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Testing a new digital camera (2)
Most digital cameras lenses have minor quirks lens distortions. There are work-arounds either at the time you take a photo or when editing it. However, if your camera exhibits any of the following to an extreme, consider exchanging it.
- Vignetting - darker corners at edges of a photo, known as vignetting. Vignetting is from the side of the lens becoming visible and can occur when a lens is at wide angle.
- Fringing - A blue, purple or other color around the edges of a high contrast subject such as branches against a bright sky. The fringing is most noticeable when shooting at wide angle.
- Corner softness - Edges of an image may appear soft when taking shots at the widest angle and aperture. The softness may be barely noticeable and can be corrected when editing an image.
- Light drop off when using the flash - light may drop off in the corner of photos when the built-in flash is used at wide angle however the fall off should not be extreme. Most camera flashes are not very powerful and should be used within the specified range for each focal length for optimal results.
- Hot pixels - white dots against a dark background that look like stars in an evening sky. To test this, take a picture with the lens cap on. Take a long exposure and then look at the image for excessive dots. Realize that every camera will have hot pixels if you take long enough exposures.
It needs to be pointed out again that many of these things are normal. If a problem doesn't jump out at you, don't pixel peep to the extent that you won't enjoy your camera.