Look for an upcoming interview!

Well, this was kind of fun!  Thanks to my friend, Dr. Lorne Lavine, and his blog The Digital Dentist, I was recently contacted by Kathy Kincade, the Editor-in-Chief of an online dental trade magazine, DrBicuspid.com, about doing an interview on why the Canon T2i DSLR will be such a great dental camera.  Not exactly sure when the article will be published, but I'll provide a link to it once it comes out.

Also, we just finished a full-mouth reconstruction case a couple weeks ago and saw the patient for a 2-week post-op checkup, and I'll show some different ways to showcase pictures like this for print and the web.  I'll use that to lead into my overdue post on how to manage/understand patient expectations in aesthetic cases by using digital photography, because how you showcase your other work can be both a powerful marketing tool and communications tool to understand just what it is your next patient wants.

New Canon 100mm f/2.8L macro lens

Canon recently announced upgrades to a number of their top lenses, and for pro photographers these should generally be welcome.  For dentists, however, there is one change that is not quite so good for one reason: the primary lens recommended for dentists and their teams, the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, has been updated to be an "L" glass (pros typically call their high-quality lenses "glass," not "lens;"  just a little FYI).  What does this mean?

For practical purposes in dentistry, there is only 1 downside to this update, and that is that the new lens is more expensive than the previous lens by about $400, but without any real benefit.  Sure, the image quality will be even higher, the lens will focus a bit faster, but the previous lens was completely adequate for everything we needed to do.

Click here to see the new lens.

Now, if you are a serious photographer outside the dental office, this lens does offer (to my mind) 1 truly significant improvement over the previous incarnation: it is waterproof or very water-resistant when combined with a Canon 7D, 5D Mark II, or any of the 1D series cameras.  It is not water-resistant with any of the EOS Rebel series.

Due to this update, I am re-considering my usual recommendation to purchase the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro for dental offices, and for cost reasons, many of you may want to look at the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro instead.  If you can get your hands on one of the older versions (still available at some stores) or get a used one, then definitely go for it.

Canon announced the EOS Rebel T2i/550D | The Digital Photo Experience

2010/02/08 Canon announced the EOS Rebel T2i/550D | The Digital Photo Experience

Well........I guess I have to take back my recommendation for the Canon DSLR that I most recommend for dental offices, as Canon has just announced the release of it's newest, the EOS Rebel T2i (or the 550D, as it's known outside the USA). With many of the features of their newest semi-pro DSLR, the Canon 7D, this new camera is truly a perfect fit for dental offices.

Lightweight, an incredible 18 megapixel sensor (still 1.6x crop of course), with genuine 1080i HD video recording capability (and I can tell you that the HD video I capture with my 7D is simply superb) for recording patient live testimonials, you really can't go wrong. And with the features it has, this would be a fantastic camera to take on vacation, to family outings, kids' sporting events, etc. Paired with a Canon 60mm f/2.8 macro or a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens and the Canon MR-14EX ring flash, as discussed in a previous blog entry about Canon DSLR set-ups for dental offices, and you are set.

What kind of digital camera should I buy?

Of all the questions I receive, the single most frequent one has to be, "What camera should I buy if I want to take pictures of patients and teeth for my office?  The second is often, "Do I have to get one of those big cameras with interchangeable lenses, or can I use a Point-n-Shoot?  Might as well get these covered right away.

Let me give you my personal bias first:
    Point-and-Shoot (POS) cameras have come a long way in the last few years, and they can take very high quality, high resolution pictures.  The primary limitations are:

1. Inability to control both exposure and f-stop to get pictures completely in focus and well-lit.
2. The flash angle is such that the front of the mouth is super-bright and the back is very dark.
3. Many do not offer a manual focus option, and the mirror reflection can really screw with the auto-focus.

Digital SLR (DSLR) cameras, on the other hand, offer complete control over every aspect of taking pictures, which means all you need is the right settings, and you'll capture virtually perfect pictures every time with just a little practice.  The 2 biggest advantages to using a DSLR for dental photography are:

1. Can choose from several macro lenses to get extremely close-up pictures; dental photography is mostly a variation on Macro Photography, or the art of shooting small things very close-up. 
   
2. Can use a ring-flash or dual-mount flash for bright, even, shadow-less pictures even in the very back of the mouth.

Therefore, I am a BIG proponent of using DSLR cameras for dental photography.  Yes, they are more expensive, but given the importance of quality images when communicating with patients or documenting work for all kinds of purposes, they pay for themselves extremely quickly.

Next post......WHICH camera/lens/flash combination to buy, and where?