Digital Camera Guide


This Digital Camera Guide is meant to give you a basic understand about digital cameras to help you determine which digital camera would suit your need.


Point-and-Shoot vs DSLR


Small, compact point-and-shoot digital cameras are great for personal use and make great first cameras for kids and teenagers. These cameras have a megapixel rating up to 5.0. The higher the megapixel rating, the more expensive the camera.

High end point-and-shoot cameras will typically have between a 5.0 to 8.0 megapixel rating and a 5x to 10x optical zoom rating. If you want a high performance digital camera, but, don't want to trouble yourself with changing lenses, this would be an ideal choice. Many point-and-shoot cameras do offer a variety of manual settings that allow you to photograph in a creative mode.

Digital SLR cameras have a high megapixel rating such as 6.3 or higher. They offer interchangeable lenses and full manual setting options. If you are a photography professional or enthusiast, an SLR may be the best choice for you. Many lenses are interchangeable between the 35mm and digital models of various camera brands.

Find a camera that fits your lifestyle and your level of photography interest.


Megapixels?


A camera's megapixel rating will help you determine the largest size of prints you can expect to make without sacrificing the quality of the image. It also will help you determine how much flexibility you will have with photo-editing software after an image has been captured.

According to most photo developing services, an image that is 1600 x 1200 pixels can be printed with good results up to as large as 8" x 10". Therefore, you can actually use a 2.0 megapixel camera and have prints made as large as 8" x 10" with very little loss of quality.

The higher the number of megapixels your camera has the more flexibility and options you will have when editing, cropping and printing your pictures. Although it's probably better to buy more than you need rather than less, it's not necessary to spend extra money on a 6.0 megapixel camera if all you require is 3.0 megapixels.

If you don't plan to print larger than 4" x 6" and aren't interested in cropping or editing images, a 2.0 megapixel camera is probably sufficient and will give you great prints. If you'd like more flexibility with cropping and enlarging prints to 8" x 10", a 3.0 or 4.0 megapixel camera will give you that option. If you want to be able to print a poster-sized print--just in case you get a photograph that turns out fantastic-- a 6.0 megapixel camera might be more what you're looking for.


Optical vs Digital Zoom


Optical zoom lenses move you closer to the subject of the photograph without sacrificing quality. The higher the optical zoom rating on a camera, the farther away you can be to take a photograph and still get a clear, close-up image.

Digital zoom on the other hand is not bringing you closer to the item. Rather, the camera crops the entire image, and then digitally enlarges to the size of the viewfinder the portion you want to zoom in on. This results in a loss of quality, and is no different than cropping and enlarging an image with editing software.

In conclusion, Optical zoom capabilities make all the difference in the final product. The higher the optical zoom, the farther away from the subject you can be and still get a great, clear, crisp quality shot.