The same can be true when buying your first digital camera. We will attempt in this article to help you along with some of the jargon and show you what to look for when buying a digital camera.
Megapixels
The resolution of a camera is measured and advertised in megapixels. The idea behind this figure is the number of pixels that the camera has to take an image with. In this case the higher the number the better quality of picture you will be able to take. For example if you purchase a camera that has a resolution of 4 Megapixels, pictures that you take with that camera will be able to take images made up of 4 million pixels. Its obvious when you think about that a camera with a 2 megapixel resolution will not create as image as crisp or as detailed as the 4 megapixel one.
If you often print out your images on your PC or have them sent away to be printed then the megapixel rating of your camera can be very important to you. Higher megapixels on your camera will allow you to make prints larger in size while still keeping the quality. If you try to print a picture too large than what you camera was designed for then the image drastically loses quality.
A picture taken on a 4 megapixel camera will need twice as much space on a memory card as a picture taken on a 2 megapixel camera. Be sure if you want quality pictures have enough memory on your camera to back it up., Either that or have spare media cards to plug in once your space has been used up.
Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom
No doubt when you are buying a camera you will want some sort of zoom function to take those in the distance shots. There are two types of zoom on the market for digital cameras. Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom. The only one that really matters is Optical zoom, this is true a true zoom function that brings the objects closer to you using the optics of the camera. Digital Zoom is like using the zoom function on an image editing software package. It enlarges a section of the image so it looks as if its closer to you.
Anything you can do with digital zoom you can do with a photo editing package so don't splash too much money on a camera with digital zoom only. Sometimes you will also so "total zoom" advertised this means the number that is quoted here is the optical zooms magnification added to the digital zooms magnification.
Aperture Size
The size of the aperture determines exactly how much light is let into the camera when your picture is taken. Think of the aperture like the iris of your eye. No big deal you may think, however having more light allows you take better pictures in a variety of lighting condition, cloudy days is a perfect example.
With a large enough aperture you would be less likely to need the flash, personally I don't like to use the flash function, the artificial flash of light does not always do justice to the picture you are trying to take. Also effects like red eye are also common.
Shutter Speed
Great effects can be made to images using a variety of shutter speeds. The thing to look for when buying a decent digital camera in terms of shutter speeds is the broadest range you can find. Combined with a pro-active aperture the shutter speed can make pictures come to life or freeze images in an instant.
Setting the shutter speed on a slower setting gives more exposure to the CCD (charge coupled device - the digital equivalent of film). The effect is that the picture almost seems to run. Moving objects are slightly blurred. You can take digital photography to the extreme with a camera that has a very wide range of shutter speeds. With an incredibly slow shutter speed, you can have a long exposure of light to the CCD and hence receive like the famous traffic scenes where the headlights blend into each other into a constant stream.
Storage Media
Digital Cameras come with a slot for a variety of media cards. Check when you buy your camera what type of storage media it requires. There are several popular types including Smart Media, compact flash and xD picture cards. Always ask at your local store if you are unsure. The size of the media card you choose depends on your budget but get as much as you can afford. More memory means that you don't have to change media cards, and you will be able to take pictures in the highest quality all the time. You will soon learn the benefits of having plenty storage space when you start to use your camera regularly.
The good thing about cameras media is that its just like a film if you do run out you can simply insert another one if you have one with you. It can be a bit of a pain when downloading your pictures to your PC but much less more of a pain than having to delete some picture because you have run of space on your media card.
Decision Made On What Sort Of Digital Camera You Want
You have now decided to go a head and purchase a digital camera, but like many other electronic devices available to consumers now days the digital camera is changing all the time. You may find that for the same amount of money you would have spent a few months ago on a camera you will now get one with more and more features such as megapixels, storage space and zoom facilities. Firstly you need to work out how much you are willing to spend, some can cost from as little as ten dollars to ones that will cost a thousand dollars or more. Will I be traveling a lot? By having these questions in mind it will make your choice of camera easier.
Below I provide a list of features with a short explanation that should be included when you are making up a list of features for the cameras that you are interested in.
Firstly there are Megapixels. Many cameras now come with an ever increasing number of megapixels and many people ask if the more megapixels a camera has is better. Having more megapixels all really depends on whether your are going to print photographs (especially enlargements) or you want to zoom in and crop the fine detail out of large photographs. I would suggest that you look at using a 2 megapixel camera for the latter as you will find that most computer screens have a resolution of 1024x768 which even when viewing a photograph on a full screen which equates to less than 1 megapixel. Even a photograph (4x6) printed off will have a DPI higher than 300 which will be more than enough to produce a high quality print.
