Tips on how to buy & how to choose a Digital Camera

Have you ever want to send your photo to your friend thought e-mail? Have you ever want to publish a photographs to your Web pages? One of the chief viftues of digital camera is that it lets you store your snapshots in a standard PC and save, send to or print to whenever you need them.

Digital camera offer several advantages over conventional film-based camera. Example; there are no film-processing costs or hassle. And in minutes, your images are in your computer waiting to posted to a Web site, display in the presentation, or printed on one if you are affor to have a photo quality printer. The color LCD screen found on every digital camera let you check instantly if a shot is worth enough for you to keep it or not.

With nowadays 2 or 3 megapixels digital camera, you can capture whatever photography you want.But in deciding which digital camera to buy, you should first know how to measure a digital camera. Usually, magazines and others media measure a digital camera proformance with PIXEL. Example : 2 megapixel digital camera mean it capable to capture what it sees as 2 million points of light, the strict definition of megapixel is 1 one million pixels or picture elements per image. There is no comples math here. More pixels mean more detailed images, whish is particularly noticeably at larger sizes such as 5 by 7 and 8 by 10 pictures. Where lesser digital camera produce photos that get dotty as they get larger, 2 megapixel models can hold their sharpness and with some glossy paper and a good inkjet or photo printer, produce pictures that rival or even equal film prints.

Though pixel count and picture size are closely associated , they are not the sole determinants of image quality. Lens and filter also set quality contribute to resolution. If your primary use for a digital camera is attaching photographs to email message or web pages, then 2 megapixel are probably overkill. Buy when you come to putting pictures on paper , you can never be too many pixels. Some of the 1.2 to 1.7 megapixel digital camera produce vivid pictures that can stand up quite nicely against those from new models. But in general , more pixels is a plus.

Pexels are not the only thing the new cameras have to show off. Optical Zoom lenses too become important thing when dicide to buy digital camera because they help you get the shot you really want. One caution on zoom features is many digital camera have a "digital zoom" feature that magnifies a portion fo your picture after the fact (losing resolution) but does not bring you any closer to your subject when shooting. Optical zoom lenses, by contrast, let you focus more tightly on your subject.

Happily , virtually all digital camera, now have a core set of features, including a color LCD screen (for previewing and reviewing shots), optical viewfinder, auto-flash, removable memory, and video(TV) and serial (PC) out ports. Many have rechargeable batteries too (may be is optional item) , which is a good thing since most digital camera will go though a set of alkalines in less than 2 hours.


One task that impedes more widespread use fo digital cameras is getting the images from the camera into a computer and in a file format that can be opened by just about a click. It used to be that the only way to transfer images was to attach the camera physically to the computer's serial port , hope that the camera was recognized by the software and then upload the images at a snail's pace.



Foutunetely, with an external storage that available now, tiny CompactFlash, SmartMedia,and MemoryStick memory card, we can easily uploaded with this memory cards. For this external storage, in my understanding, have 3 formats. SmartMedia, CompactFlash and Sony's Memory Stick , all of them are difference format and un-exchangable. SmartMedia and CompactFlash cards are well established. SmartMedia memory card format are the external choice for Toshiba, Fujifilm, Ricoh, Olympus, JVC. Kodak,Canon,Epson,Nikon and Konica are using CompactFlash memory card format. For this moment, Olympu's digital camera is the only digital camera maker which support SmartMedia and CompactFlash memory card .
This external storage or memory card affects the number of images you'll be able to take at one time and store until you can download them to a computer. If you'll always be within walking distance of your PC while shooting pictures, you'll be able to get away with less storage. If, for example, you need to take your camera on your next vacation or business trip and won't have access to a computer, then you'll want to make sure the storage can last the length of the entire trip. For example, a camera with 4MB of memory will be able to store anywhere from 10 to 50 photos depending on whether you're taking high- or low-resolution shots. A 8MB camera will store approximately 75 photos.


You can copy the images on this tiny memory card to your PC simply by slipped into an optional floppy disk adapter (and then inserting the adapter into your floppy disk drive) or an optional Universal Serial Bus (USB) card reader for easy picture transfer.


While Sony's MemoryStick, a new flash memory medium that's roughly the size and shape of a stick of chewing gum, is the memory card which can use and exchangable within Sony's products only. Sony is putting Memory Stick readers into a wide range of products, including an electronic picture frame display, a digital photo printer, a digital camcorder and a new Pentium 3 PC. The downside is that Sony is going it alone with Memory Stick; no other companies are using it so far. Several companies like Casio and Olympus , do licensed the technology but have not integrated into any product yet.

You can also connect the camera through a flash or PCMCIA card too. Type I cards are 3.3mm, Type II cards are 5.0mm thick and Type III cards measure 10.5mm thick. A Type III slot can hold one Type III or two Type II cards.
There are some tradeoff with digital cameras. First, there is a delay in some cases of half a second to 2 seconds.Between the moment you press the shutter button and when the camera actually takes the picture. That take some getting used to and makes some slower cameras ill suited for quick action shots and condids. Also, you typically have to wait several seconds while the image is being processed and stored before you can shoot another. Of course, some of the high end digital camera have a burst-mode setting that lets you snap concurrent frames, but you have to select this option first.

Another disadvantage is battery drain.If you load typical alkalines, expect only about 20 to 30 minutes of shooting time. Do include a rechargeable batteries in your bundle if this is an optional item.The lower priced models generally include only alkalines in the box to get you going.
Before you make an decision for buying digital camera, please make sure it also included Built-in-flash. Digital camera without flash generally deliver dard, muddy pictures indoors. We would not recommend a camera without one.