How to Choose a Digital Camera

The digital camera revolution has been sneaking up on us for quite some time, slowly building steam and steadily eroding the hold that film cameras have had for decades. However, now the digital revolution is in full swing, offering some exciting options, with more to come in the next few years. The change in consumer photography has been drastic. In fact, in the last several months, some manufacturers in the film camera industry have announced that they are drastically limiting their production of new film cameras and, in some cases, even ceasing camera production all together.

Why is this? Digital cameras are inexpensive to make allowing many new players to enter the field. With a digital camera, the everyday photographer has access to tools and imaging capabilities that once were available only to the most professional of photographers and photo labs, at a fraction of the costs. So if you haven't yet, now is the time to go digital.

To get started in digital photography, you will need several things, a digital camera, a memory card, and a computer to store, view, organize and, with the proper printer, print your photographs. Yes, there will be an initial investment, but it will be less than you think. For those of you that are still questioning the quality of digital photography, rest assured, it meets or exceeds anything you would have previously done on film and offers a number of advantages. However, you need to have some basic knowledge before you rush out and grab a camera.

So what should you look for when choosing a digital camera? Presently you have two options, point and shoot cameras or SLR (Single lens reflex - digital cameras that operate in much the same manner a traditional 35mm film camera, even allowing interchangeable lenses.) Cost will be a factor as you consider your camera. Basic point and shoot, non-name brand digitals can be purchased for around $100.00, but offer few features. Mid-range digitals can go for up to $1,500.00, but offer more features. Top of the line SLR digitals can cost upwards of and, in some cases, more than $5,000.00; however, they offer the most features and capability for expansion.

With such a broad range of price and features, the crucial factor in making your choice becomes what kind of pictures you want or plan to take. If you are a snap shot or special occasion photographer taking mostly pictures for albums or to email, clearly a point and digital will work for you. As an added benefit, you really don't need to look for a model with a lot of features. However, if you consider photography a hobby or want to pick it up as a hobby, you will want to consider investing in a camera with more features. If you have been serious about 35mm photography in the past or have worked professionally, you will likely want to consider a digital SLR.

Point and shoot cameras are generally the smaller and more compact of digital cameras, allowing for ease of carry and use. However, there are certain limitations inherent to the digital point and shoot that can be problematic; however, they should not serve as a hurdle to purchasing one. Point and shoot digitals take some time to boot up in preparation for taking a picture, some taking as long as 10 seconds. This may not seem like a long time, but if you see your children doing something or notice a picture you want to take, it is likely that after 10 seconds, the picture will be long gone. As well, the digital point and shoot cameras operate with an Electronic View Finder (EVF) which allows you, by looking at the screen on the rear of the camera, to see what the camera is seeing meaning that you will rarely look through the traditional viewfinder. However, until the shutter button is engaged, the photo taking process does not begin. This leads to another limitation of the digital point and shoot, the shutter to picture time. Most point and shoot cameras have a delay of up to ¾ of a second before the shutter engages, which, for posed shots generally works fine; however, for action shots or photographs where there is substantial movement, while the camera will capture the image and stop the action, the photograph you take may not exactly match what you saw in the view finder. The reason for the delay is that when the shutter button is depressed, as you have been viewing the image through the EVF, the camera has to focus, meter the light and route the image to the digital sensor. While this happens quickly, there is a noticeable delay.

Point and shoot digital cameras have a number of preset automatic settings, medium speed lenses (meaning they offer acceptable results in most lighting situations), adequate shutter speeds, generally a built in flash and a other features such as self timers and some degree of zoom. With the zoom features of the point and shoot cameras, there are two kinds zoom, digital and optical. The digital zoom offers a zoom simulation where the camera digitally creates the zoom. The results are perfectly acceptable; however, the quality is somewhat akin to cropping and enlarging an image with the assistance of a digital photo editor. Point and shoot cameras with an optical zoom creates the zoom by increasing the physical magnification capability of the lens offering a better quality final photograph. Cameras with the optical zoom cost more than those with a digital zoom and generally offer more camera features as well. With any point and shoot you will have limited manual override capabilities or expansion options. However, that being said, there are a variety of higher end point and shoot cameras that offer many more options and features than the average photographer may need, though no point and shoot offers the control capability of the digital SLR's.

With digital SLR's, their operation is very similar to that of a 35mm film camera, though more of the features are controlled by menus and on or two dials. Gone are the days of aperture rings and shutter speed dials. When you view the image pre-photo, you do not view it through the LCD screen as you do on the digital point and shoot; typically the LCD is used to navigate the menus or to review photos. As you do would with a 35mm, you look directly through the lens via the view finder; the mirror even rises and falls when you take a picture. As to advantages in digital SLR's the bottom line is user control and expandability. You also have greater flexibility over the settings on the camera. However, most digital SLR's, in addition to full manual control, also offer a variety of exposure program modes. Additionally, you have a large selection of different lenses from which to choose. From ultra-wide angle to super telephoto and all degrees in between, as well as numerous zoom lenses, there are numerous options to enhance your photography. As for disadvantages as compared to digital point and shoot cameras, the digital SLR's are bulky and much larger than the point and shoots - think traditional 35mm cameras. There is a learning curve that does not exist in the point and shoots; however, the learning curve will be much less if you have prior photographic experience. If you are not shooting at or close to what has come to be known as a "prosumer" level (a hybrid category of photographers somewhere between professional and standard consumer), you will have a lot of features on the digital SLR's that you never use. If this is the case, look to the point and shoot digitals. Perhaps the greatest difference/disadvantage is that digital SLR's are significantly more expensive than the digital point and shoot cameras.

