An Introduction to Digital Cameras

A digital camera is a device that captures pictures without the use of film.

Since the images captured by a digital camera are captured in electronic or digital form it is easy to copy them to a computer and edit them. This may sound complicated but operating a modern digital camera is relatively simple.

Like a conventional camera, a digital camera has a lens or set of lens; but instead of focusing the light onto photographic film, the light is focused onto a semiconductor that electronically records the light. This semiconductor device can either be a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) - as a general rule the more expensive the camera the more likely it it to be using CCD technology as CCD will, overall, produce a better image.

The price of digital camera as reduced greatly. One of the main reasons for this is the introduction of CMOS sensors as they are less expensive that CCD sensors.

So, what are the important factors to take into account when choosing a digital camera.

Image Quality or Resolution. This is usually stated in Megapixels (millions of pixels or individual points of light). The highers the number of megapixels the greater the overall resolution of the camera.

Zoom. Cameras often come with optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom, as its name suggests, uses the lens to increase the size of the image in much the same way as a conventional camera. Digital zoom uses the computer within the camera to increase the size of the image - the use of digital zoom will distort the image but this has less effect the higher the resolution of the camera.

Lens. Choose a camera with a good quality lens. Many of the well known Japanese camera manufacturers (e.g. Canon, Nikon etc) have been making lenses for many years and these will be of a very high quality. If choosing a model from a less well known manufacturer look for a good quality lens such as Carl Zeiss.

Batteries. Always choose a model with rechargeable batteries, this will ultimately save you money as digital cameras can use a lot of power.

Memory. Make sure that the camera has enough memory for your indented use. The sales assistant should be able to give you an idea of how many photographs you can fit in to the available memory. Most digital camera will allow you to change the quality or resolution of the image thus reducing the amount of memory required for each image.

Computer Interface. Make sure that the camera is compatible with your computer. Most digital cameras these days come with USB and/or Firewire interfaces which will interface to most computers.

Physical Size. Do you want a camera that slips into your pocket or are your prepared to trade this off for a better image quality and more features? There is no point in buying a fully featured SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera if you want something small that you can carry with you.

Other Features. Most digital camera also have other features that allow you to manipulate the capture image. Some of these a gimmicks while others are quite useful - only you can decide what is important to you.

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