Choosing a Digital Camera (K2 #58)

Question
When choosing a digital camera, should I go for the one with the most megapixels?
— Ugyen, Thimphu

Answer
Next to archery and cycling, photography has become a favourite hobby for many Bhutanese. Selecting a digital camera is daunting: the variety is enormous. Before discussing megapixels, let’s talk about the type of camera you may wish to buy. In the good old days (5 years ago) people had to choose between two main categories: The cheaper compact cameras, and the professional, bulky - and very expensive - DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras. DSLR cameras are the enormous ones with the huge lenses that tourists - and photo buffs - like carrying around. DSLR cameras produce better photos due to two main factors: First, the lenses are larger and of better quality (the lenses are also interchangeable, so you can use the one most appropriate for the situation). And second, the sensor - that’s the small device inside the camera that converts the optical image into electronic data - is much larger. This is where we reach the issue of megapixels.

The Canon EOS M mirrorless
interchangeable lens camera (MILC)

The sensor is divided into a rectangular grid comprised of millions of tiny pixels. Each of these pixels captures the light from a specific, tiny area of the image. In an 8 megapixel (8 MP) camera, for example, there would be about 8 million pixels. The more pixels, the higher the resolution. But if the sensor size remains the same, and the number of pixels increases, each of these pixels will become smaller and capture less light, and the picture quality will deteriorate. This means that increasing the number of pixels without increasing the sensor size is not beneficial. In fact, this may produce “noisier” photos. Shopping for a camera by comparing the number of megapixels is therefore a fallacy. It is better to compare lens quality and sensor size. Since this is difficult, I would recommend checking review sites such as Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com) before buying a camera.

I mentioned that up until recently there were two main categories that consumers could choose from. In the last few years, a new category of cameras has emerged. MILC (Mirrorless Interchangeable-Lens Camera) combines the small size of compact cameras with DSLR features such as interchangeable, quality lenses and a huge sensor size. These cameras produce incredible photos for a fraction of the cost (and size) of a DSLR. It’s no wonder these cameras are the fastest-growing digital camera category.

Readers are encouraged to submit technology-related questions to boaz@thimphutech.com

Two-day crash course: Effective Data Presentation (Mar 28-29)

Prof. Galit Shmueli will be conducting another round of the popular 2-day workshop Effective Data Presentation on March 28-29, 2013.

More and more data and statistics are being collected in Bhutan. They are communicated to the public through reports, presentations, newspaper articles and other media. Yet, current presentation practices are lacking in effectiveness.

Workshop participants will gain knowledge and experience with best practices for communicating data. We will use data from Bhutan and software that is accessible to many (Microsoft Excel and the Tableau Public). The workshop is a must for those who collect, analyze or present data or statistics...

For full details and registration click here.

Google Street View soon in Bhutan?

More exciting news from Google. In 2010 we wrote in this very blog in the post "When will Google Street View reach Bhutan?":

Google keeps expanding its Street View program. A couple of years ago there were rumours about starting the program in India, but this has not materialized. Google doesn't make its plans public. So it may take a good number of years - and Bhutan's government co-operation - until Street View is available in Thimphu and other towns in the Kingdom.

Two and a half years later, it seems that the time has come. According to the Technology Freak blog, Google Maps' Street View will be announced in Thimphu tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12:30 at the Druk Hotel. It might take some time until we see a car - or will it be a yak? - mounted with cameras and roaming the slopes of Bhutan, but the green light has been given.

Tweets by SMS are charged, but disappear into the void

In June 2010, B-Mobile announced the availability of a Twitter gateway. The Twitter gateway allows anyone with a B-Mobile number to tweet by sending an SMS to a special number (40404). It also allows mobile subscribers to receive tweets from people they follow.

Tweeting-by-SMS is very powerful. For example, it allows anyone with a basic phone to tweet in case of an emergency or disaster. It also allows people to receive emergency updates using SMS. By the way, the SMS interface is the historical reason behind the 140-character limit of tweets.

Unfortunately, the 40404 number is currently not working. In the past couple of weeks I sent a few SMSs to the Tweeter gateway. In each case, B-Mobile was quick to charge me Nu 0.45, but my tweet disappeared into the void. A few days after each tweet I received an SMS Delivery Report saying that the SMS was not delivered.

This service by B-Mobile was great while it lasted. We hope that it will resume, and that B-Mobile will improve it's 24x7 monitoring of this service, as well as updating the customers regarding outages.

Google.bt is finally here!

Since it is not yet April Fools' Day, I guess my discovery is not a prank: google.bt has now been launched! Two years ago, we posted on ThimphuTech.com a request for "a small favour from Google", asking Mr. Larry Page to consider purchasing and activating google.bt. Our wish has been granted!

I discovered this while performing my usual searching business on google.com, when suddenly a message popped up:

And indeed, the URL www.google.bt takes you to a legal Google site (the domain was purchased by Google in May 2012). Searching via google.bt will (likely) give more localized results. For example, searching for "Ministry of Education" brings www.education.gov.bt as the first result.

Quick update: it looks like Google's move to google.bt is still in progress. For instance, books.google.bt is still not functional. Let's see how fast the update takes!

Backing up your phone's contact list

I recently replaced my SIM card with a new one because the old card stopped working. I handed over my old SIM to the service representative who gave me a new one and told me that the new SIM will be functional after 5pm. And indeed, at 5pm my number was again functional. But alas! I discovered that I lost my entire contact list with phone numbers, which was stored on the old SIM card. Had I planned better, I would have copied the list from the SIM to my phone. Admittedly, I use a "dumb" Nokia 6070 phone.

Many smart phones save contact lists automatically or even back them up to the cloud. On  iPhones, iPads etc. with iOS 5 or later, data can be automatically backed up to iCloud if you enable the Backup option. On Android phones running version 2.2 or later, turn on the automated and free backup to the Google cloud servers. This type of backup helps if even if you lose your phone.

Simpler "dumb" phones require manual backup through the phone's Contacts menu (here are instructions for Nokia phones), by saving the contact list both on the phone and on the SIM card. That way your contact list will remain with you whether you replace the SIM or your phone. But if you lose the phone (with the SIM), tough luck.

Dzongkha on Windows Phone 8

This morning, on the topic of "Dzongkha on mobile phones", we have some good news and some bad news. 

The good news: We can verify that Microsoft's latest operating system for mobile devices, Windows Phone 8, supports the rendering of Dzongkha Unicode. Users can view documents and webpages in Dzongkha. We are attaching a browser screenshot from the slick new Nokia Lumia 920 displaying a webpage from the Dzongkha Development Commission's website. 

The bad news: A Dzongkha keyboard is not supported. Also, there is no Tibetan keyboard. Thus, there is no way to type Dzongkha (or Tibetan) letters. Hopefully, future updates will add a Dzongkha keyboard to Windows Phone 8.

Devices running Windows Phone 8 include the Nokia Lumia series, the Samsung Ativ and HTC Window Phones. 

The DDC website, as viewed on a Nokia Lumia 920