Tutorial Two: Digital Camera use and applications

I find weighing up the pros and cons between digital cameras and the tradition film based cameras an interesting task. With digital cameras there is of course the joy attached to viewing photos straight away on the digital screen, and then (in my case) the joy in being able to delete those 'few' (or many) terrible shots. Then there are cons that come to mind such as the reliance on more technology and the not so flash storage system (bring back photo albums!) associated with digital cameras.

Today digital images can be sent via email and mobile phones, they can be stored via DVDs, CDs and memory sticks and they can be manipulated using fancy technology such as photoshop and the like. With these modern ways come more ethics such as privacy of clients and the importance of informed consent.

In OT practice digital cameras are used for

• educating staff on equipment and it's benefits (photo's are often used as visual supports)
• online catalogues
• service websites

Flickr.com is a service that is modelled on this blog (one that took a bit to get my head around). It allows one to store pictures and videos, edit these, share content with others and for those advanced flick users, even creating slideshows. Picaso is a similar service but set out in a simpler format (in my opinion).

Many of you may have heard the terms optical and digital zoom. Perhaps like me, you've never quite caught onto this jargon so is my new understanding of it. Optical zoom keeps the clarity and digital zoom expands the picture. Megapixel is also thrown around this mix and can be explained as one million pixels, used as a unit of resolution of digital cameras.