Digital Photography 101 - A Beginners Guide to Digital Cameras
If you've never been around digital cameras, they can be rather intimidating at first. Buzzwords like "mega pixels" and "optical zoom" help to build a language barrier between new users and the industry, and sometimes it's hard to understand what exactly you're buying. So here is a quick walk through of the major elements of digital cameras to help you make the best judgment on which one is right for you.
The Difference Between SLRs and Automatic Cameras
An SLR looks and operates exactly like a non-digital camera, except instead of exposing film it exposes a light-sensitive sensor. If you pick a digital SLR, you will be able to manually adjust settings like shutter speed, aperture, focus and ISO. And generally speaking, if you're looking for the highest quality images, then digital SLRS are the way to go.
Automatic cameras or point and shoots often have a large LCD screen on the back and usually only require a single button press for taking a picture. Point and shoot cameras take lower quality pictures (although not by a lot) but provide a lot less customizable options. On the flip side, however, they are great because of their small portable size and ease of use. And if you're not planning to print out large pictures, then the quality difference is minimal.
The Mega Pixel Debate
One of the most important features camera manufacturers talk about is the number of mega pixels. But what are mega pixels anyway?
Mega pixels are how manufacturers measure the pixel count of an image created by a camera. A one mega pixel camera means that the camera will take pictures with 1 million pixels. You can think of mega pixels as the actual picture's resolution.
So which megapixel value is right for you? It really depends upon what you want to do with you pictures. For most users, who wish only to shoot a few photographs and upload them to their website or email them to friends at smaller sizes, anything in the 2MP to 7MP range is absolutely fine. If you're going to be blowing your work up to larger sizes, you should work with cameras that shoot at higher resolutions (10MP and above). The bigger you want your photo, the more important the mega pixel value.
The Difference Between Digital and Optical Zooms
Many digital cameras feature both digital and optical zoom. Optical zoom can be defined as the distance the camera is able to zoom its lens, whereas digital zoom is the distance the camera can "pretend" to make it from that distance. What an optical zoom does is magnify the subject like what a zoom lens would do, while a digital zoom simply takes a part of the image and blows it up. One good example of a digital zoom, is when you see on tv the video footage from a security camera that shows the pixilated and blurry face of a robber.
Generally speaking, a digital zoom is a useless feature so you're better off ignoring it when shopping for a digital camera. Images created using digital zoom have low quality and look pretty terrible, so if you're not close enough to catch it with optical zoom it's best to either get closer or shoot with what you have.
Buying a digital camera doesn't have to be a frustrating or scary experience. Just be honest about what you need and expect from your camera, as well as what your price range is, and go from there. As long as you pick a camera that suits your needs, you will be happy with the results. If you're not sure what digital camera is right for you, you're better off starting with a more basic camera and then upgrading later if you need to.
Questions and Answers
Article Tags:
learn digital photography
,beginning digital photography
,digital photography 101
,digital photography
Unsure about which digital camera is right for you? Read up on the basics with this quick guide and you'll be ready to shop with confidence.
If you've ever seen a great photograph but couldn't quite put your finger on why it was great, chances are it was the contrast that you were reacting to. This short article discusses what contrast is, and why it is absolutely critical in producing brilliant photographs.
Want to upgrade your photographs from good to great? Find out the five habits of great photographers in this exclusive article.
Taking pictures and adjusting the settings manually can be intimidating to the new photographer. Veterans of the craft will no doubt remember the first roll of film they ruined by reading the light wrong, or the irreplaceable moments in time lost behind a lens cap. As a photographer, our job...
Find out if you have what it takes to become a full-time or part-time freelancer. Be a freelance photographer or writer, or both. It can be a lucrative lifestyle with a lot of freedom.
Three well known superheroes. Have you ever desired to defend the earth from all types of atrocities? Super heroes do it every day. They come to life on the big and small screens and in addition in comic books. While fictional, it's so very simple to fall under their spell when they can all perform acts of an awesome nature by using their super powers to help the terrorised and downtrodden people of planet earth.
The most difficult mission in the world is to make certain that your children are kept occupied with either after school activities or activity books for children in the home. Because of the summer break looming parents might want to have a few activity proposals up their sleeve in an effort to provide themselves with some respite from their over-active kids.
A good display of fireworks might just be what is needed to help people who are battling it out in the corporate world to relax. Fireworks have the ability to bring people together as they take in the magnificence of the moment. Fireworks can be appropriate in a host of functions; the bigger the better. Obviously the only time they can be enjoyed is during the night.
With the buy one get one free SuperEnalotto you have a better chance of winning.
If it is time to search for entertaining facilities for kids, you must take a look at the range of inflatable rentals. The little ones would love the new level of entertainment which they usually would attain only from an amusement park.
Photo editing has changed a lot since the days of printing photos in the darkroom. Actions that used to take hours of painstaking work can now be done or, more importantly, undone at the click of a mouse. So, if you're just getting started you first want to learn about...
Digital photography, though pretty much the industry standard at this point, is still a young technology. Many of the greatest advances in digital happened within the last ten years, and if you're a later adopter it's nothing to be ashamed of - there are millions of people out there that...
If you want to have fun documenting your life, then digital photography is a great and simple way to capture your memories. Digital cameras make it so easy to instantly preview and reshoot pictures and save thousands of pictures on a single memory card that it has made photography popular...
If you want to remember your vacation for years to come, then you need to get good at travel photography. Find out these helpful tips so you can take amazing pictures of your vacation and help share your experiences with your family and friends.
Discuss this Article
