Digital Camera Basics

If you are purchasing a camera for 4 x 6 snapshots a 3-4 Megapixel is fine, but you will find as you shop for this holiday season – December 2019 – that most cameras today come with 12 Megapixels or more, so that isn’t a problem. If you like a particular brand of camera, go with it. Some features to look for are:

Battery Type
Depending on your preference you may want regular AAA batteries because they are everywhere and easy to replace or a proprietary rechargeable battery that comes with your camera. It’s really just a matter of choice.

LCD size
Generally, the larger the LCD, the better. The larger your view, the better idea you have whether the picture is good, or if you should take another.

View Finder
Most new cameras don’t have an eyepiece to view your subject, you use the viewfinder instead. If an eyepiece viewer is important to you, make sure the camera you purchase has one. Only in very bright sun is the eyepiece viewer important.

Zoom
For me, Optical Zoom, is the most important feature. When you frame a picture, you usually want a part of the scene- maybe just the face or faces – maybe the whole body and the interactions between people- maybe the people as they relate to the vast scenery. The larger your zoom, the better chance you have of capturing what you’d like to see in a picture. The average zoom sold today is 4X. So ask about Optical Zoom (not Digital Zoom)

Image Stabilization
This helps make your picture more sharp and less fuzzy. Image stabilization is more important the longer your zoom and has become a standard feature in most cameras today .

Our next post will discuss memory and memory cards...

Digital Camera Terms & Tips

Some common digital camera terms we hear and what they mean:

ISO: Traditionally used as an indicator of sensitivity for film cameras, ISO on modern digital cameras represents the camera’s sensitivity to light. Generally, the darker the scene, the higher the ISO should be set.

APERTURE: The aperture, or “f-stop” to the film purists, is the amount of light the lens lets into the camera. This can be adjusted in single-lens reflex cameras. The aperture is fixed for most point-and-shoots.

IMAGE STABILIZATION: This refers to a part of the digital camera, built into the body or the lens, that prevents “camera shake” in pictures.

DIGITAL/OPTICAL ZOOM:

• OPTICAL ZOOM refers to the manual zoom on a camera, which is located on the lens. Twisting the lens moves it closer to the subject. This is important – they higher the optical zoom the more “zoom” ability you have – 3x optical zoom was common, but today many cameras have 10x & 12x zoom..
• DIGITAL ZOOM is not used by moving the lens, rather it is part of the software of the camera. Most digital cameras – even point-and-shoots – have a form of both. Many consider digital zoom – camera hype…

CONTINUOUS PHOTO SPEED/BUFFER: Every digital camera has continuous photo speed; the number you set it on is the number of photos you can take per second. The faster the camera’s continuous speed, the more photos you can get per second.

THINKING OF BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA??

Thinking of getting a DIGITAL CAMERA for yourself or someone else…

Personally, I always recommend buying the least expensive camera that suits our needs, because this technology is changing too rapidly to invest a lot of money - unless you are buying it for WORK...

For those of us over 40, there may be some basic things to look for...

• the larger the LED display panel in the back the better
• you may want to be sure it has a view finder (many don't); those of us who are older are used to using one
• most digital cameras offer digital stabilization, but be sure it does - great feature
• at this point, it should have a minimum of 7 megapixels (7MP or higher)
• zoom - the higher the better and I'm talking about OPTICAL zoom
(don't pay attention to the digital zoom, that's hype-and not relevant)...
• many of us who travel, want the flexibility of using standard batteries, such as AA, in a pinch versus having to recharge built in or non-standard batteries if ours run low

I hope this helps -when you buy your memory card - get at least a 2gb or 4gb and be sure to purchase a memory card reader which will allow you to read your memory card from any computer without downloading the camera software...