| In October, 2001, I
attended a computer programmers conference in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was my
first visit to New England, and being in the fall I especially wanted to see a bit of the
countryside and take some pictures. So I stayed an extra day, rented a car,
and drove through the southern area of the White Mountains. I was
traveling light and had less than 24 hours, so I left behind my usual photo expedition
gear with tripod, lenses and filters, etc., and took only an inexpensive digital camera I
had purchased last spring. So it was my first photographic outing with a digital
camera, and, being a dedicated black and white photographer, it was also my first color
photo adventure in many years. |
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What can be done with a cheap digital camera? |
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| This camera is not a serious photo machine, but just a simple
point-and-shoot type with a fixed lens, fixed focus, and no aperture or shutter controls.
It does have auto-exposure, which is its saving grace. This is basically
Kodak's modern-day Brownie. I found it in a close-out sale for $179 at a Ritz Camera
store and decided it was time to stick my toe into the digital waters.
So this was sort of a self-imposed minimalist photo assignment to see what kind of
artistry could be wrought with this little digital beastie. Overall I am very impressed with the results. The camera has excellent color balance and did a fine job of capturing the subtle shades and pastels, as well as the luminance and light quality. Because you can lock in the exposure by holding the shutter button half way down, it allows some degree of exposure control. All of the photos were taken at the lowest resolution so they could fit on the web page without resizing. Other than some cropping on a few pictures to remove power lines and such, no manipulation of any kind was done to them. They are straight from the camera. While it is not a mega-pixel, mega-buck wonder machine, I could not be more pleased with this camera, given its price. This was a special trip for me, and these photos will provide wonderful memories for many years. Out of about 85 pictures taken, I have chosen 30 to display on this page. They are arranged in the order in which they were taken as I traveled back roads and small towns in the foothills of New Hampshire's White Mountains. The temperature in the higher elevations was below 30 f. and a strong wind was blowing. It was a fine, blustery and glorious day. I hope you will enjoy the pictures and have a sense of traveling along with me as I explored this most beautiful part of our country.
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| Technical Notes | |
| - Camera is a Kodak DC3200 (1.0 mega pixel). - Close out price at Ritz Camera was $179. - Lens is equivalent to 39mm on a 35mm camera. - Fixed-Focus, Auto-Exposure. - Powered by 4 "AA" cells. - The body is a sturdy plastic and seems nearly indestructible. - The menu can be understood without the book (Hooray!). - Menu items and button labels are large enough to be used without reading glasses (Hooray again!). - Highest resolution is 1152 x 864 pixels. - All pictures were at camera's lowest resolution, 576 x 432 pixels. - The camera is equipped with a removable 32 mb Compact Flash card. At the low resolution it will store about 400 pictures. - A few pictures were cropped; No other type of manipulation was done to any of the pictures. |
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| 30 Pictures |
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