you to control the camera’s shutter speed (15-1/2,000 seconds), aperture (f2.8-f4.4), ISO sensitivity (80-1600) and resolution (11 steps from 3648x2736 pixels to 640x480). You’ll appreciate this control as your experience, interests and expertise increase.

The 3-inch LCD Monitor makes it easy to compose and view your picture in normal light levels, but in bright sunlight it’s difficult to see the screen. Although this is a common problem with most LCDs, here there’s no view finder to fall back on. The ASR (automatic shake reduction) feature increases shutter speed and ISO to help reduce the effect of camera motion. A helpful facial recognition feature automatically finds a face(s) in your scene and sets focus and exposure on the face. No more blurred people while the background is in sharp focus. The Wise Shoot feature takes two pictures in rapid succession, one with flash and one with ASR and lets you compare them to select the best shot--flash or ambient light.

The camera sports 45MB internal memory that holds 15 or more pictures, depending on resolution settings. Optional SD memory cards up to 4GB can also be used to store pictures. A movie mode shoots movie clips with or without sound in MPEG4 format, and a sound recorder lets you add a 10-second audio clip to any still image.

The Samsung s1050's compact size (4x2.5x1 inch) makes it easy to carry. The camera uses readily available AA alkaline batteries, which it seems to consume rapidly, so Samsung recommends rechargeable lithium ion batteries for longer life. A quirk of the camera we tested was its tendency to occasionally lock up, requiring opening the battery compartment, counting to ten and closing the battery cover to allow the camera to re-boot. A small price to pay considering the low price and wealth of features in this camera. We found the picture quality good, with reasonable color accuracy, saturation and sharpness.

Included with the camera is a basic easy-to-use image and video editor and a 102-page user manual on disk.

Once you have this or any other digital camera, a cool and easy way to share your images is by showing them on a digital picture frame. The AXN-9701 Digital Picture Frame (Axion, $90) is a stylish 7-inch LCD screen surrounded by a black or silver frame that’s surrounded by a clear plastic border. A movable support holds the frame in vertical or horizontal position. Internal memory can store up to 15 photos, but the frame has memory card slots supporting SD, CF, xD or Sony Memory sticks and a USB connection for thumb drive--all for displaying JPG format photos. Individual photos from the memory cards can be copied to the frame’s internal memory. The digital picture frame will run a slide show of all the photos in memory or in memory cards. Slide timing is adjustable, and the unit can play mp3 music files to accompany the slide show, although sound quality is a bit thin.

The AXN-9701 Digital Picture Frame includes a credit card sized remote control to manage the action, and power for the Frame comes from the included AC adapter. The LCD panel has 480x234 pixel resolution and variable brightness for easy viewing in most normal room lighting. We found the frame easy to use and a fun way to share photos with others. And at a reasonable price.

You can safely and securely transport and/or save your photos or any data files using the Flash Survivor GT USB Drive (Corsair, www.corsair.com, $60 4GB, $130 8GB GT). Built for the vigorous lifestyle and meant to withstand hostile environments, this rugged flash drive is water resistant to 650 feet and is triple point shock protected. The drive is housed in a rock-solid milled aircraft aluminum case, ribbed to resist crushing, is quite stylish and comes with a neck chain and its own dog tag. The GT version is up to 5X faster at file transfers than other USB drives, thanks to proprietary controllers. The Flash Survivor comes preloaded with TrueCrypt data encryption for security if you want. The drive is perfect for storing and/or transporting photos and data files without having to worry about damage or loss of data due to the elements or being knocked about.

  Click Here to Return to the Main Column Archive Page