The tech helper: Digital camera accessories that make sense (Feature)

By Jay Dougherty Oct 18, 2010, 3:06 GMT

Washington - The digital camera accessory market is bursting at the seams. Aftermarket batteries, fast memory cards, add-on flashes, lenses, and more - all promise you either greater convenience or better pictures. But with so many choices, which accessories are really worth your while? Read on for some answers.

Q: My camera has a built-in flash but also a receptacle for an add-on flash. Will the add-on flash give me better pictures?

A: The add-on flash will be useful to you in a few ways. First, it will help you to reduce or eliminate the 'red eye' effect in people photographs that you may have seen in photographs taken with the assistance of your camera's built-in flash. The red eye effect - which causes the pupils of people that you photograph to appear red - is the result of the flash being too close to the lens, which is often the case with flashes built into compact digital cameras. An add-on flash - which slips into your camera's hotshoe - sits higher up, away from the camera's lens, and the distance is usually enough to reduce or eliminate the red-eye effect, especially if you can angle the hotshoe flash up toward the ceiling.

Add-on flashes are also typically much more powerful than built-in flashes. With the extra power, you can take photographs farther away from your subject while maintaining adequate lighting. You can also take photographs of larger groups of people, if that's your interest. And you'll probably be able to take flash photographs in quicker succession, since add-on flashes typically recycle faster than do pop-up flashes.

So while an add-on flash won't by itself give you better pictures, it will allow you to be more versatile with your camera, and it will save you time in processing your photographs if red eye is currently an issue that you routinely attempt to fix.

Q: I have trouble holding my camera still, and the result is blurry pictures. I don't want to carry a tripod, though. Do you have any tips for getting clearer shots without a tripod?

A: Blurry pictures are indeed almost always caused by not being able to hold the camera still enough for the amount of light you're shooting in. The more light you have, the less likely you are to end up with blurry pictures. Even with a tripod, you can end up with blurry pictures, although they'll most often be caused by moving subjects rather than a moving camera.

Still, keeping that camera as still as possible is usually the key to getting blur-free images. If you don't want to use a tripod, you can think of your body as one leg of a tripod by leaning up against a solid object when snapping a picture, bracing your camera-wielding arm against your chest as you shoot, or allowing your camera to rest on an inanimate object and using the self-timer function found on most cameras to release the shutter.

Or you can turn to technology to help. Look for cameras or lenses with image stabilisation (IS) or vibration reduction (VR) built in. This technology actually works to counteract camera shake. Canon and Nikon build IS/VR into their lenses. Other makes, such as Olympus and Pentax, build IS/VR into their camera bodies.

Using a flash, even outdoors, to increase the amount of available light will also help you take blur-free shots. The more light you have, the faster your camera's shutter can open and close, leaving less opportunity for movement to mar your photograph.

If your camera allows you to manually adjust the ISO setting - which controls how light-sensitive your camera's main light-gathering chip is - then move it up to a high number, such as ISO 800 or more. Doing this also effectively increases the light coming into your camera, allowing the unit again to increase the shutter speed and stop motion.

Q: My camera's battery does not last very long. I see compatible batteries that promise a longer time between charges. Is it safe to use a third-party battery?

A: It's probably safe, but there can be other issues with third-party batteries of which you should be aware. First, should any battery leakage occur and your camera be damaged as a result, your use of the third party battery would likely void your warranty and force you to have to pay for repairs out of pocket.

Second, users of third-party camera batteries have sometimes complained about improper fit. If camera batteries don't fit exactly right, the result can be reduced battery life or outright operational failure.

Those caveats aside, however, many swear by third-party battery replacements, for two primary reasons: they are usually significantly cheaper than batteries you buy directly from the camera maker, and they often last longer, thanks to constant advances in battery technology that third-party manufacturers are able to capitalise upon. Find a reputable source for your third-party batteries - Thomas Distributing (http://www.thomasdistributing.com), for example, is well regarded, and make sure there's a liberal return policy if the batteries malfunction or simply don't work.

Q: With my digital camera, I often have to wait a long time before it is ready to take another picture. Will buying a faster memory card help?

A: It's unlikely that a faster memory card will make your camera operate fast enough not to frustrate you. Even on high-performance cameras that are designed to take 8 or more shots per second, a faster memory card typically shaves mere milliseconds off of the time it takes to write images. What's more, the very fast memory cards boasting '300x' or '400x' speeds may not even work in your camera because they could be using a technology that's not compatible with your camera. So check with your camera manufacturer's website first to see which memory card speeds are supported.

Chances are good, though, that the shot-to-shot delay you are experiencing has as much to do with your camera's electronics as it does with the memory card itself. If rapid-fire shooting is important to you, look for digital cameras that can take at least 3 shots per second.

--- Have a tech question? Send it to jaydougherty.dpa@gmail.com

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