Learning
As this site has grown, "instructional" articles have been added in a number of different directories and so it's become a little difficult to locate some of them and virtually impossible to browse through them all.
What I've done here is to collect all (or at least most) of these "instructional" articles on one page with brief descriptions of each. I hope this makes them easier to browse though.
Optics
- • Image Stabilized Lenses
- Does Image Stabilization really work?
- • Lens and Filter Cleaning
- How to safely clean lenses and filters
- • Telecoverters - how well do they work?
- Tests of Canon and Tamron teleconverters with several zoom and prime lenses.
- • Fisheye lenses
- Fisheye lenses and their use with digital cameras
- • Mirror lenses - how good are they?
- Comparision of a Tamron 500/8 mirror lens with a Canon EF 500/4.5L USM. You may be surprised at the results!
- • Focus and Recompose
- If you focus and then recompose, how much focusing error do you get?
- • Depth of Field and Digital
- Effects of small digital sensors on DOF
- • MTF and SQF Explained
- Modulation Transfer and Subjective Quality Functions
- • Diffraction and Image Sharpness
- What's the smallest aperture that still gives sharp images?
- • UV filters
- What do they do and how effective are they?
- • Measuring Focal Length
- Two techniques for measuring the true focal length of a lens
- • Field of View
- Field of view calcualtions for rectilinear and fisheye lenses
- • Mutifunction Optical Calculator
- Depth of field, hyperfocal distance and more
- • Optical Blur Calculator
- Similar to the multifunction optical calculator, but this one also calculates just how blurred an object will be at given distances from the focal point.
- • Basic optics primer
- astigmatism, coma, spherical aberration - find out what they mean
- • Simple lens testing at home
- test your lenses without an optics lab
- • Why you can't trust lens tests
- other's opinions are fine, but only yours matter
- • Aerial image resolution lens tests
- a simple test which is easily (and often!) misinterpreted
- • Really Right Stuff - but really wrong optics
- potentially misleading information from RRS
- • Hyperfocal distance [HFD]
- What is it? Table of values for commonly used lenses and apertures
- • Depth of Field Calculator
- What is depth of field? Online web based DOF calculator
- • Sharpness at the HFD limits
- Defocus MTF calculations of DOF are not the same as the simple approximation
- • Optical Illusions
- You just can't trust what your eyes tell you!
Digital
- • Digital Sensor Cleaning - Part I
- Sensor cleaning using solvents and swabs
- • Digital Sensor Cleaning - Part II
- Sensor cleaning using brushes
- • Compact Flash Memory Cards
- A description of the various types of Compact Flash (AF) and Secure Digital (SD) cards.
- • Filters for Digital Photography
- Which filters do you need for digital work?
- • Digital Depth of Field
- A complete description of how Depth of Field is related to sensor (and film) size
- • Digital Image Resizing
- How to resize digital images; what dpi and ppi really mean
- • RAW, JPEG and TIFF
- A description of the differences between RAW, JPEG and TIFF files and when to use which one
- • Digital Data Preservation
- How to make sure your archived data lasts as long as possible
- • External drives and cloning
- Keeping your system up and running - despite crashes!
- • A Digital Primer
- A basic guide to digital camera technology
- • A basic digital FAQ
- A few common questions (with answers!) about digital cameras
General
- • Macro Lenses
- What's a macro lens and what's the best choice for an EOS camera?
- • Portrait Lenses
- What's a portrait lens and which is the best choice?
- • Online Photo printing
- Why print at home when you can get someone to do it for you online - and it's cheaper too!
- • Building a Photography Website
- The basics. Choosing an obtaining a domain name. Getting a webhost. Designing a site.
- • Avoiding Photo Scams
- How not to get fooled by bogus advertising
- • Caveat Emptor - Let the buyer beware
- The traps, scams and deceptive practices of the photo retail business - and how to avoid them!
- • A problems buying used equipment
- Things to look out for when buying used gear.
- • Mirror Lockup - MLU
- What is Mirror Lock Up and when do you need it? How does it work?
- • Brand Wars - choosing a system
- Does Nikon or Canon rule? Does it matter?
- • Nature photography primer
- Brief guide for the Nature Photography beginner.
- • Beginner's Guide to equipment purchasing
- What you should buy [note: written back in the days when we were all using film...]
- • Equipment Addiction
- Don't get too hung up on what you're shooting with.
- • A Photography FAQ
- Some frequently asked questions about photographic equipment