Purchasing a Digital Camera
Digital cameras are very similar to traditional cameras,
although there is one crucial difference - digital cameras don't
use film! Instead, they record photos and video to a memory chip
or card. Most are able to record short video clips (usually
anywhere from 15 seconds up to 5 minutes and more), because
video is nothing more than a fast transition of photos. At this
point, you might be wondering how you get the photos out of the
digital camera.
Most digital cameras come with a software interface that lets
you decide how high quality the pictures should be and different
settings depending on the light and environment. Through this
interface, you can also delete photos and do basic photo and
video editing. Most digital cameras come with a cable that
connects directly to your computer, usually via USB. The camera
instantly transfers the photos to a program installed on your
computer. Once the photos are stored on your computer, you can
print them, edit them, or e-mail them. If you want to print them
the traditional way, you can take the memory card to a photo
developer and they can print the images from the card as if you
were giving them your film. Photo developers can also put your
photos on a CD that includes a multimedia showcase of your
photoset.
When shopping for a digital camera, the main specification you
should be looking at are Megapixels. Computers store images
electronically as a large combination of dots. When you have a
good image on your screen or printed on paper, you often can't
see the dots because they're packed very closely together, but
they're still there. Just as printed images are measured by dots
per inch on paper, electronic images are measured by pixels
(dots on your computer screen). A megapixel is defined as one
million pixels. Modern cameras come with a resolution of 1-3
megapixels. If you are taking photos that don't need to be
printed out in high-quality resolution, 2 megapixels should be
sufficient. Also consider the amount of memory the camera has.
Most digital cameras have built-in memory and can accommodate
external cards to store more photos. These cards are smaller
than matchboxes and can store anywhere from 16MB to 1GB of data.