A Great, Affordable Camera for Clinical Photography

Most of my practice blogs relate to cosmetic facial surgery and related topics.  The blogs also go to my social media links so I realize that many people don’t necessarily have an interest in some of the topics.  This blog is aimed at doctors that take pictures in their offices and includes many types of physicians, dermatologists, surgeons, dentists and pathologists.

The best doctors take a lot of pictures to document the medical record, educate patients, and learn from their work.  I have over 7,000 pictures on my website and my before and after pictures are important for me to judge and learn from my work.  They are important to the patient as well to see their results.  I have always be a student of clinical photography and have published many articles and book chapter on the subject.

Standardized photography is an absolute necessity for contemporary surgeons.  Unfortunately, many docs use very shoddy and deceptive pictures.  You can make a bad result look good by manipulating the lighting, poses, posture, etc.  Fortunately, the public is pretty educated and can spot “fake” results quickly.

All surgeons that take pictures need a sophisticated camera that is easy to  use.  It is not hard to spend thousand of dollars on a clinical camera.  You can purchase very sophisticated cameras, with complex lenses and settings.  The problem is that the average staff person cannot use it!  Although I take most of my clinical pictures, when I am in surgery, it is my staff that use the camera.  Having to change lenses and adjust settings on a big bulky camera with flash settings, etc. is simply difficult and inefficient.  Due to this, many docs have awesome cameras but don’t take many pictures because the complexity and hassle.

I bought my first clinical camera from Lester Dine a company that led the field.  This was way before digital cameras.  The company has ridden the wave of technology and kept their doctors up to date with the latest improvements.  I have their latest portable clinical camera “The Dine Digital Solution”.  This camera is about the size of a deck of cards and resembles a typical “vacation” camera.  The engineers at Dine perform software modifications to make clinical photography point and shoot.  The camera is shock proof, water proof, fits in your pocket and takes stunning high resolution digital photos.  This is a 16 megapixel work horse that has 4 simple options.  One setting takes awesome close up macro pictures.  I use this a lot for eye and facelift surgery for my books and lectures.  The second setting (with a spin of the wheel) is for portrait photography and this is what I use for before and after pictures.  The camera also takes really nice video and we  have recorded a number of our YouTube videos with it.  Finally, for those that just can’t stand not to fool with settings, the camera can be used in a manual or programmed mode giving the photographer full control of F stops, etc.  But  wait, there’s more!  The camera will automatically download images to computers and mobile devices as it has an onboard GPS.

For doctors that are searching for an affordable (around $700), portable, versatile clinical camera visit www.dinecorp.com.   See the attaced video.

For more information about cosmetic facial surgery visit www.lovethatface.com

Joe Niamtu, III DMD

Cosmetic Facial Surgery

Richmond, Virginia