Monica from hotmail.com asks:
“I’ve been thinking about investing in a digital camera, but don’t know what I should be looking for.”
Digital cameras: Smile! Or just grin and bear it, because they’re here and they’re not going away.
Digital cameras are similar to film cameras, but instead of film, they have a “CCD” – charge coupled device. Think of a CCD as electronic film – it receives the image from the camera lens and can “print” its picture immediately to the camera’s memory. The memory “stick” is removable and can be read by specialized readers available at most of the DIY photo booths at your favorite mega-supermarket. And the camera comes with cables that plug in to your computer. This gives us instant access to the pictures. Cameras come with editing tools: We can adjust, crop and add effects to pictures. If you don’t like the “red-eye” making your cute puppy’s face look like a Halloween effect, click a button and the red-eye vanishes. If you really want to get fancy, you can start doing things commonly seen in conspiracy movies: Who’s that posing behind the gang at the Calder? …Elvis?! If we don’t like a certain picture, just delete it, and it’s gone forever. I’d like to be able to do that to many of my mid-1980s pictures. (They’re called “awkward years” for a reason.)
Cars are measured by horsepower and top speed. For those learning about digital cameras, there are two main considerations, megapixels and memory.
Megapixels: Look very closely at your glowing TV screen. Closer. …Closer! Assuming your eyes haven’t crossed, what you now see is not a picture, but a collection of dots. Those tiny dots, viewed from a distance, create the picture of Jerry Seinfeld or whatever family-friendly entertainment I’m sure you’re watching. In the same way, these small dots – pixels – make up the pictures taken by a digital camera. The “megapixel” (MP) measurement you see labeling digital cameras is a measure of the camera’s picture quality. It’s most important when you want to print larger pictures. If your pictures will all be 5×7 or smaller, get a camera with at least a 3 MP rating. If you want to resize your pictures to 8×10 or larger, get a 4 MP camera or better.
Memory: The amount of memory you have in megabytes (MB) is the number of pictures you can store. Removable and reusable memory “sticks” can hold many more pictures than film. This number will change, but for convenience make sure you get at least 64 MB of memory with your camera.
Memory and MP rating are two important points for first-time buyers. A lesser-but-still valid point is batteries: Make sure you get a spare battery, as digital cameras eat batteries fast. Get an “extended life” battery if available. The rest of the Digital Camera Experience is frills and functions – you can get cameras fully automatic or loaded with manual features. Those choices, like whether to digitally add Elvis to all vacation photos, are up to you.
| The links below contain more information about digital cameras, specific model reviews, recommendations, and the camera’s good friend, rechargeable batteries:http://www.dcresource.com/ |