However, if you plan to print enlargements of your photographs then you need to look at the different print sizes and what megapixels are required to produce high quality prints. The table provided below shows you the photograph size and the megapixel required.
Photo Size Megapixel
• 4x6 2
• 5x7 3
• 8x10 7
• 11x14 14
• 16x20 28
• 20x30 54
However, if money is no object where the purchase of your camera is concerned then the more megapixels you have may out weigh other features that could be available to you. For example should you spend money on the extra megapixels or a better lense, or an external flash unit? Really, it all depends on how you camera will be used. Next is the Zoom feature. In some cases it is very handy to have the use of a good quality zoom on your camera, especially say when you want to take a good quality portrait photo where the object/person’s face fills the complete photo frame, whilst when taking a photo of a group of people you want to make sure that everybody is in it.
The optical zoom works by physically moving the cameras lense and changing the focal length of the picture. By changing the focal length you are able to make objects or subjects appear bigger than they are and that will fit the full photo frame. Whilst a digital zoom works by using built in software in the camera to clearly define a certain section of the photo that you are interested in taking. Then once this has been chosen the software inside will remove the rest of the photo surrounding the area and will then enlarge the chosen section and this will fit into a complete photo frame. Unfortunately the one downside of using a digital zoom is that the quality of the enlarged photo is less than that of the original photo taken.
So in conclusion if you are serious about taking photographs and not just to use it for taking those all important holiday snaps I would suggest you opt for the optical zoom and from a practical point of view a digital zoom should not be considered as a zoom lense at all.
However you need to be careful when looking at a camera you are thinking of buying as not always do the manufacturers stipulate whether the zoom figure specified is actually optical or digital. So for example if a camera says it supports a 5X optical zoom and 10X digital zoom then is being advertised as a “10X zoom camera” you can see how the confusion can arise. A 10X digital zoom can be done to any camera just by using some simple PC software.
Once you have compared different cameras zooms then always compare their optical zoom capabilities as well. Really you can totally ignore the digital zoom figures that you will be provided with.
Megapixels
The resolution of a camera is measured and advertised in megapixels. The idea behind this figure is the number of pixels that the camera has to take an image with. In this case the higher the number the better quality of picture you will be able to take. For example if you purchase a camera that has a resolution of 4 Megapixels, pictures that you take with that camera will be able to take images made up of 4 million pixels. Its obvious when you think about that a camera with a 2 megapixel resolution will not create as image as crisp or as detailed as the 4 megapixel one.
If you often print out your images on your PC or have them sent away to be printed then the megapixel rating of your camera can be very important to you. Higher megapixels on your camera will allow you to make prints larger in size while still keeping the quality. If you try to print a picture too large than what you camera was designed for then the image drastically loses quality.
A picture taken on a 4 megapixel camera will need twice as much space on a memory card as a picture taken on a 2 megapixel camera. Be sure if you want quality pictures have enough memory on your camera to back it up., Either that or have spare media cards to plug in once your space has been used up.
Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom
No doubt when you are buying a camera you will want some sort of zoom function to take those in the distance shots. There are two types of zoom on the market for digital cameras. Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom. The only one that really matters is Optical zoom, this is true a true zoom function that brings the objects closer to you using the optics of the camera. Digital Zoom is like using the zoom function on an image editing software package. It enlarges a section of the image so it looks as if its closer to you.
Anything you can do with digital zoom you can do with a photo editing package so don't splash too much money on a camera with digital zoom only. Sometimes you will also so "total zoom" advertised this means the number that is quoted here is the optical zooms magnification added to the digital zooms magnification.
Aperture Size
The size of the aperture determines exactly how much light is let into the camera when your picture is taken. Think of the aperture like the iris of your eye. No big deal you may think, however having more light allows you take better pictures in a variety of lighting condition, cloudy days is a perfect example.
With a large enough aperture you would be less likely to need the flash, personally I don't like to use the flash function, the artificial flash of light does not always do justice to the picture you are trying to take. Also effects like red eye are also common.
Shutter Speed
Great effects can be made to images using a variety of shutter speeds. The thing to look for when buying a decent digital camera in terms of shutter speeds is the broadest range you can find. Combined with a pro-active aperture the shutter speed can make pictures come to life or freeze images in an instant.
