The Magical World of Insect Digital Photography - A Digital Camera Adventure in Miniature

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When sitting in our garden or out walking in the woods we are sometimes distracted by a flying insect such as a butterfly passing us by or perhaps a ladybird beetle on her merry way, maybe even an unwelcome wasp that is trying to smell our lips to see what we had for breakfast. In our world they are many things to each of us, they make us happy, sad, or even frightened sometimes at the very sight of some of them. Yet even though they outnumber us by billions we are rarely bothered by them no matter how weird or menacing they may appear to look. That is unless of course you happen to take a real close look at what they really look like...

There are one or two ways that we can enter their world and take a closer look at these amazing creatures that have existed for millions of years. The first involves them being dead and examining them by means of a microscope, which is neither very humane nor skillful.

Another way to examine or take a closer look at them is by means of photography, which preserves their existence as well as making the whole event much more interesting. A bit like going hunting, only instead of using something as destructive as a rifle we would be using a camera lens which is a lot more creative and helps with conservation.

With modern day camera lenses even something as normal as an 18 - 75mm with macro will produce some very interesting close up images. From that there are a couple of alternatives for taking close-up images, the first is to start purchasing expensive lenses that will produce some simply amazing pictures, but for a much cheaper yet by no means tacky are lens magnifiers.

These magnifiers generally come in a selection of sizes that can all fit on the front of a lens as well as each other.

Sets tend to contain a:

1x Magnification
2x Magnification
4x Magnification and a
10x Magnification

Once we have a set of these it is simply a question of attaching to our lens and going off hunting (in miniature) some of the images that are able to be captured in this manner are sometimes beyond belief and certainly make all the effort of spending ages on our hands and knees worthwhile.

Ideally a tripod would be the chosen means of holding the camera for some great pictures, but with insect photography this is rarely possibly due to the continual movement and speed with which the insects tend to move about.

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How to Select a Surveillance Camera Lens

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When you finally set out to select your Surveillance Camera, for realizing your well thought out Home Security project, you should be advised that, besides other elements equally important, the lens plays a determining part in the camera performance.

It is the lens that determines the amount of light entering the camera. Besides the quality of materials and of manufacturing, usually reflected in the price, some of the lens characteristics have much bearing on the viewed picture.

Even if you do not want to become an expert in lenses, there are a few concepts that you should understand before you purchase your surveillance camera.

The subjects are well known from the field of still photography, so that the principles should not be completely unfamiliar for whoever has some practice of family picture taking even at a very basic level.

In most surveillance cameras, lenses are interchangeable. Therefore you should decide if the picture seen on the monitor is satisfactory for your application, with reference to the depth of focus, the angle of view and the amount of detail you want to distinguish.

In case you are not satisfied with the performance of the standard lens supplied, you should ask to see how a different lens would improve the images you want to observe.

Normally one should select the best overall picture for the purpose. Note that by changing one of the characteristics (i.e. aperture) one modifies other related properties (i.e. the depth of focus).

The overall result is a matter of compromise whereby, by sacrificing somewhat one feature one gains a better response from another one.

Fixed focal length is a common selection: although limiting somewhat the dimension of the space where all objects result clearly perceived (depth of focus), it simplifies the mechanical construction and reduces the price.

You may be familiar with autofocus feature found in modern digital cameras. There is no comparable capability in cameras because they must work unattended. A lens whose focal length can be manually adjusted is called a Varifocal lens but should not normally be considered for surveillance purposes.

Equally too sophisticated for the application would be a motorized zoom lens, capable of being commanded from a distance to select the preferred level of detail between wide-angle and telephoto.

Fixed iris or aperture is another characteristic to be considered that simplifies construction and operation, albeit with some compromise on picture quality. It would probably be easier to provide sufficient illumination then going for more complex optics.

In conclusion, despite the nice and costly alternatives available, for a simple home surveillance system it would be advisable to select one of the simplest lenses, provided that the quality of the picture is sufficient for the intended purpose.

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