Doing a task with a Year 9 class tomorrow to compare the camera on a phone, a compact digital camera, a camcorder, and a tablet pc.

Am ir ight in thinking it is:
optical or digital zoom
lens size
resolution/mp
modes
flash (what am i looking for?)

As you can guess, i am clueless!!

Biggest differentiator for cheap cameras is low light performance – most laptop cameras can’t cope at all – eg a decent DSLR can take a decent picture in semi-darkness without needing a flash, whereas a cameraphone will just produce rubbish and a laptop / tablet will just show a dark screen.

If it doesn’t have an optical viewfinder, you won’t be able to tell what you’re going to get in bright sunlight.

ISO rating is the terminology for light sensitivity. Bigger=more use when dark. Downside is usually grainyness.

Ergonomics, is it made to be used at your eye, at arms length, or pointing back atcha for self mugshots.

In addition to what you’ve got: Does it do video? Ergonomics; is the form factor (ie, the shape of the device) comfortable, can you get to the controls easily? Can you manipulate the image (apply effects) on the device? How easily can you share your photos? Does it geotag? Is it intuitive? Do you have any useful modes (eg, burst mode)?

Hey kids, what differences can *you* see?

I’d dismiss digital zoom immediately as you are just losing pixels.
Lens size – I guess you mean zoom range? Can be important, but for a price point more zoom might mean more distortion & flare in bright light.
Resolution can be important, but cramming more onto a small sensor can often result in a lot of noise/grain, which becomes particularly obvious in low light.
Flash – power, which is generally expressed as ‘guide number’. Most will have the same modes, although more advanced will have rear curtain sync which is generally used for catching motion & fires the flash at the end of the exposure, rather than the start. Some cameras do better balancing ambient light & flash to give a better result than just an overpowering flash that leaves a dark background.

You could start by asking them what they think is important. Write it all on the board then try to group these into about 5 categories and use that as your selection criteria. All the features you mentioned will arise, maybe some others but at least they’ll have ownership.

Won’t make a very good lesson, but IMHO there’s only one factor. Fitness for purpose.

More seriously, when choosing a camera I personally would look at –

Lens quality (bit subjective I guess).
Sensor speed (some phones etc. (and sadly even mid-range cameras) have a HUGE lag between hitting the ‘shutter’ button and taking the picture).
Low light performance/ISO range.
Optical zoom.
Range of manual settings (as opposed to ‘automatic’ or preset modes).

slainte 😀 rob

Go on dpreview.com and see what they talk about. Then condense it a lot, obviously – their reviews are pretty technical but you could simplify.

They do stuff that would be fun to measure and quantify in a science class. Like they have these charts with fine converging lines printed next to a measurement scale. You take a picture and see at what point you can’t differentiate between the lines any more – this indicates the effective resolution ie what detail it can actually record, as opposed to the number of pixels. There are also black and white squares in the middle and the edge of the shot – towards the edge you can see some coloured fringing which is worse on some cameras than others. Then you could also just take a picture and zoom in a lot – make sure there’s lots of fine detail in the picture like a bookshelf on the other side of the classroom. If you zoom right in you’ll be able to read some of the text on some cameras and not others.

Because you are testing very different cameras the differences will be really apparent.

But also what his Mungness says – usability and intended purpose will bring design, technology and even marketing into it as well as scientific comparison methods.

Won’t make a very good lesson

Really? Why not?

Depends on the group and school context I guess. Subject being taught might make a difference too (teaching all three, I might tackle this differently in ICT than I would in Photography or Media Studies).

Thinking about my own school was just thinking it might be a bit too open-ended for some Y9 students. They could cope with being asked to judge against a list of criteria but might struggle to come up with their own from scratch.

slainte ❓ rob

no, i was suggesting that they shout out some ideas, you as the teacher reduce them to a list

Crossed wires I think CM.

Wasn’t commenting on your idea originally.

slainte 😳 rob

Good! otherwise I’d come round there and burn your house down!

Just the Body I look for

Quality of shutter and speeds
Metering system
Exposure modes
Buttons logically placed for setting to take a picture
What the body is made of
Ease of use of the Menu system
Comfortability in my large hands
The weight of the dam thing

colour.

filter size.

do I like it?my npc 195 keeps me poor.but do I like opening up the bellows…

does it have a lot of menus crap,or can I do things directly.

can I hit someone with it,if need be.

that about covers it.