Setting the shutter speed on a slower setting gives more exposure to the CCD (charge coupled device - the digital equivalent of film). The effect is that the picture almost seems to run. Moving objects are slightly blurred. You can take digital photography to the extreme with a camera that has a very wide range of shutter speeds. With an incredibly slow shutter speed, you can have a long exposure of light to the CCD and hence receive like the famous traffic scenes where the headlights blend into each other into a constant stream.
Storage Media
Digital Cameras come with a slot for a variety of media cards. Check when you buy your camera what type of storage media it requires. There are several popular types including Smart Media, compact flash and xD picture cards. Always ask at your local store if you are unsure. The size of the media card you choose depends on your budget but get as much as you can afford. More memory means that you don't have to change media cards, and you will be able to take pictures in the highest quality all the time. You will soon learn the benefits of having plenty storage space when you start to use your camera regularly.
The good thing about cameras media is that its just like a film if you do run out you can simply insert another one if you have one with you. It can be a bit of a pain when downloading your pictures to your PC but much less more of a pain than having to delete some picture because you have run of space on your media card.
Decision Made On What Sort Of Digital Camera You Want
You have now decided to go a head and purchase a digital camera, but like many other electronic devices available to consumers now days the digital camera is changing all the time. You may find that for the same amount of money you would have spent a few months ago on a camera you will now get one with more and more features such as megapixels, storage space and zoom facilities. Firstly you need to work out how much you are willing to spend, some can cost from as little as ten dollars to ones that will cost a thousand dollars or more. Will I be traveling a lot? By having these questions in mind it will make your choice of camera easier.
Below I provide a list of features with a short explanation that should be included when you are making up a list of features for the cameras that you are interested in.
Firstly there are Megapixels. Many cameras now come with an ever increasing number of megapixels and many people ask if the more megapixels a camera has is better. Having more megapixels all really depends on whether your are going to print photographs (especially enlargements) or you want to zoom in and crop the fine detail out of large photographs. I would suggest that you look at using a 2 megapixel camera for the latter as you will find that most computer screens have a resolution of 1024x768 which even when viewing a photograph on a full screen which equates to less than 1 megapixel. Even a photograph (4x6) printed off will have a DPI higher than 300 which will be more than enough to produce a high quality print.
However, if you plan to print enlargements of your photographs then you need to look at the different print sizes and what megapixels are required to produce high quality prints. The table provided below shows you the photograph size and the megapixel required.
Photo Size Megapixel
• 4x6 2
• 5x7 3
• 8x10 7
• 11x14 14
• 16x20 28
• 20x30 54
However, if money is no object where the purchase of your camera is concerned then the more megapixels you have may out weigh other features that could be available to you. For example should you spend money on the extra megapixels or a better lense, or an external flash unit? Really, it all depends on how you camera will be used. Next is the Zoom feature. In some cases it is very handy to have the use of a good quality zoom on your camera, especially say when you want to take a good quality portrait photo where the object/person’s face fills the complete photo frame, whilst when taking a photo of a group of people you want to make sure that everybody is in it.
The optical zoom works by physically moving the cameras lense and changing the focal length of the picture. By changing the focal length you are able to make objects or subjects appear bigger than they are and that will fit the full photo frame. Whilst a digital zoom works by using built in software in the camera to clearly define a certain section of the photo that you are interested in taking. Then once this has been chosen the software inside will remove the rest of the photo surrounding the area and will then enlarge the chosen section and this will fit into a complete photo frame. Unfortunately the one downside of using a digital zoom is that the quality of the enlarged photo is less than that of the original photo taken.
So in conclusion if you are serious about taking photographs and not just to use it for taking those all important holiday snaps I would suggest you opt for the optical zoom and from a practical point of view a digital zoom should not be considered as a zoom lense at all.
However you need to be careful when looking at a camera you are thinking of buying as not always do the manufacturers stipulate whether the zoom figure specified is actually optical or digital. So for example if a camera says it supports a 5X optical zoom and 10X digital zoom then is being advertised as a “10X zoom camera” you can see how the confusion can arise. A 10X digital zoom can be done to any camera just by using some simple PC software.
Once you have compared different cameras zooms then always compare their optical zoom capabilities as well. Really you can totally ignore the digital zoom figures that you will be provided with.
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