How to Buy a Digital Camera – Digital Cameras
How to Buy a Digital Camera
Gary Hendricks
Are buying your first digital camera Well, you must be confused by the bewildering range of models out there. How do you know which model will suit your needs To make things worse, digital cameras do not come cheap. Choosing a bad camera will easily cost you a few hundred dollars.
In fact, buying a digital camera need not be a difficult task. Ill highlight the key considerations you need to think through before making that purchase decision. Always, always remember to consider these factors when buying a digital camera:
Battery Life
Number of Megapixels
Zoom Lens
Exposure Control
User Controls
Battery Life
This has got to be one of the most overlooked features in digital cameras. I know many people who go for the latest and greatest digital cameras which are short in the battery life department. If you want to take good photos, your camera needs to powered for extended periods of time. Ive found that cost and battery life dont go together - many cheap cameras have good battery life, while some high-end models drain your battery really fast. Make sure you choose a camera that has good battery life.
Number of Megapixels
The megapixel rating of a digital camera determines how much fine detail you can capture in your shots. Typically, the number of megapixels can range around from 2 megapixels to 8 megapixels. How do you decide how many megapixels you need As a rule of thumb, if youre only interested in taking small snapshots to send via email or for posting on the Web, you wont need more than 2-megapixels. If you want large print outs of your gorgeous photographs, then youll probably want to get 5-megapixel cameras and above.
Zoom Lens
Youll definitely want a camera with decent optical zoom. Now the keyword here is optical zoom as opposed to digital zoom. Optical zoom physically moves the camera lenses to zoom in on a subject. Digital zoom, however, digitally averages and magnifies the image within the cameras microchip - resulting in poor picture quality. Many manufacturers advertisements talk about digital zoom instead of optical zoom - so do be careful when choosing. Id recommend getting at least 3x optical zoom in any camera you buy.
Exposure Control
The ability to control exposure settings such as shutter speed and lens opening is critical to professional photographers. Cheaper digital cameras only allow you to shoot photos in automatic mode - just press the shutter release and voila, your picture is taken. More advanced users prefer to tweak the shutter speed and aperture to capture fast moving objects or blur the image background. Choose a camera with good exposure control if you foresee yourself taking on photography as a serious hobby.
User Controls
If you are getting a point-and-shoot camera, make sure you find one thats easy to use. User controls to set resolution, macro mode, flash and exposure should be within easy reach. Of course, if youre a serious photography buff who wants to take the time to tweak all sorts of manual settings, then this many not be so critical. I prefer to try out the camera first in the store - play with the controls and get comfortable with them. Only then will you know whether its comfortable enough for you.
Conclusion
Well, I do hope this article has helped you understand what factors to consider when buying a digital camera. A general piece of advice I can give is - if youre a total newbie, dont go for the latest digital SLR. It may be tempting to get that Nikon D70 right from the start, but Id reckon its much better to start off with a cheaper camera first. Learn, experiment and build up your digital photography skills. Once youre more skilled, then proceed to upgrade to a better camera. Good luck and happy shopping!
About The Author
Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on digital photography. Visit his website at http://www.basic-digital-photography.com for tips and tricks on buying digital cameras, as well as shooting great photos.
gary_hendricks@basic-digital-photography.com
How a Digital Camera Works – Digital Cameras
How a Digital Camera Works
Jakob Jelling
The digital camera is not something of a magic box that came out of the blue and made wonders! The digital camera is very much like the conventional analog camera, but the technology has been altered. It also contains most of the associated components that the conventional camera contains, like lens and a shutter for letting in light, however instead of reaching a photosensitive film, the light is made to fall upon array of image sensors or photosensitive cells. Much of the differences are like this, yet most of it still remains in oblivion for the ordinary people. And it order that the digital camera gets its true respect, it is necessary to explore these areas of truth and reveal them in light.
Looking a bit more in details about the working of the fantastic device, the digital camera. As a continuation of the above lines, it can be further investigated that the sensor array is basically a microchip about 10 mm across. Every image sensor is a charged-couple device CCD converting light into electric charges, and is essentially a silicon chip used to measure light. These charges are stored as analog data that are then converted to digital via a device called an analog to digital converter ADC. Over the chip are present a collection of very small light-sensitive diodes, named photosites, or pixels that convert light or more scientifically, photons into electrical charges called electrons. The pixels are very much light sensitive, therefore with brighter light striking them, produces greater build up of electrical charges. Each 1000 array receptor creates 1 pixel, and every pixel corresponds to some information stored. The light enters the digital camera via the lens, which is the same mechanism as the conventional analog camera. And this light hits the CCD when the photographer presses the shutter button. The shutter opens and thereby illuminates every pixel, however with various intensities.
Taking a look apart, it can be observed that quite a few digital cameras use CMOS meaning complementary metal oxide semiconductor, a technology of manufacturing these microchips technology based microchips as image sensors. The basic advantage is that the CMOS sensors are appreciably cheaper and simpler to fabricate than CCDs. Another great advantage from CMOS sensors is that these take very less power compared to other technology, which adds up to the fact as to their extensive use, and can thus even support the implementation of additional circuitry on the same chip like ADC, some control units etc. Thus it can be stated that CMOS technology based cameras are small, light, cheap and also energy efficient, yet at the cost of some amount of image quality.
However the common trend remains that all cameras of the mega pixel range and higher up use CCD chips instead of CMOS. This is because of the fact of picture quality only, leaving aside the price differences.
This is basically the fact about how digital cameras work! Having known this much difference would not come in the photographing expertise of the users, but it always feels a kind of satisfaction on understanding the inner depths of a device that is so close to the eyes!
By Jakob Jelling
http://www.snapjunky.com
About The Author
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.
How to Buy the Right Digital Camera – Digital Cameras
How to Buy the Right Digital Camera
Kathleen Wade
When buying a digital camera there are many things you should consider. First you should understand how a digital camera works. What you are using your digital camera for will help you decide what features to consider and how much you should spend. I am here to educate you and help you decide.
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