What is a card machine?

Card machine refers to a compact and relatively light body, ultra-thin and fashionable digital camera. There is no clear concept of card camera in the industry. Only those small shapes, relatively thin bodies and ultra-thin and fashionable designs are the main standards to measure this kind of digital cameras. Among them, Sony T series, Olympus AZ 1 and Casio Z series should all belong to this field.

Card digital camera can be carried around, not bulky; Put them in the pocket of a suit on formal occasions, which will not deform the coat; Ladies' handbags are no longer difficult to find space to squeeze; On other occasions, it is acceptable to put the camera in the pocket of jeans or simply hang it around your neck. Although their functions are not powerful, the most basic exposure compensation function is the standard configuration of ultra-thin digital cameras. Coupled with the area or spot metering mode, these little things can sometimes complete some photography creation. At least you can basically control the exposure of the picture, plus the options of color, clarity and contrast, many beautiful photos can also come from these little things that are despised by the "masters".

Camera characteristics

Advantages of the camera

Fashionable appearance, large LCD screen, slim body, simple operation.

Camera shortcomings

The manual function is relatively weak, the oversized LCD screen consumes a lot of power and the lens performance is poor, so it is generally impossible to replace the lens. Focusing and shooting are slow.

Because card-type digital cameras are too thin, lithium batteries are generally used, while general DC uses a large number of AA5 batteries.

Card-type digital cameras generally use hidden lenses, which are small in size, and the optical zoom is generally only 3 times, while non-card-type digital cameras are generally telescopic lenses that extend out of the fuselage, and the optical zoom can reach more than 10 times.

Card-type digital cameras generally only have LCD screens for framing, and the LCD screens are very large, and most of them have no optical viewfinder, so the LCD screens consume a lot of power.

Card digital camera is designed for portability, and its function is not strong. Generally, it is automatic exposure, and there are few manual functions.

Application mode

When pinching the card machine, check the current shooting environment and adjust the camera shooting parameters before shooting the composition. In addition, prevent fingers from blocking the flash. Card machines are designed in different ways, so consumers need to be flexible and find out the most suitable shooting method.

Shooting skill

macro photography

Compared with ordinary consumer-grade DC, the macro function of card machine is weakened, especially for those models with periscope lens structure, and the macro effect is undoubtedly discounted, but this cannot be the reason why we can't take good photos.

Attention should be paid to the control of exposure and shooting angle before macro photography with card machine. If possible, use optical zoom slightly to reduce the distortion at the wide-angle end, try to find a place to fix the camera, such as tripod and desktop, and set the camera to a forced non-flash state to avoid overexposure of the subject.

Landscape photography

Choose the scenery mode of the card machine and shoot with the wide-angle end of the camera. If zoom is used, the meaning of landscape photography will be lost. Pay special attention to the incident direction of light when shooting, and try to avoid shooting with large backlight angle, but in order not to produce halo phenomenon, the sunlight cannot be refracted to the lens. In some special periods, it is even necessary to manually adjust the white balance effect, such as cloudy days, sunrises, sunsets and other environments, which are all flexibly adjusted by the photographer himself.

Portrait photography

Most card machines do not have the function of adjusting the aperture size, so it is not easy to get the effect of highlighting the blurred background of people. But when we choose portrait mode, the camera will call the maximum aperture under the focal length according to the shooting distance. If the background is blurred to the maximum extent, be sure to shoot with a wide-angle end, and the photographer can move back and forth. When shooting a portrait, it is best to locate the metering point on the face, and if shooting a close-up of the face, it is best to focus on the eyes. If you take portrait photos indoors, you should also pay attention to the anti-shake caused by insufficient exposure of the camera, and decide whether to turn on the red-eye prevention function according to the intensity of ambient light.

Simplify the setting of shooting parameters

Many readers have encountered such problems: the card machine is not easy to be stable, and the film taken is easy to be fake. Automatic mode is usually the best shooting mode for DC. Based on the fact that the current card machine is getting smaller and smaller, the manual function is relatively weak, so users should first train how to take clear photos, and then gradually improve the shooting level. Speaking of anti-shake, not every card machine manufacturer can build an anti-shake system in the lens like Panasonic FX series.

Except in normal sunshine, most card machines will have a "jitter warning" prompt when shooting. It should be noted that it is not really hand shaking at this time, but due to insufficient exposure. At this point, even if the card machine is fixed on the tripod, the warning will not disappear. Moreover, some card machines on the market, such as Sony T7, are too light and thin to design the threaded interface of tripod at the bottom.

Then how can we ensure the clarity of the photos? Lao lang suggested using automatic mode! Flash is often used for indoor shooting. At this time, the camera will automatically increase the sensitivity, and the warning prompt of hand shaking will disappear. Next, clear photos will definitely pop up on the LCD. Of course, due to the improvement of ISO sensitivity, the picture will be slightly noisy, so there is no need to haggle over every ounce in this harsh shooting environment. It should be noted that for card machines with low flash index, users need to master the shooting distance, which will easily lead to underexposure of subjects with bright background after exceeding the flash distance range.