A Beginners Guide to Digital Cameras
The Difference Between SLRs and Automatic CamerasAn SLR looks and operates exactly like a non-digital camera, except instead of exposing film it exposes a light-sensitive sensor. If you choose an SLR, you will be able to manually adjust things like focus, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Generally speaking, digital SLRs will provide the highest quality images possible.
Automatic cameras or point and shoots often have a large LCD screen on the back and usually only require a single button press for taking a picture. Point and shoot cameras take lower quality pictures (although not by a lot) but provide a lot less customizable options. On the flip side, however, they are great because of their small portable size and ease of use. Additionally, if you"re planning on emailing or uploading images and not printing them at large sizes, the quality difference is negligible.
Mega Pixel 101
One of the first things that the manufacturer will tout about its newest model of digital camera is the megapixel value. But what are megapixels anyway?
Mega pixels are the way manufacturers count the pixels in an image. A one mega pixel camera means that the camera will take pictures with 1 million pixels. You can think of them as an image"s resolution.
So which megapixel value is right for you? It really depends upon what you want to do with you pictures. For most users, who wish only to shoot a few photographs and upload them to their website or email them to friends at smaller sizes, anything in the 2MP to 7MP range is absolutely fine. If you"re going to be blowing your work up to larger sizes, you should work with cameras that shoot at higher resolutions (10MP and above). The larger you want your photo, the more important the mega pixel value.
Digital vs Optical Zoom Overview
Often digital cameras offer users both optical and digital zoom function. Optical zoom is the distance the camera is capable of zooming using its lens, and the digital zoom is how far the camera can "fake" it from there. What an optical zoom does is magnify the subject like what a zoom lens would do, while a digital zoom simply takes a part of the image and blows it up. If you"ve ever seen a crime show where they "zoom" in on a security camera video to find the pixilated and blurry face of a robber, that"s what digital zoom does.
Generally speaking, a digital zoom is a useless feature so you"re better off ignoring it when shopping for a digital camera. Images created using digital zoom have low quality and look pretty terrible, so if you"re not close enough to catch it with optical zoom it"s best to either get closer or shoot with what you have.
Buying a digital camera doesn"t have to be a frustrating or scary experience. Just be honest about what you need and expect from your camera, as well as what your price range is, and go from there. As long as you pick a camera that suits your needs, you will be happy with the results. If you"re really uncertain, start with a low-priced basic camera, then move up - there"s always room to upgrade later, should it turn out that your camera isn"t delivering on what you really want.