The bottom line on choosing between a point and shoot and a digital SLR is one of control and expandability. Think about how you have taken pictures in the past. If you have used disposable film cameras or 35mm point and shoot cameras and have been satisfied with the process, you will likely be more than happy with a digital point and shoot. If you have been a 35mm SLR user in the past, you will likely be more happy with a digital SLR or perhaps a higher end digital point and shoot with an optical zoom lens that allows for some creative control over the photographic process.

Now that you have decided whether you will be going with a point and shoot or SLR for your first digital camera you need to understand the megapixel concept. Every digital camera has a megapixel, or MP, rating. Most of the entry level point and shoot cameras are around 3.0-4.0 megapixels. Most of the digital SLR's start at around 6.0-8.0 megapixels and go upwards from there. But wait!! What are megapixels? Megapixels are the building blocks of any digital photograph. The more megapixels you have the higher the quality of the print and the bigger you can enlarge it. As an aside here, most cameras allow you to choose the detail or resolution of the image you shoot. Say you are shooting with a 6.0 megapixel camera. All of the images will be 6.0 megapixels, but you can choose several different categories such as basic, normal or fine internally in the camera. At the basic, or lowest setting, less memory is used than is used at the highest detail setting. (When the camera stores the digital image, it is typically stored as a .JPEG file.) On a 6.0 megapixel camera, an image shot at the fine setting may use between 3-4 megabytes of memory as opposed to 1-2 megapixels for the lower setting. To achieve the best quality for any print you make, you want to use the setting that provides the most detail. In other words, though the file may be 6.0 megapixels, the basic setting will not provide as much detail or enlargement capability as the higher quality setting. High large can you enlarge a digital file? By way of comparison, 3.0-4.0 megapixel images shot at the highest resolution setting can be enlarged to about 8 x 10 inches with no significant loss of quality whereas a 6.0-8.0 megapixel image can be enlarged to the 16 x 20 range with no significant loss of quality. Larger megapixel cameras mean greater enlargement quality.

This may all sound quite technical, mainly because it is, but the simple rule of thumb is this, the higher the megapixel rating of a camera the greater the enlargement capability. Determine what kind of photographs you will be taking and purchase accordingly. However if you will only be taking snapshots for albums or for sharing online, you can likely get away with a 3.0-4.0 megapixel camera with no problem.

Once you have your camera, you will need a memory card. Digital cameras do not use film in the regular sense of the word. You will never have to purchase film again. With digital photography, gone are the days of being limited to 12, 24, or 36 exposures per roll. As well, gone are the days of having to wait for the one hour lab to see your images. You can review your photographs immediately after taking them on the LCD display of your camera.

Memory cards have two basic features, memory capacity and write speed. The memory capacity is the amount of information they can hold and write speed is the speed at which information can be written to them for storage. A 512mb memory card can hold approximately 150 6.0 megapixel .JPEG images at the highest resolution setting. This equation works on a proportionate scale a 3.0 megapixel camera would hold around 300 images on a 512mb card. Essentially the lower the image resolution quality and the lower the megapixel, the more images you can get on a card, the higher the resolution and higher megapixel size the more memory will be required. You can purchase memory cards up to 8 gigabytes of memory which means that with a 6.0 megapixel camera at the highest detail setting, you could story approximately 2500 images. That is the same as approximately 70 rolls of 35mm film. However, most ultra-capacity storage cards can be quite expensive, frequently exceeding the price of many basic point and shoot cameras. When deciding what size memory card to purchase, think about what kind of shooting patterns you will be doing. Generally a 512 or 1GB card will be sufficient. It is also now possible to store digital images on an external hard drive allowing your camera's card to be cleared and the images stored on a portable devise until a later date.

In addition to the camera and memory card, you will also want to print photographs and store your images. There are a variety of storage options available. There are a number of excellent image management programs that allow for your pictures to be downloaded to a computer and catalogued into different groups for ease of later retrieval. Many of these catalog programs also allow for different degrees of photo enhancement such as red eye reduction, cropping, enlarging, color correction and the like.

Once you have your image, you will want to print your pictures. You have the option of traditional photo labs as the ones that have remained opened have adapted to print digital images from external drives, CDs or even directly from memory cards. Many of the larger photo labs have the capability to allow you to email your files to them then pick them up or have them delivered by mail. It is also even possible for you to print you pictures at home. Some camera/printer systems allow for prints to be made by docking your camera with a printer and printing directly from the camera. There are a number of other photo printers available that also can be used. These prints you make at home rival any that you have seen from tradition photo labs and are much less expensive. However, a word of caution here. Prints made at home have a limited shelf live, sometimes showing signs of fading in only a few years whereas prints made on non-inkjet printers, even from digital images, can last 100 plus years.

Finally, a word on image storage. It is commonly accepted that digital images stored on a hard drive will deteriorate over time, however, the exact speed of breakdown is not precisely known. Also, if you have all of your images stored on a hard drive of a computer that fails for some reason, those images can be lost forever. Back up digital images often to either CD or DVD and to some other external drive. Some commercial photo labs even offer free image hosting for storage purposes. You will end up with files in several different areas, but redundant backups are essential.

Years ago people would look at photojournalist who took wonderful pictures and gaze in amazement. While there is a degree of skill and talent involved in taking captivating images, one of the secrets was to take many, many pictures. With film, this wasn't possible for the average consumer. However, with digital photography, even the beginning photographer can go out and take hundreds of pictures and be able to pick and choose to select the optimum image. What was once only available to a select few is now there for use all to use and enjoy.