As the price drops, and features increase, the popularity of digital photography is growing. According to CNET, in the first half of this year, US sales of digital cameras are up 50% over the same period in 2001.
Digital photography does away with the need for film by capturing the image as a series of bits, zeros and ones, on some form of memory in the camera. Here’s the real plus, as far as I am concerned, you don’t have to wait for the film to be processed to see the results. After the photo is taken, you can view it on a small screen built into the camera, and decide, then and there, to erase and take another, or to keep the photo you have. When you get home you are able to transfer the photographs to your computer. The photos can then be uploaded to your web site, or emailed, to share with family and friends, and/or burnt to CD to keep for posterity. You can even select some for printing, either on your own printer, or at one of the growing number of photo shops that provide a printing service.
Not only can you take still pictures using this technology, but you can also make movies using digital video cameras. Vodofone’s PXT, and Telecom’s Photo Messaging, are the latest innovations using a camera embedded, or attached to your mobile phone, to take a still digital picture, which you can then email to someone.
Like most acquisitions, you should decide exactly what you want to achieve with a digital camera before completing your purchase. Do you want to create a photo web page, burn CDs, or just print the photos? There are, of course, enumerable websites that can help you with your decision.
Photo.net provides a short guide to choosing a digital camera. This article was written some time ago, but is still relevant despite the technological advances made with these cameras. You can read a guide on choosing digital cameras from Shortcourses.com and they also provide anther on digital video cameras.
Once you have mastered the jargon and technology, you then have to decide which make of camera is for you. Once again the web provides a wonderful starting point for your research.
pcphotoreview.com has information and reviews on a wide range of digital cameras. Steve’s Digicams provides comprehensive reviews of cameras. Digital Photo Review is a large glossy site with reviews to match.
Most professional photographers will steer well away from digital cameras because they are not yet able to render a picture with the same quality available from film. A digital camera’s ability to take clear crisp images is measured in pixels. These days high-end digital cameras can be purchased that are able to take pictures in the 6 megapixel range. Apparently 16 megapixels are required to achieve 35mm film quality.
Using my 2.3 megapixel camera set at low quality, and standard resolution, I obtain pictures of good enough quality to upload to the web, or burn to CD. I am able to store 196 images, at that quality, on the camera’s 16MB memory card. That’s plenty for the holiday snaps isn’t it?
