I have 3 questions, which i would aprreciate some help on.

1.) How well do digi cameras cope with taking images from a TV/Monitor ?? On traditional cameras it is neccessary to play around with the exposure and shutter speed. How well do images come out when using a digi cam?

2.) Is there anyway of getting photographs developed from a digicam, as you would when taking a set of negatives to the chemist. ??? Or are you strictly limited to using colour printers. I know kodak have there Adventsis technology which uses a tradional film ... but can create images on a cdrom aswell as traditional prints. Does the technology exist - to go the other way with DIGI cams.

3.) What does the term Matrix refer to when dealing with DIGITAL CAMERA's .... i have heared it used many times - when describing the type of image obtained.

Many Thanks

DAVID.

-- dave poole (pooled@universitee.freeserve.co.uk), December 15, 1999

Answers

1. A good digital camera should perform as well as film taking images from a TV with the added bonus of free film and instant feedback, so you can play with exposures until it looks the way you want.

2. Yes. I get our digicam pictures printed at www.ezprints.com. Another good online service is www.printroom.com. They use the same silver-halide process as developing 35mm negatives and expose the image onto true Kodak photographic paper. The price is competitive to film prints, except you only print the ones you want to.

3. Matrix metering is a system the camera uses to determine exposure. There are 3 basic kinds of auto exposure: Spot, average, and matrix. Spot metering only uses the portion of the scene in the crosshairs of the viewfinder, usually. Average metering averages the light over the entire frame. Matrix metering does a weighted average by dividing the scene into a matrix of rows and columns to try to best determine the proper exposure.

-- Brad Grant (bradandsteph@home.com), December 15, 1999.

Well David, perhaps I should not have answered this question because I am no expert. However I wanted to show off my new Epson PC850Z camera,which I have only had 12 days, but I have taken 200 pictures with it and not had one bad or out of focus ! ( even though I went to a party and took pictures ad lib,(without anyone knowing, so they did not stand still and they still came out perfect! Oh yes they were ALL taken on full auto (it,s so easy !) Anyway for you my friend I have just taken 20 pictures from the T/V, from my two differant T/Vs ,one is digital and the other regular, they are both on cable and the pictures are pretty good! BUT the 20 pictures I took with my Wonderful Epson are the PITS! They are as clear as a bell BUT if you like a picture made up of LINES you have got them! (of course that is how a T/V picture is produced but you are not interested in that. The thing is, I used three differant resolutions but I would not bother to print any of them,also there is a faint dark shadow runnung through most of the pictures! If I was a technician I would suggest that it is some sort of 60cycle hum! Sorry this is not very technical. Merry Christmas., Norman Howard, Email: normanhoward@home.com

-- Norman John Howard (normanhoward@home.com), December 15, 1999.