Andre's Digital
Matrix
(Your first digicam)
The following is a guide to picking the perfect camera for your lifestyle
One of the biggest misconceptions with digital cameras is that you have to buy the best, newest, most feature-rich cameras. That's simply not the case. If you are thinking of buying your first digital camera, you should ask yourself a few basic question. Once you have answered those questions, you can zero in on models that fir your budget and taste.
What will I use the picture for?
The answer to this question will help you decide how many megapixels our camera
should be capable of capturing. Choices include one, two, three, four and five
megapixels camera from various manufacturers, with prices ranging from $200 or
less to $1,000 or more.
If you are planning to use your digital camera strictly for online photo sharing, you can easily get away with a 1 or 2 megapixels camera. A 1MP image will be big enough to fill most if not all of our computer monitor screen. If you expect to mainly produce 4x6 or 5x7 prints, a 2 or 3 megapixels camera will be sufficient. if you want to produce photo-realistic shots at up to 8x10 inches, you will want to look at 3MPs and above.
E.g. The grad dinner & dance photos I took were from a 4.0MP camera.
There are a couple of factors to why not to choose the biggest image size and have the ability to do it all? First is file size. Each five MP image could occupy four megabytes (MB) or more of storage space. This means on a 32MB storage card, you would be able to take only eight pictures before you would have to empty the card; and if you to take 100 pictures on a vacation, you would need nearly half a gigabyte (GB) on your computer's hard drive to store them. They will also take longer to load.
Second is cost. Comparing two cameras with comparable features, the one with more MPs will tend to cost more. Similarly, a 4MP camera would probably have more features than a 5MP model of the same price.
How does a camera fit into my
lifestyle?
If you are taking photography as a hobby, your needs and choices will be
different than if you just want to record the significant moments in your life.
Hobbyists will want features like manual control over exposure settings. If you
are a hobbyist coming over from 35mm film cameras, you will want to look at the
digital camera models that offer the same kinds of control, such as manual focus
and manual exposure control, that you are already used to.
If you are the type of camera user that doesn't want to get into complicated settings, point-and-shoot simplicity may be the order of the day. The good news is, even entry-level digital cameras offer sophisticated point-and-shoot features. Automatic focus is standard, and most camera make it simple to control your flash and to switch between regular, close-up and landscape shooting modes with the touch of a button.
The batteries?
The battery powers everything on a digital camera, so when it dies, your picture
taking session is over. When you shop for a camera, you will encounter two main
battery choices. Some camera makers use standard and readily available types
like AA cells. The advantage is that if you happen to run out of power while you
are on the road, you can stop at any stores for replacements. Other
manufacturers us a proprietary rechargeable cell. This type of batter y often
provides a longer fun-time between charges. The other advantage is that
manufacturers can design them to be flat and small, which means they can reduce
the overall size of the cameras. The disadvantage is that when the battery dies,
you won't be able to find a replacement just anywhere. It may be possible to buy
additional batteries, but the yare expensive, running between $50 and $100 each.
Getting close with zooms
Typical digital camera zoom lenses will give you a range of 2x or 3x, though if
you are willing to make the additional investment, you can find cameras with up
to 10 times optical zoom. Cameras with 2x or 3x optical zooms give you a balance
of some wide angle coverage and some telephoto. As you move up to 6x and 10x
zooms, you will find benefits mainly at the telephoto end.
Be wary of any camera's "digital zoom" capabilities. Digital zoom has nothing to do with the lens itself: it simply looks at a smaller section of the image that is being captures, and the enlarges it digitally. Because the camera can only work with the small amount of image capture data that naturally falls on the sensor, it has to guess at what the actual image would look like if it was blown up to a larger image, which almost always results in a blocky or grainy picture, definitely not on you will want to print out. With all other things being equal, always opt for a better optical zoom over a digital zoom.