Articles
September Workshop in Boulder Colorado
Click here to view the PDF of the Flyer
Canon or Nikon? Which should I use for intra oral photos?
If you are looking into going digital in your office, you will find that Canon and Nikon both have excellent solutions. So which do you choose? At this point in time, each has high resolution, accurate-color sensors in price ranges that are affordable. Both have a smaller, lighter bodies available. Each has sharp macro lenses available. So how do you choose? What it comes down to is: How does it feel in your hands? Do you have existing, compatible lenses or flash? Do you prefer a ringflash or a twinlight solution? Make these decisions and your choice will present itself.
MISSION-DRIVEN PHOTOGRAPHY by Dave Hutt and Meredith Marsh Dr. of Dentistry Magazine, Oct 2007
After working as photography consultants to the dental profession for the past few years, one thing has really stood out to us: there is so much information flying around out there that it is difficult, maybe impossible, for the average dentist to determine what works and what doesn’t. The issue is complex for the experienced photographer; for those with only limited experience (which is almost every dentist) it can be overwhelming and may prevent that dentist from even trying to acquire this vital skill.
This is the environment we find ourselves in: the need to cut through the clatter and distill the information about using digital technologies down to simple and workable principles. The dentist working in the opertory needs to know what is important and what is trivial; what is relevant and what is meaningless. They need to know what works in their hands.
Our approach to teaching the process of digital photography is tightly focused and mission-driven. We know that learning the practice of dentistry is hard. We also know that learning digital photography need not be.
RINGFLASH OR TWINLIGHT?
We are frequently asked about the differences between Canon’s MR-14 Ringflash and MT-24 Twinlight: which is the preferred tool? The answer lies entirely on the job it needs to perform. If you’re making intra oral photos for patient education, treatment documentation, and so on, the Ringflash is a superb flash — easy to use, consistent results, high quality. But if a major part of your practice requires you to make good anterior shots to share with your lab for shade matching, then the Twinlight is your preferred alternative. The traditional ringflash, where the source of illumination is directly on the lens axis, produces a harsh reflection on the centrals. Not only does this limit color information, it also greatly reduces surface texture. Edge, shape, opalescence; all are poorly reproduced with the ringflash, and preserved to a much greater degree with the twinlight. At the same time, the twinlight easily serves double-duty by being just as useful in making all the intra oral shots, as well.
Nikon’s ringflash solution for their digital SLR’s is the superb R1 Speedlight, which is a twinlight configuration and an excellent flash for both intra oral and shade-matching photography.