Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
How to buy a digital camera
There are many brands of digital cameras available in the market today. Not all of the people are aware of the terminology related to digital cameras. Let me clear one thing, if you are looking for a gadget which can shoot both still pictures and videos with the same device, then you must know one thing that a digital still camera is a dedicated device for still photography and a digital video camera is a dedicated device for shooting videos. You can shoot video with a still camera and vice versa, but the quality won't be much good, because both of these devices are optimized for specific picture or video shooting. Following are the points which you can use as a guide for buying a digital camera.
1. BRAND
Brand loyalty is very personal. As a professional photographer I would recommend a camera from Nikon or Canon stable.
2. MegaPixel
Most of the digital camera users think that a higher megapixel digital camera will give higher picture quality. Basically megapixel only decides physical size of the image. Most of the pictures shot are printed at 4x6 or 5x7 inches size. It may be noted that 4x6 inches pictures prints as 2 megapixels and 5x7 picture prints at 3 megapixels. You can read more about resolution at http://www.printbucket.com Now the question arises, is a 5 megapixel camera in a mobile phone is equally good as a standalone still digital camera. I would say NO. There are many other things that play a major role in the quality of the picture. Most important is the dynamic range of the device to capture detail. Dynamic Range is the capability of the device to capture the details in highlight part and shadow part of the image.
3. Zoom
Digital still camera offers two types of zoom. One is the optical zoom. This is the real zoom. You should only look for the optical zoom.It gives you the real magnification. In compact digital cameras, zoom is denoted by "x" e.g. 3x or 4x. This is the magnification factor. If the focal length of the lens is 27mm to 81mm, then the zoom factor will be 81 divided by 27 and that comes to 3x. The other zoom in the camera is digital zoom. Practically it is of no use. I always advise people to switch off this option in the camera. Digital zoom works inside the camera after you have taken the picture. Internal software of your camera has many algorithms writen for digitally magnifying the image.
4. Scene Modes
Nowadays all the cameras gives the choice of using various scene modes. These are the preset settings in a still digital camera for specific shooting requirements. Some of the scens modes are as night snapshot, portrait, landscape, kids and pets, fireworks, foliage etc.
1. BRAND
Brand loyalty is very personal. As a professional photographer I would recommend a camera from Nikon or Canon stable.
2. MegaPixel
Most of the digital camera users think that a higher megapixel digital camera will give higher picture quality. Basically megapixel only decides physical size of the image. Most of the pictures shot are printed at 4x6 or 5x7 inches size. It may be noted that 4x6 inches pictures prints as 2 megapixels and 5x7 picture prints at 3 megapixels. You can read more about resolution at http://www.printbucket.com Now the question arises, is a 5 megapixel camera in a mobile phone is equally good as a standalone still digital camera. I would say NO. There are many other things that play a major role in the quality of the picture. Most important is the dynamic range of the device to capture detail. Dynamic Range is the capability of the device to capture the details in highlight part and shadow part of the image.
3. Zoom
Digital still camera offers two types of zoom. One is the optical zoom. This is the real zoom. You should only look for the optical zoom.It gives you the real magnification. In compact digital cameras, zoom is denoted by "x" e.g. 3x or 4x. This is the magnification factor. If the focal length of the lens is 27mm to 81mm, then the zoom factor will be 81 divided by 27 and that comes to 3x. The other zoom in the camera is digital zoom. Practically it is of no use. I always advise people to switch off this option in the camera. Digital zoom works inside the camera after you have taken the picture. Internal software of your camera has many algorithms writen for digitally magnifying the image.
4. Scene Modes
Nowadays all the cameras gives the choice of using various scene modes. These are the preset settings in a still digital camera for specific shooting requirements. Some of the scens modes are as night snapshot, portrait, landscape, kids and pets, fireworks, foliage etc.
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