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The choice of digital camera, as well as other technical equipment, is made on the basis of its technical characteristics. Though it may be useful to familiarize with the opinions of camera owners and to compare the photos, made by different cameras.
Megapixels
The first thing you pay attention to, when you buy a camera is the quantity of megapixels. The opinion that the more pixels the better is a photo – is wrong and misleading. This characteristic is responsible for the maximum size of the photo, that can be achieved without quality loss. For good quality it is necessary to consider the size of the matrix, where the pixels are. That’s why amateur camera can have more pixels then professional one.
As for the whole, then for the family photos you’ll be satisfied with 2-3 megapixels. For amateur photos you may buy a camera with 3-5 megapixels, in which there are optical zoom, set of photography modes and many other facilities. There are also cameras with 10-12 megapixels, but remember, that sometimes as a maximum resolution the size of the image, made with a help of digital zoom is declared. It means that the real quantity of megapixels is exaggerated.
Digital camera matrix
The quality of the photo mainly depends on the matrix – a facility with a defined quantity of light-sensitive elements (pixels). It is responsible for color rendering, noises, rendering of small details, depth of field. The quantity of pixels doesn’t always correspond to them in the photo. You should ask, due to what characteristic the camera got its name.
Digital camera matrix is also characterized by it light sensitivity. To make a good photo, camera should have a facility of manual sensitivity tuning, because this parameter can be automatically exaggerated. The best photos are made with the sensitivity lower then 100 ISO, but sometimes there is a need of photographing with a higher sensitivity, for example, in the night. That’s why it would be better if the limits of manual sensitivity tuning in the digital camera were as wide as possible.
Optics and object-glass of digital camera
A serious matter is a choice of optics. First of all, pay attention on such parameter as zoom.: it can be digital and optical. Good cameras have both, cheap ones have only digital zoom. Digital zoom enlarges a photo after the shoot and cutting to the necessary size, in this way the quality decreases. Optical zoom changes focal distance of the object-glass. In practice it is usually used when there is no way to get closer to the object. Sometimes producers indicate zoom value, multiplying optical zoom by digital. You should remember it.
If you are interested in camera with optical zoom, then object-glass focal distance and the opportunity to set interchangeable optics will be very important. Big variety of object-glasses allows to make photos from narrow-format (portrait) to large-format (landscape).
Electronics
The quality of the image depends on how the electronics will treat information from the matrix. Producers indicate only format of the file, where the images are saved. Most of the cameras save data only in JPEG. It occupies less space then professional formats, but the visual difference is insignificant. Usage of professional formats (TIFF, RAW) tells about higher level of software and electronics.
Power supply of digital camera
People seldom pay a lot of attention to the camera’s power supply. In fact it doesn’t affect image quality (though it will affect the price and comfort of use), but it is also important, especially in frequent use.
Some cameras use usual miniature batteries, which can survive no more then 30 photos. There are cameras that use lithium accumulators. Sometimes they are built in. It isn’t convenient, because, socket is not always around and their life is limited. Another choice is alkaline or metal hydride battery, that’s one of the best variants. But anyway, additional power supply will always be useful.
Digital camera memory
Some digital cameras are equipped with built-in memory, but usually it’s no more then 20 megabytes. That’s why images are saved on the external memory card. Working speed of any existing card will suit, because working speed of camera processor is quite the same. The difference will make only the price of the memory card with necessary capacity. The most expensive for today are MemoryStick (Sony) and xD-Picture Card (Olympus), and the most popular are small and reliable Secure Digital.
Digital camera display
The advantage of digital camera is a liquid-crystal display (LCD). At first, it allows to see the taken photo at once and take another one immediately, secondly, it gives an opportunity to take a photo in inconvenient position, working as a viewfinder, and finally, it represents all camera tunings. But the main disadvantage is the additional expenditure of battery charge, from this point of view a reflex camera is better. For the higher convenience, it is important, that LCD has a rotation gear and the biggest possible resolution, so that the image would be more distinct.
Flash
Digital camera without a flash cannot be used in faint light. Cheap models have a built-in flash, that can help, but sometimes it makes too much light instead. In such cases it would be appropriate to use a camera with detached external flashes. Along with pulse synchronization, the necessary impulse data exchange between flash and camera takes place. Unfortunately, the type of flash detachment from different producers differs in cutoff points and there is no standard in it. |