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   Buying a Digital Camera found in Computers & Technology  :  Gadgets & Devices A   A   A
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Buying a Digital Camera
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Megapixels, f-stops, SLRs . . . if trying to decipher digital-camera lingo makes you shudder, you're not alone. Shopping for even a simple point-and-shoot can be a vexing experience—unless you know what you're looking for. Learn to zero in on:
  • General components and advanced features of digital cameras
  • The type of digital camera that best suits your needs
  • What it takes to operate and care for your digital camera
 
 
 
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Digital Camera Basics

Since they first became popular in the late 1990s, digital cameras have revolutionized how professionals and ordinary people take pictures. Though operating a digital camera requires a bit more technical know-how than using a film camera, these cameras open up a world of creative expression that’s impossible with conventional film photography.

What is a Digital Camera?

A digital camera is a lot like a traditional film camera, but with one major exception: rather than store photos as images on film, it saves them as digital data. An electronic photosensitive sensor captures light that enters the digital camera, then saves the image’s data onto a removable storage device called a memory card. To access images stored on a digital camera’s memory card, you must connect the camera (or just the memory card) to your computer. You can then view and edit the images on your computer screen and print the images through your printer or at a commercial photo lab.

The Parts of a Digital Camera

Nearly all entry-level digital cameras have most, if not all, of the following components:
  1. Viewfinder: Look through this hole to compose photos, or use it instead of the LCD screen.
  2. Mode dial: This dial toggles between the camera’s main operating modes, such as photo, video, and playback (a mode that lets you the review photos you’ve already taken on the LCD screen).
  3. Shutter button: Press this button to take a photo.
  4. Lens: This piece of glass focuses the light that enters the camera and projects it onto the sensor.
  5. Flash: This bulb emits a flash of light to illuminate dark scenes.
  6. Settings buttons: These buttons toggle between specific shooting modes, such as flash/no flash.
  7. Menu button: This turns the LCD into an on-screen menu that lets you access the camera’s other features.
  8. LCD screen: This small color screen shows you what your photo will look like before you shoot.
  9. Power and storage components: These include ports for A/C power adapters and USB cables (used for transfering images), and a chamber to hold batteries and a memory card.
  10. Internal electronics: These include an image sensor, internal memory, and other built-in electronic components.

Why Buy a Digital Camera?

If you’re unsure whether to “go digital” or stick with your familiar film camera, consider these four reasons to switch:
  • Convenience: Digital cameras make taking pictures fast and easy. You can carry most entry-level digital cameras in your pocket and never need to load or unload film. You also won’t be constrained by the number of photos you can take per roll—most memory cards hold hundreds of photos.
  • Creativity: A digital camera coupled with image-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop®, lets you fine-tune your photos with limitless creative techniques, from simple retouching and cropping to more complicated projects, such as making photo albums and collages. And unlike film cameras, digital cameras let you capture full-motion video clips.
  • Cost: You’ll save lots of money by eliminating the ongoing film and development costs associated with film-based cameras.
  • Community: Digital cameras allow you to share photos instantly with friends and family via email or photo sharing sites, such as Flickr (www.flickr.com).

Digital Cameras vs. Film Cameras

Before you decide to switch to digital, it’s helpful to know the main differences between the two systems.

Print Quality

Most amateur photographers can’t distinguish between prints made from digital cameras and prints made from film cameras, especially when the prints are smaller than 8" × 10". Although some professionals shoot on film so they can create prints larger than 11" × 14", high-end digital camera sensors are already able to produce 11" × 14" prints and larger.

Storage and Archiving

  • Film cameras: Film takes up considerable storage space and cannot be erased or overwritten. But it is vulnerable to discoloration and corrosion over time. You must store film properly to avoid these problems.
  • Digital cameras: You can archive digital images to hard drives, where they take up no physical space, or to CDs and DVDs, where they take up little space. But digital files are susceptible to errors, erasures, and future file-compatibility issues.

Power Supply

  • Film cameras: These use disposable batteries that last a long time, often for months or even years.
  • Digital cameras: These cameras use alkaline, lithium-ion (Li-ion), or nickel metal hydroxide (NiMH) batteries. Since digital cameras use more energy than film cameras, you must replace or recharge their batteries more frequently than you would film cameras.

Framing Shots

  • Film cameras: These cameras let you frame, or compose, shots by looking through an optical viewfinder, a feature that often shows just 80–90% of the scene captured on film.
  • Digital cameras: Most have a conventional viewfinder and an LCD screen that shows you exactly what the captured photo will look like before you take it.

How to Take Photos

  • Film cameras: These cameras capture shots instantly after you press the button to take a photo.
  • Digital cameras: Most have a delay, called shutter lag, between the time you press the button and the moment when the picture is captured. The higher-end the camera, the shorter the delay. The highest-end digital cameras have almost no shutter lag.

How to Display Photos

  • Film cameras: These cameras can’t display photos as they’re taken.
  • Digital cameras: These cameras let you preview photos before you take them (and review them after you take them) on a built-in LCD screen. You can also set up a digital camera so that you can view images on a computer or TV screen as you take them.

How to Print Photos

  • Film cameras: These cameras require chemical film developing and printing at a photofinisher. You can also scan film negatives and printed photos, then manipulate them digitally.
  • Digital cameras: You can print digital photos instantly on your home printer or from files submitted (usually on CD) to a photofinishing lab. Many home-based printers allow printing directly from the camera or memory card, bypassing the computer entirely.
 
 
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