Customer Reviews 
One of my 3 basic lenses
2004-09-07This is a fantastic lens, and has become (together with the 50/1.4 and the 135/2.8) one of the three basic lenses in my kit. The wide angle is wide enough to cover a broad range, and wide enough to give a "wide angle effect", but not so wide that the wide angle effect takes over. Just a bit wider and it would be a specialty lens, not useful for day to day shooting but only for special effect. A bit narrower, and it would be much less useful when you want to combine a foreground and background or show a small crowd to full effect (try a shot at your kids' next birthday party, and get 15 or 20 kids all in one shot gaping over the cake or the gifts).
Note that this lens has a very broad depth of field, so that you can get very sharp landscapes with the foreground and background both in full focus. It is also fast enough to be very useful in dim light situations - I have used it heavily in churches for weddings and christenings and in theatres for whole-stage shots from fairly far up close, and it produces good shots under natural lighting in each case.
The distortion has been kept under control by Minolta's floating elements design, which also helps maintain the edge-to-edge sharpness. All around, a great lens, and highly recommended in my book.
Electronics Articles
Digital camera batteries
Batteries are vital for all photography and makiing sure that you have a spare set is essential if you intend to take alot of pictures. Print digital also recommend that when deciding upon a digital camera keep in mind what sort of batteries it takes. Does it take rechargeable batteries, are the batteries built and do you have to plug it into the mains, or does the camera only take standard batteries, if so then it can become exspensive if you are a keen photographer and use the camera alot.
There are three types of rechargeable batteries: NiCD, NiMH and Lithium-Ion. Nickel Metal Hydride are the most popular rechargeable batteries at present. They hold more charge than their counter parts NiCD and don't suffer from memory effect. The one small down fall of these batteries is that they will loose a small amount of charge even if they are not being used, so be sure to check the batteries before using them.
When you purchase a new digital camera make sure to ask what type of battery ...
Glossary of Helpful Terms, Concepts & Advice
Related to the Camera:
Camera Parts & Features - these are standard or basic features on a camera. Your camera may have different features. If you have any questions, please e-mail me.
View Finder - A small eyepiece or screen on the camera that allows you to see the image you're recording. (The camera also acts as a VCR, so you can play back and watch what you have already recorded through the view finder).
White Balance - If you ever ended up with yellow-tinted video, chances are you forgot to white balance. It's worthwhile to white balance every time you use your camera to get the highest quality video. If your camera doesn't have this feature, it may have an automatic or internal system. What white balancing does is adjust the intensity of the colors being recorded according to the existing light. Make sure you white balance every time the lighting conditions change; if you record video inside and then go outside, your lighting conditions have changed and you need to instruc ...
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