Digital Media Literacy in the Cloud

Using a Digital Still Camera

Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS Manual (pdf) Featured here with settings below.

Note - your specific camera may not use exact same settings or terms.

There are now so many digital cameras on the market and at schools that make it impossible to go through the specific features of every camera. Here are some essential basics to follow no matter the camera or make.

1. Resolution Settings of your camera

"Why is my PowerPoint so slow?"
"Why is grandma trying to send me 10mg photos to my email?"
" How come when I open my photo on my computer, I get a close up of the person's right nostril?"

The higher the resolution the larger the photo in dimension and file size. Also, if you are shooting at a high resolution, you will have a smaller number of pictures available in your flash memory card.

Camera Setting	Megapixels	Image Dimension	Purpose
L (large)	8M	3264 x 2448	11x 17 prints
M1 (medium 1)	5M	2592 x 1944	8 x 10 prints
M2 (medium 2)	3M	2048 x 1356	5 x 7 prints
M3 (medium 3)	2M	1600 x 1200	4 x 6 prints
S (small)	0.03M	640 x 480	computer/web images

2. Compression Settings of your camera
Along with image dimension, the compression setting will determine the file size of a digital photo.

Compression Settings	Quality	File Size for 640 x 480
Superfine	High	249 KB
Fine	Normal	150KB
Normal	Lower	84B

3. The Essential Camera Controls to Know

a. Mode Switch

Camera Mode (Camera symbol) - take pictures
Movie Mode (Video camera symbol) - not recommended unless needing video for 10-30 seconds, otherwise buy a pocket video camera.
Play Mode (right triangle symbol)- view pictures

b. Function Set Wheel

Flash ON/OFF (lightning bolt symbol) - made for all SD Charger fans!)

Flash is ON if there no circle around the lightning bolt
Flash is OFF if there is a circle around the lightning bolt

Trash Can - When set to Play Mode you can erase that one photo
Flower (macro - close up) / Mountain (infinity - farther back from subject)

c. Menu - In Play Mode

Erase All - This allows you to wipe out all your pictures in one easy step. This is important for cameras being checked out by different classrooms, as the teacher needs to Format the camera after loading pictures onto a computer and before returning the camera. For the Canon SD 1100 it is found in Play mode/Erase/Scroll Down to All Images/Select OK.

d. Menu - In Camera Mode

Red Eye Correction - this varies from camera to camera, you will have to open the manual on this one but is directly related to using the flash. For the Canon SD 1100 it is found in Camera mode/Menu/Flash Settings/Red Eye Correction On and Red Eye Lamp On.