I finished off Last month briefly talking about the differences of Point and Shoot and SLR digital cameras. This month I want to focus on digital SLR cameras, their advantages and disadvantages, and how we incorporate them into our practice. Norman Camera sends me the latest versions as they reach the market. I have evaluated most of the current digital SLR cameras over the past 5 years. They are sent to me to use in clinical situations to see how well they perform. My top three favorite brands of digital SLR are Canon, Fuji, and Nikon with Canon being my favorite. But let me say from the beginning that they all work very well for dentistry. So saying I like Canon the best is purely subjective.
Canon and Fuji have the same custom functions and settings. They are set a little differently but do the same thing. Nikon also has similar settings on certain models. The settings I will talk about are for the Canon 20D. We take digital photos on all of our patients including emergency, consults, hygiene, and restorative. Because we take so many images to show to our patients, we have to be able to take our photos very fast and very efficient. So I do not refer to these custom functions as bells and whistles. This ability to automate the camera to dental photography is what enables us to use our cameras even with our very busy schedule. My camera is set so I only have two settings for ALL my photos. My camera is set to Av mode with custom function 3 set to shutter speed “fixed” at 1/250. My twin and ring flash (I will discuss the difference in a future column) are set to +1.5 and are ETTL metered. My Canon Macro 100mm ultrasonic speed lens is set to auto focus. What all this means is that all myself, or any member of my team, has to do is pick up the camera, rotate the top dial to set the f-stop at 6.7 if the patient’s eyes are in the photo and to 22 if they are not. The lens will focus in less than a second. That is all we do. These two settings, 6.7 and 22, and every photo is perfect whether it is intraoral or extraoral. Once these settings are put into the camera you do not have to worry about them again. In less than 3 minutes we can take all of our clinical photos and have them displayed on the computer monitor. So if you main concern about purchasing a digital camera is ease of use so it will actually be used with all your patients, investing a little more in a SLR camera will be the way to go. I will discuss which photos and why in my column about case presentation.
The one disadvantage of the SLR cameras is their weight. This comes primarily from the lens and flash. This is primarily a problem for team members. Dentists do not usually have a problem with it. But at my hands-on courses we have found that once we get the team members posture and hand position correct the weight is no longer an issue for them.
Where to buy your camera is just as important as how you use it. A dental practice is also a small business. Over-head matters. The less you spend on equipment the better as long as it works the way you want it to. I hear about dentist getting their camera equipment on Ebay. Be careful doing this unless you are OK with not being able to use your camera for a while if it breaks. There are some awesome deals on Ebay. I like shopping there. But I cannot go a day without my camera if it breaks. Some other good deals can be found at non-dental companies like B&H and Adorama. These are good camera companies and have a wide variety of products. The problem is that their sales people do not know much about dental photography. How could they? Dental photography is very specialized area. The best place is from dental camera stores like Norman Camera or Photomed. I get all of my cameras from Andy at Norman Camera. Both of these companies, and there are others, specialize in dental photography and know the needs of dentist. They have loaner programs and will understand the specific problems dentist encounter.