Photography and Cameras
Categories
There are many different cameras out there which with some practice can produce some fantastic results. Even phones these days can produce form great results.
Vintage 110MM camera
 |
The reason we are interested with vintage cameras is simply that a lot of famous paranormal pictures were taken using these sorts of cameras. For us it would be interesting if when used today while being compared to a modern digital equivalent we were to get startlingly different results. |
35mm SLR camera
 |
The 35mm SLR or in other words a 35 millimetre film type single lens reflex camera. This type of camera in history has taken some simply stunning photographs, although better suited to beautiful looking location photographs, or experimental use on investigation. It is going to be more expensive than its digital equivalent. |
Digital SLR camera
 |
The Digital SLR works in the same way as the 35MM predecessor however it allows the reviewing of the photograph instantly as do all digital cameras. The thing with SLR cameras is they may be the best cameras available however that are very large, that don't like dark photographs, they |
take a lot of fiddling about and are possibly not what you need for a paranormal investigation. That will take stunning location photographs or team portraits however to us on a ghost hunt ... not really practicable.
Point and Shoot camera
 |
This is possibly the best option for 'on investigation' no fuss photography. they are simple to use as their title suggests. it is important to take a lot of photographs on an investigation as every photograph is potential evidence of paranormal activity (pending what you may of caught) some hints and tips are at the bottom of this page. |
iPhone 4 camera
 |
More and more people are using there phone to photograph an investigation, there is nothing wrong with that although i would like to point out this. it doesn't matter how many mega pixels your phone or camera has if its viewing the world through a lense the size of a pea its never going to be an |
amazing photograph. see hints and tips below.
Hints and Tips
Mega pixel
Many people get caught up on the mega pixel number for the camera this is actually pretty insignificant once passed 4 mp (megapixel), all this refers to is the number of pixels that the camera can imprint the image to, however remember the picture will only be what the camera see's so the lenses and lenses size becomes massively important, some cheaper cameras have a Perspex lenses while the better quality ones have a glass lenses that give pure image pass through to the digital sensor inside.
Digital V's Optical zoom
the higher optical zoom will be the closer you can see an object further away, the digital zoom simply makes the picture you are looking at bigger,
imaging optical is like looking through binoculars while digital is like looking at a picture with a magnifying glass.
Power cells
Cheaper cameras will use standard batteries while the better ones will use their own lithium chargeable power calls. digital cameras simply eat batteries while the special chargeable power cells will give you a reasonable usage time.
Some things to consider are, make sure you have a fully charged and ready to go camera as this may be your most used piece of kit. buy your self a large memory card or spare memory card, never delete any photographs until you have viewed them on a computer as you never know what might be captured in the background of a shot .
Take as many photographs as you can without the flash, but remember you Will need a tripod for this (set camera to auto no flash) the cameras shutter will be open far longer than normal so any movement will cause blur.
if you zoom in on a subject your picture is far more likely to be blurred if your holding the camera, so use a tripod or get closer to the subject.
Always warn people around you if you are in darkness and about to take a picture with the flash mode switched on , as flashes in darkness can cause retina burn or hurt the eyes of the people around you, (it is common place and polite to simply say 'FLASH')
Remember to have fun with your investigation and don't let your camera become to much of a distraction ,
