Digital Camera Jargon
What should I look for when purchasing a digital still shot camera?
What does all that jargon mean like megipixels etc?
Nowadays when people mention about purchasing Digital Cameras, they usually compare the cameras by the number of megapixels they have, for eg 7 mp to 10mp.
However, megapixels are not the only quality to look out for. Digital cameras on the market now are commonly found to have around 6 mp to 10 mp of resolution for point and shoot cameras (non-SLR cameras), which is actually good enough to get a clear and sharp image on an A4 size print. With that being said, one of the most important thing to look out for is the amount of optical zoom it provides. Camera specs comes with 2 types of zoom, digital and optical. In optical zoom, cameras uses lenses to enlarge the image you’re seeing (zooming), which does not deteoriate the quality of your photograph. In digital zoom however, the camera uses its software to digitally enlarge these images, thus compromising it’s photo quality. that is not what we want. Optical zoom are very useful, and can range between 3x to 10x or even 12x. It really depends on what you need.
Some cameras in the market comes with image stablizers, which is extremely useful in stabilising your shot (give a sharper image and works as a anti-shake function), especially when you’re at the far end of your zoom (6x maybe?) and want some really sharp image, or at low-light conditions where your shuttle speed is pretty slow to absorb more light and you urgently need something to help stablize your shots. But beware, look out for only those cameras that comes with OPTICAL image stablizer. These cameras have some kind of floating element inside the lenses to stablize your shot, unlike the digital image stablizer, which again uses some software to digital aniti-shake your shot.
Also, point and shoot cameras comes in many form. A $100 – $200 camera will probably only have very limited manual function, functions like Aperture Priority, Shuttle Speed Priority, Programme Mode, Full Manual mode etc. If you’re an amateur photographer like me, these aren’t usually very important, unless you want to explore around and learn to become a more professional photographer. $300 would probably get you a pretty good enough camera, one that have around 7 – 10MP, optical zoom around 4x to 6x, and plenty of manual functions too.
Personally, I own a Canon Powershot A710 IS. It is a 7.1 Megapixel camera, and has a 6x optical zoom (and a 4x digital zoom). It has almost full manual functions, thus giving amateur photgraphers who wants to experience manual controls to have total control over their shots. The only downside of it is it’s small censor (the thing that captures your image), which gives a slight disadvantage against the other cameras with bigger censors when it comes to low-light conditions. I recommend you to do a thorough research before purchasing your camera, in order not to have any future regrets.
This website is great : http://www.dpreview.com/
4 Digital camera terms you have to know
Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a conversation were everyone talks about a specific subject that you know very well, nevertheless due to the terminology the others use you cannot take part? Well we have all been there and that is why sometimes it’s good knowing things by their actual name.
In digital camera technology there is a specific language to use with specific terms and definitions. Although everyone nowadays holds a digital camera and with the touch of a button everyone becomes a photographer it’s good to know what a few things mean so you don’t find yourself unprepared.
The term Megapixel
This is possibly the most used term in the language of digital photography. Referring to the number of megapixels a camera is cable of, we simply talk about the millions of pixels a picture consists of and it is related to the maximum resolution of a camera. That is important since as the higher the resolution of a camera the more would be the analysis of a photo in pixels which simply means higher photo quality.
The term Focal Length
When a photographer talks about focal length he/she is basically referring to the degree a camera is capable of magnifying a shot. Moreover you should know that they are two classes of focal lengths (wide angle and telephoto) with the first one being better for spacious fields and the other one for narrow fields of view.
The term Digital Zoom
A term people give unnecessary attention to, as it does not help that much in the quality of a picture. Digital zoom basically helps you to bring an image nearest to you meaning that the pixels in the central area of a photo are enlarged. As a result the quality of a picture can be reduced.
The term ISO range
The letters of this term stand for I-international S-standards O-organization. Even if the term sounds a bit irrelevant to photography it actually refers to the sensitivity of a camera to the light. It is called like that as this organization is also responsible for photography standards.
Now that all the jargon about cameras is explained, you will know which one to choose and with the help of other articles on CyprusLikeThis you will know how to capture better pictures.
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