DeeDoo's Digital Do's and Don'ts - Number 2

This week's topic is digital cameras. I won't be talking about what brand to buy. Instead, I'll be discussing what to look for in a camera. We'll look at the different megapixels and what they mean to you, and discuss some features you might find useful. I'll also give you some useful links to keep in mind when camera shopping.

Reasons to Buy a Digital Camera

Why would you want a digital camera? There are lots of reasons to have one - and some reasons not to. What do digital cameras give you?

The ability to see the shot you've just taken instantly. You know whether you need to reframe or change settings to get that shot you are looking for.
Easy access to your photos for digital scrapbooking. No scanning necessary since most digital cameras have USB or Firewire ports to download directly to your camera.
The ability to save and/or print only the pictures you want. There is no more paying for an entire roll to be developed for those one or two shots.
While you still need to pay attention to good rules of photography, digital gives you more freedom to experiment. You don't need to worry about the expense of taking multiple shots, and it is a simple matter to delete or erase those shots that don't turn out. Often, the perfect shot is captured by the professional photographer because he takes lots of shots and later chooses the good ones.
Immediacy. You have access to your photos right away. You can save them to your computer, upload them to photo sharing websites, send them in email - all without trips to the store for developing.
You have complete control from shooting to printing. No more relying on labs to get your pictures processed the way you planned. With available paint and photo programs, you have an inexpensive digital darkroom at your fingertips.

The main argument against digital cameras is one that is disappearing with the newer cameras - shutter lag. Shutter lag is the time from when you press the shutter release button to when the photo is taken. With the more expensive digital cameras today, shutter lag is virtually unnoticeable. But even in the lower priced cameras, shutter lag time is being reduced. You can also lower the lag time yourself by pre-focusing when possible - holding the shutter release halfway down on most models pre-focuses the camera taking that step out of the photo capture time.

The Megapixel Question

The megapixel rating of a camera translates to resolution. The higher the megapixels, the larger the images, the better the print quality, and the larger the space needed to store them on the camera and computer. So how many megapixels do you need? That depends on a number of factors. If you plan to only share pictures in email or on the web, why pay for megapixels you'll never use? A 1 megapixel camera is just fine for this. BUT, trying to make a high quality print from this size is pretty difficult. A 3 megapixel camera will print excellent 4x6 pictures, and good 6x9 photos. A camera in the 4 megapixel range can sometimes print up to 8x10 with decent results. From there you can really go up in dollars and performance. As a scrapper, you might be thinking you need that 6 megapixel camera to be able to print 12 x 12 layouts. But consider that the actual photos you use in the layouts are not going to be 12 x 12, nor are they even usually going to be 8 x 10. So a good all purpose range for the digital scrapbooker might be the 3 megapixel range of cameras. However, a big advantage to having more megapixels and thus more resolution is the ability to crop and enlarge without losing quality.

Optical and Digital Zoom

The advice I can give here is, ignore the digital or interpolated zoom and instead only pay attention to the optical zoom. The optical zoom is the result of the changing the focal length of the lens (optics) to bring the subject being photographed closer. It is the way to get quality images. Digital zoom does not zoom. It crops and enlarges the image in the viewfinder using interpolation to "guess" at the pixels to fill in to make the image appear larger. You can usually achieve better results at this type of "zoom" yourself in your photo editing software. Not only will the quality be better, but you decide what part of the image to crop and enlarge. So, stay away from digital zoom and concentrate on finding a digital camera with a good optical zoom. 3x optical zoom is pretty standard and there are affordable digital cameras with 10x optical zoom. Just be careful when comparing the zoom on digital cameras because some manufacturers will only give a total combined zoom without breaking it into optical and digital.

Wrap Up

One thing to consider when purchasing a digital camera is the added cost of memory for storage. Most digital cameras come standard with a memory card - however, those cards are generally small and won't hold very many pictures. What happens in that case is that the photographer won't use the highest resolution the camera provides because more pictures can be stored at the lower resolutions. Do not do this. Bite the bullet and buy a large memory card for your digital camera. Always shoot at the highest resolution the camera allows. You can always lower the resolution later with photo editing software to send in email or to put on the web. You cannot, however, put back information that doesn't exist! Remember, we mentioned earlier that many great photos are taken by accident. You can be prepared to print and save those by taking all your pictures at the highest resolution possible. Remember, too, that the higher the resolution, the bigger the file, so storage on your computer will be greater as well. Invest in a large hard drive for downloading your photos. A benefit of the digital camera is that you can delete unwanted photos, but I find that I keep all the photos I shoot. Since I have a large storage card in the camera and a large hard drive on the computer, I don't lose anything by saving all of them. It's a way of preserving history. A lot of those pictures we might think of throwaway turn out to be the most valuable because they are the most real. Even if I alter or clean up a photo in Photoshop®, I will keep the original. You can burn your digital photos to cds or dvds for long lasting compact storage. Hundreds of photos can be stored on dvd.

Another cost I would add to any camera I was considering would be a charger and extra rechargeable NiMH batteries. These batteries don't have the the problems with failing to fully charge or rapidly self-discharging found in earlier NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) batteries. NiMH (or Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries can be found in a wide range of cell capacities. The higher the capacity, the better the run time. Look for NiMH batteries in the 2300mAH to 2500mAH range. 2300mAh cells can be purchased for less than $10 per 4 pack and a NiMH charger (with a set of 4 2300mAH batteries) can be bought for around $30. You can use one set while the other charges.

Choosing between different cameras becomes easier when you consider how you will use it. Most digital cameras today are very good at point and shoot. Many of those models have benefits such as light weight and compactness. You can carry many of the smaller digital cameras in a shirt pocket. You also can get digital cameras that have interchangeable lenses and have the look and feel of their film counterparts with all the manual controls you can think of. So, regardless of your experience as a photographer, you will be able to find a digital camera to suit your needs.

Useful Links

Here are some links to a few of the sites we find most useful.

Steve's Digicams is usually the first (and often last) place we look when we are thinking about digital cameras or camcorders.

Digital Photography Review is a site with a forum divided into various cameras and brands. You can read reviews from those who are using the camera you may be considering.

PC Magazine divides the digital cameras into types and rates and reviews them within that category.

We hope this article has answered many of the questions you may have had about digital cameras. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to contact us! See you next week with another DeeDoo's Digital Do's and Don'ts!

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