LiveWorld Transcripts

PhotoAlley presents

Chuck Westfall
Canon's Technical Information Manager

November 08, 2000

Read a PhotoAlley Forum with Chuck Westfall. Chuck has been a member of the Canon Team for 18 years and is currently the Technical Information Manager for Canon USA's Camera Division. Chuck answers questions about the various cameras and attachments available from Canon and their advantages over other products.

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PhotoAlley: Welcome to the PhotoAlley.com Forum. Tonight's special guest is Chuck Westfall. Chuck is here to answer any questions you have about Canon Products, including how to get most out of your Canon camera. Welcome to the Forum, Chuck!

Chuck Westfall: Welcome, everybody. It's nice to be back at PhotoAlley.com again! I hope everybody has had a chance to take pictures recently, and maybe we can have some fun talking about photography tonight!

JMB: I heard that you could take digital still pictures with a digital camcorder. Is this true? Do I still need both?

Chuck Westfall: Generally speaking, it is true that you can take still pictures with a digital camcorder. Actually, it is a very fun and exciting way of taking digital pictures. One of the things about it that is fun is that you have a chance to use some of the powerful lenses that are built into those camcorders. About the only thing that you need to know, though, is that the resolution of the still pictures that you take with the camcorder tends to be suitable for on-screen viewing as opposed to enlargements. A typical digital still camera tends to have much, much higher digital resolution than the digital camcorder, and the difference there is that the higher the resolution, the larger the prints you can make. So as a case in point, really, the maximum size of an image that you would print on the digital camcorder would be 3 x 5 or 4 x 6, whereas on most digital still cameras you can go to at least 8 x 10.

Koala Here: I am looking to buy a digital camera for general family use this Christmas, but have no idea what to look for. Any advice/recommendations?

Chuck Westfall: Well, one of the things that you should really do is decide what kind of pictures you plan to take with this camera. If they are general snapshots and family pictures, then you need a camera that is easy to use. Another thing, of course, is you need to have a camera that has enough image quality so you can get a nice, clear picture. Along that line, one of the things that make a camera easy to use is a feature such as a built-in LCD monitor. What that does for you is to let you see the pictures that you have just taken, so you can make sure that you have what you need before you move on to the next shot. In the Canon line, one of the cameras that fit that category very well is the new PowerShot Digital ELPH. In addition to being very easy to use, this camera is also the world's smallest and lightest digital camera with a zoom lens. That means that it's very easy to carry around wherever you go, so that you'll always have it whenever you feel like taking a snapshot.

Budgeteer: How expensive a camera do I need to get really good results?

Chuck Westfall: Believe it or not, you can get great results from just about any kind of digital camera that's out there now, regardless of price. The quality level really has come a long way in the last year or so. But for an average price point, or price range in digital cameras right now, it will generally start at around $499 for the high quality digital cameras.

Louie Louis: I'm thinking about the Digital ELPH, but I can't figure out all the specs. Why do they give two different zoom ranges--you know, like 5.4-10.8mm and then 35-70mm? And what is the difference between digital and optical zoom.

Chuck Westfall: Those are good questions. The difference between these zoom ranges that you quoted are the difference between the actual focal length and the 35mm equivalent focal length. Usually, it's easier to talk about these zoom ranges in terms of 35mm equivalents. If there is any question about that, you can usually find what the 35mm equivalent is in the specifications for that camera. The difference between optical and digital zoom is that the optical zoom is something that is actually adjusted by the lens itself, and digital zoom is an electronic adjustment, as opposed to an optical adjustment. The difference is that when you use the optical zoom, the quality level remains quite high, but with digital zoom, picture quality is degraded to a certain extent. So both features are very important, but optical zoom is usually more important than digital zoom.

The Bends: I'm a diver and a water nut. Do you have any underwater stuff, and can I take it diving or just snorkeling?

Chuck Westfall: Well, we have underwater housings for both digital and conventional cameras. If we are going to be talking about the Digital ELPH for a moment, there is a special underwater housing available with the model number AW-PS200. This accessory can be used in water as deep as 10 feet, so it's great for snorkeling, but not for real scuba diving. In the conventional cameras, we have one called the ELPH Sport, which has a built-in underwater housing with a depth rating of approximately 16 feet.

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