Digital Cameras

Even if you're encouraging readers to submit photos, your community reporters will need a digital camera to snap photos of local stories and events.

We advise against using a film camera. There are many reasons to shoot with film, but the speed and flexibility of digital cameras make them ideal for a fast-paced community news site.

The best resource for digital camera buyers is Digital Photography Review, http://www.dpreview.com/. It has a useful side-by-side camera comparison feature. However, if you don't want to delve into the minutiae of digital photography statistics, we can recommend several cameras.

In general, Canon cameras have excellent color and contrast. The A95 ($300) and the G6 ($545) are small models that offer good value and battery life for the price. The G6 uses a non-standard rechargeable battery pack, so buying extras may be expensive. The A95 runs on AAs, and we recommend buying several sets of rechargeable AAs for it. Rechargeable batteries are environmentally friendly and, given digital cameras’ high power consumption, will save you money in the long run over repeatedly buying conventional AAs.

The A95 is a 5-megapixel device with a 3x zoom. Its major drawback is that it’s slow to capture images after you hit the shutter button. The G6, at 7 megapixels, is an excellent value that can also shoot grainy but serviceable video. However, it is also noticeably slow to capture still photos.

Currently, the most popular and affordable professional digital camera is the 6-megapixel Nikon D70. Most consumer cameras have a single built-in lens, but the D70 and other professional cameras use interchangeable lenses for different depths of field, zoom options or lighting conditions. You can buy the D70 with or without a lens, since Nikon’s default lens provides excellent range and responsiveness. The D70 costs about a thousand dollars with the standard lens kit but provides superb clarity for Web-published images.

Here's a comparison of the three cameras.

Keep in mind that if you’re publishing solely for the Web, you don’t need the detail that a 5- to 7-megapixel camera provides. Look for cameras that respond quickly and take clear images. If you miss the shot while waiting for the camera to snap a photo, megapixels won’t matter. However, higher-megapixel cameras are useful when the images you take for the Web will also be appearing in a print publication.

Digital cameras generally store images on removable memory cards, and cameras with lots of megapixels create larger images that take up more space on those memory cards. Most digital cameras come with low-capacity cards that can only store a handful of low-quality images. After you buy the camera, pick up a storage card of at least 500 MB. That should be enough to store at least 100 high-quality images, even from an 8-megapixel camera. It's better to keep one high-capacity card in the camera at all times than to switch back and forth between two lower-capacity cards — you don't want to miss that shot while you're switching. (However, having two cards means you can be downloading frm one while you're shooting with the other.)

Different brands of cameras use different types of memory cards. Matchbook-sized CompactFlash cards are the most popular, but many cameras now use fingernail-sized SD or XD chips. Sony’s cameras use the company’s keychain-sized MemoryStick technology. Ask a clerk at your local electronics store’s camera department which kind of memory will best fit your needs. SanDisk and Kingston are good brands, but let price be your guide.

Other important purchases:

• Lens cleaner.
• A leather or plastic cover that stays attached to the camera.
• A camera bag that will protect your camera’s LCD screen.
• A battery recharger and extra batteries, depending on the camera.

Once you purchase your camera, check out our sections about photo software and image editing techniques.

Digital Video Cameras

Putting together a video kit needn't break the bank but you will need at least the following equipment:

• A camera.
• A tripod.
• A microphone or two (plus an audio mixing board if you plan to use more than one microphone).
• Headphones.
• Tapes, cables, power cords, batteries.

When choosing a camera, you need to not only consider the price, but also the features and formats.

There are many kinds of cameras on the market, but your best choice is a digital video camera — preferably a MiniDV camera. Digital video cameras record pictures electronically, and the picture quality of your images will be very high, even if you are using a consumer-level camera. Non-digital video cameras record onto video tape in an analog format, and that footage will need to be digitized, slowing the process and adding additional expense.

Because they are so popular, the light-weight MiniDV cameras come in a number of price ranges, so you should have quite a bit of choice. The most efficient method of connecting your camera to your computer is to use IEEE-1394 FireWire. Most computers have a FireWire connection, and even older computers can be upgraded to include them. Using FireWire is faster and results in a higher quality image than using composite or S-Video connectors.

When researching MiniDV cameras, look for one that:

• Is comfortable to use, with a good size and shape and buttons big enough for adult fingers.
• Has good picture quality.
• Fits your budget but isn't so low-end that you lose out on necessary features (see below).

You will find a range of prices from $300 to more than $5000. The difference in prices has more to do with camera features than anything else. There are a few features you should pay special attention to:

• Resolution. For good image quality, look for high resolution cameras.
• Zoom. There are both optical and digital zoom features on most DV cameras. Optical zoom is the one to pay attention to — get a good one. Digital zoom enlarges the image but doesn't add more data, so your image can look fuzzy. It is best to avoid cameras with digital zoom.
• Connections. At a minimum, you need a camera with at least one microphone jack, one headphone jack and one FireWire jack. It doesn't hurt to have S-Video jacks or a USB port either.
• Battery life. You want a camera with a decent battery life — at least a few hours — so that you don't have to interrupt taping to replace the battery. Also, pay attention to where the battery slot is — if you have to disassemble your whole setup to get at the battery slot, the delay before you can start taping again will be significant.

The Canon Elura 60 is a good low-budget option, priced around $300 and up. This MiniDV camera has a 14x optical zoom and FireWire, composite audio and video, S-Video, microphone and USB connections. In low-light situations, though, you may have trouble with the picture quality.

The Canon Elura 90, usually sold for $500 to $700, has excellent color with a 20x optical zoom. This MiniDV camera has FireWire, USB, composite audio and video, S-Video, microphone and headphone jacks. It's very compact, though it has some small buttons in awkward places.

The Sony Handycam DCR-PC109 is similarly priced, from $600-$700, and has a 10x optical zoom. This MiniDV camera includes FireWire, USB, S-Video, composition audio and video, and microphone jacks.

The Sony HDR-FX1 is another high-end camera designed for the serious videographer. Connections include FireWire, composite audio and video, S-Video, component video out, headphone and microphone jacks. Batteries are rechargeable Lithium ion, which don't suffer from problems related to frequent recharging. This camera starts around $3700.

The serious videographer should also give some thought to the Canon XL2, priced from $3700 and up. You can buy and switch out lenses for this camera, so don't forget to include lenses in your budget. It has S-Video, composite audio and video, FireWire, headphone and microphone jacks, and it uses Lithium ion batteries. This camera falls in the "prosumer" range and is suitable for nearly every situation in which you might want to include video. As the price suggests, it's a terrific camera.

Video Editors

You will need to use video-editing software in order to digitize your video and then edit it. One of the best video-editing software applications for both PC and Macintosh computers is Adobe's Premiere Pro ($699).

If that price tag is a little too rich for your blood, consider Adobe Premiere Elements, which has many of Adobe Premiere Pro's features ($99.99).

A less expensive option for the PC is Pinnacle Studio, which comes in three versions, each with slightly different features ($79.99-$129.99).

For the Macintosh platform, Apple's iMovie HD is a good choice ($79.99).

If you want a high-end software solution for the Macintosh, consider Final Cut Studio ($1,299).

There are other products available, but be sure to assess them carefully before purchasing to make sure you will be able to do everything you want to do.

Whichever software package you choose, be sure to check the hardware requirements to make sure your computer can run it. For instance, you must be able to accept incoming video — probably via Firewire — and have sufficient hard drive space to hold the video files you digitize.

Hard drive space is like wealth — you can never have too much of it. Realistically, you probably need at least 200 GB of space free to do frequent video editing, and even then, you'll be storing your old footage on DVDs or DV tapes.