by Allen Webb
Every month manufacturers are coming up with new advances in digital cameras in hopes of enticing new buyers. There are so many high tech functions in today’s cameras that the array of choices is overwhelming. So just what is the best way to choose the right camera?
Before you are ready to buy, you need to think about what kind of pictures will you be taking and under what circumstances. If you are a casual point and shoot photographer who likes to always have a camera available, then things like small size, ease of use and battery life will be more important. If, on the other hand, you want to learn to take detailed digital photographs you should look for higher resolution, better zooming capability and more memory capacity.
Next you should familiarize yourself with some of the technical terms that describe the features of digital cameras. Probably the one you most often hear is megapixels. The megapixel rating is a measurement of how detailed your photos can be in millions of pixels. Each pixel is a single point or dot in the image. Your computer monitor has pixels also and photo printers have settings for how many pixels per inch to print. If you are planning on copying your best photos to your computer then printing them out as 8×10 inch pictures, a 5 megapixel camera is enough resolution to do this. If you are only planning on displaying your pictures on a computer or TV screen, even an old 3.2 megapixel camera will work! The newest cameras have up to 15.1 megapixels and even small point and shoot cameras come with 8, 10 or even 12 megapixels!
You should be aware though that if you crop photos you may need more resolution. If you use photo editing software to crop just a section of a photo, and you took that picture at a low megapixel setting, the cropped section may not look good. If you plan on doing this occasionally , you should plan on using higher resolutions and will probably need a camera with at least 8 or 10 megapixels.
If you have a windows based computer you may have had to set the resolution of the screen. The most common setting is 1024 by 758 pixels. Using that as a point of comparison, an 8 megapixel camera can take photos of up to 3456 by 2304 pixels! This may be way more resolution than you need. You need to also realize that these higher resolution photos take up much more of the camera’s memory and take longer to save after you’ve taken the photo. For casual point and shoot users, the latest cameras have more megapixels than you need.
Any digital camera you consider should also have the capability of accepting memory cards. The newest cameras can store up to 32 Gigabytes (GB) of information. Every gigabyte is one BILLION characters of data. But, just like the resolution, many new cameras have more capacity than most people need. The lower the resolution of the pictures you take, the less memory they will take. For instance, a memory card that can hold up to 100 photos taken with a resolution of 2048×1536 photos can hold 400 1024×768 photos! Also the highest capacity cards cost a lot more than purchasing several smaller ones. Most people probably will never need more than an 8GB card but, if that card fills up, you can by more and still not be spending nearly what you would have on the largest card available!
One the back of cameras is an LCD screen that helps you to frame your subject without having using a viewfinder. You can also use the LCD to review the photos in the camera. Look at cameras with at least a 2.5 inch LCD display. Some have larger LCDs, but that can also make the entire camera bigger. There are numerous very small shirt pocket sized cameras that still have 2.5 inch LCDs.
A good number of digital cameras have both digital and optical zoom, yet you should just consider the optical. Most cameras have between 3x to 10x and the cost generally goes up with the zooming capability. Base the choice on the kind of photos you plan on taking. If you primarily take photos of friends and family a zoom within the 3x range ought to be plenty. On the other hand, when taking outdoor scenery a 5x or much better zoom can help you take photos from further away without having sacrificing detail.
The best digital camera is the one that you will enjoy and use, so for a casual photographer a small point and shoot camera that can be carried around easily will be a good choice. Fortunately you can find many small, easy to use cameras at a good price that still have all the features you need. Instead of buying the latest and most expensive models, only buy what you need and make your final comparisons on things like battery life and how long the camera takes to save a picture.
Tags: Arts & Entertainment by Allen Webb
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