PHOTO TALK
Prepared by the staff of Marshall’s Camera
Auburndale, Florida -A09

QUESTION: My son is in little league baseball. I have been trying to get a picture of him hitting the ball so that the ball is close to the bat after the impact. I have taken shot after shot but none of the pictures show the ball near the bat. Is there any way that I can do this without spending more than I can afford on a professional camera?
ANSWER: A picture like you describe is a happy accident if a rapid sequence camera is not used. Even with a rapid sequence camera a shot of this type is not easy to get.
Several camera companies make rapid sequence cameras. The cameras to which I am referring are 35mm single lens reflex models that take pictures in rapid succession. Cameras of this type that are favored by professional photographers take between 4 and 10 frames a second depending on camera model. Naturally the faster the camera the more effective and more expensive it will be.
The goal is to take a number of pictures about the time of impact so at least one picture will show the event in question. You press the shutter release when you see the swing begin and quit pressing when the sound of the impact is heard. Hopefully somewhere within the frames taken (typically 4 to 6 frames) will be the picture that you want. Make sure that you have more film than you think you will need when you try this. Of course this is all done in the daytime so that the shutter speed will be fast enough to freeze the ball.
A film camera of this type is expensive. The new camera body is between 3 and 10 times as expensive as an entry level 35mm single lens reflex camera. An entry level single lens reflex camera is not built as sturdy and typically will take 2 or 3 frames a second when put in multi-shot mode.
Some digital still cameras will take pictures in rapid sequence but again cost is an important factor. When put in multi-shot mode the less expensive digital cameras will not take high quality pictures. The more expensive digital cameras will approach the film based cameras in picture quality but the price is much higher for equal performance.
One thing that I have not mentioned is that a pre-owned camera will be less expensive. We usually have several

bodies of this type in stock at Marshall’s Camera. All used equipment has a 30 day warranty unless otherwise stated.
QUESTION: I recently bought a digital still camera. It came with download software and a cable to download the pictures to the computer. It is inconvenient to find the USB cable and hook up the camera every time I want to download pictures. Also when I download I have to make sure that my camera has fully charged batteries so that it will not die in the middle of the download operation. Isn’t there a better way to move the pictures into the computer?
ANSWER: There is another way. Whether it is more convenient will be for you to judge.
Currently, all better quality digital still cameras have storage cards that contain the files of the pictures that have been taken. When you download pictures from a digital camera to a computer you are moving the files on the storage card in the camera to a storage device in the computer, typically the hard drive which is often designated as the C drive.
Another way to make this file transfer is to use a card reader. A card reader is a device, typically costing under $30, that is more or less permanently connected to a USB port on the computer. The computer sees the card reader as another drive device like the C drive or the cd-rom drive. To make the transfer, take the picture card out of the camera, put it into the card reader, and then access your drives on your computer. On a windows pc you would click on “My Computer” on the computer screen. The reader will show up as one of the drives. Click on that drive and the picture folder will appear. Go into the folder and the picture icons or symbols will show up. Now you may move the files whereever you wish using the copy and paste function or the move function. When the transfer is done you may delete the pictures on the card individually or you may delete the whole folder. This way you don’t have to do a lot of button pushing to clear the pictures after the card is put back into the camera.
An added bonus to having the card reader is that it is an inexpensive way to quickly move files from one computer to another computer using an inexpensive storage card that can also be used as an extra picture storage card.
CONCLUSION: Marshall’s Camera offers Beginning Photography classes for both film and digital cameras. Check our website for dates, class outlines, and prices. MarshallsCamera.com
Copyright 2004 by Marshall Ledbetter