Purchasing a new digital camera can be a very overwhelming experience. Technology is continually changing and there seems to be upgraded cameras available every month!

With these changes you can still ensure that you purchase the right camera for your needs by understanding the technology. You will not be able to understand all of it, however you can gain the knowledge to make the right decisions. This article will cover the features of digital cameras that are most important for you to understand.

First of all you need to understand the similarities of standard film and digital cameras. In short, a camera is a light airtight box that allows exposure of a light-sensitive material through the use of a shutter and an aperture. This definition does not change from film to digital cameras, nor does the process.

Both film and digital cameras have lenses, which allows you to focus the image and control how the photograph will look (wide or telephoto). The lens is also one of the most important factors in determining overall quality of the image. The better your lens quality, the sharper and more clear your image will appear. Regardless if you are using film or digital photography – poor lenses = poor image quality.

Both types of cameras use Shutters to control the duration of the exposure. Both film and digital cameras need an Aperture to control how much light hits the sensor during the period that the shutter is open. Very large apertures (2.8 or 4) will let in a lot of light, while small apertures (16 or 22) will let in very little light.

Whatever type of camera you may use, Focusing will always be a necessary step in creating sharp photographs. Manual and auto focusing can be found on both types of cameras.

Film Advance, Lag and Response Time The digital sensor records light much like film cameras do. The difference is that when light strikes film it is "exposed" and the camera must advance the film to the next frame in order to allow the user to take another photograph. With digital photography, the image that was captured during exposure is passed on to the processor and the sensor is then freed up to record another image. Advance Time is the amount of time it takes for the sensor to release its information and be ready to record again. The speed of the digital camera is also influenced by how many images it can store in its memory before the camera needs a time out to process them. A typical statistic you might find could be "23 full-res(resolution) JPEGs or 6 RAW images at 5 fps"(Canon 20D). In common language this means the camera will shoot 5 images per second until the memory fills up. The memory will become full at 6 exposures if you are shooting RAW and 23 if you are shooting the highest quality JPEG.

In the beginning, when digital cameras first became popular, something called Lag Time was a major issue. The "lag" in between the time you clicked the shutter button and the time the shutter opened was very obvious. With the recent advances in technology there has been a significant reduction in lag time. Even the most budget friendly cameras have a very quick turn around time in between shots or during a series of quick exposures. If your photography requires fast shooting and many frames per second (i.e. sports photography), it would be a smart idea to research the frames per second and lag time statistics prior to purchasing.

ISO The ability to change ISOs at any time is one of the many benefits of digital cameras. ISO refers to the sensitivity of the sensor in a digital camera and film in traditional cameras. The higher the ISO setting the less light is needed to strike the film. With traditional film cameras, if you wanted to get a faster shutter speed due to low light or fast action, you needed to change to a higher ISO film. At best this could be wasteful or inconvenient . The nice thing about digital cameras is that you can change the ISO as you go. With digital cameras it is possible to be photographing outside in bright sunlight with a low ISO (for better color and image quality) and then walk indoors, you can easilty change the ISO and continue shooting.

ISO One of the many benefits of digital cameras is the ability to change ISOs at any time. ISO refers to the sensitivity of the sensor in a digital camera and film in traditional cameras. The higher the ISO the less light you need to strike the film. With traditional cameras, if you needed to get a faster shutter speed because of low light or fast action, you needed to change to a higher ISO film. This could be wasteful or inconvenient at best. With digital cameras you can change the ISO on the fly. Now it is possible to be photographing outside in bright sunlight with a low ISO (for better color and image quality) and then walk indoors, change the ISO and continue shooting.

Resolution Resolution is arguably the least understood and most talked about feature of digital cameras. The more resolution the better is what the general consensus is. However this isn’t always the case, more resolution doesn’t always mean better photographs.

Resolution Probably the least understood and most talked about feature of digital cameras. The more the better, right? Well, most of the time. More resolution doesn’t always mean better photographs.

These days almost all digital cameras have very high resolutions. Even the less expensive cameras all come with resolutions sufficient enough to make good 8×10-11×14 prints. So what is the big attraction to higher resolutions? Mostly, it is a selling point for the manufacturers! More resolution is good but what is even better, however, is a larger sensor size. The bigger the better. This is a much better measure of the camera’s final image quality. In film cameras, a 35mm is better than an APS camera because the size of the image on the film is bigger. No different with digital cameras.

Remember, it is common to see cameras that are equal in resolution but have different size sensors. In this case I would go for the larger sensor. So how do you know how much resolution you do need? Simple really. Just ask yourself how large of a print do you want to make. The 3 and 4 Megapixel cameras are plenty sufficient for everything up to 8×10. If you want to make larger prints you can move up to the 5 and 6 Megapixel cameras.

The human eye is an amazing thing. What is even more amazing is that it is excellent at ignoring color casts. When we are indoors under typical house lighting the color is quite orange/yellow while office lighting (fluorescent) is very green. Our eyes are able to ignore this, but film and digital cameras faithfully record all color nuances. When using film photography it is often necessary to put filters on your camera or to purchase film that is balanced for the particular lighting (color) that you are using. With digital photography we can easily change the white balance. All digital cameras come with a good variety of choices for correcting typical lighting situations with white balance. They also generally include an auto setting as well which is useful if you do not know what kind of light you are working under. Typically the more expensive cameras will also include the ability to custom balance to any color light!

The human eye is excellent at ignoring color casts. When we are indoors under typical house lighting the color is quite orange/yellow, office lighting (fluorescent) is very green. Our eyes are able to ignore this, but film and digital cameras do not. They record faithfully. When using film it is necessary to put filters on your camera or to buy film that is balanced for the particular lighting (color) that you are using. With digital we can simply change our white balance. All digital cameras come with a fine selection of white balance options for correcting typical lighting situations. They all will include an auto setting as well. This is useful if you do not know what kind of light you are working under. The more expensive models will come with the ability to custom balance to any color light!

Choose a digital camera that is right for you Understanding how the sensor works allows us to make informed decisions regarding resolution and camera speed. White balance is a fairly uniform feature across the entire line of cameras (with the exception of the high end models), negating any serious consideration in this arena. Given what we have covered I am sure you are wondering what other features exist that may influence your camera purchase?

Choose a digital camera that is right for you Understanding how the sensor works allows us to make some intelligent decisions surrounding resolution and camera speed. White balance is a fairly uniform feature across the entire line of cameras, negating any serious consideration in this arena. So what other features exist that may influence your camera purchase?

Lenses Along with the sensor and processor, lenses play a major part in creating high image quality. Luckily we are at a place in time where most lenses are of a very high quality. So speed and length are the qualities that you should look at. Speed refers to the fastest -stop of the lens. 2.8 is faster than 3.5, which is faster than 4. A faster lens will allow you to shoot in lower light conditions without raising your ISO. It will also allow you to achieve a shallow depth of field, which will result in a blurred back or foreground. Buying a new digital camera

The next item you need to consider is focal length. Do you prefer to photograph with wide-angle lenses? Long telephoto lenses? Do you enjoy shooting up close with macro lenses? Film and digital cameras both come with all of the same lens options. It is simply a matter of choosing the camera with the qualities that you want. Doing some research through reading magazines or surfing on to the web and visiting sites such as dpreview.com will allow you to easily find the specifications that describe all of the options.

When it comes to focal length it is important to remember that two sets of specifications are generally given. The first is usually the actual focal length of the lens. For example, 7mm-28mm. This would be an extreme wide angle on a film camera. The digital camera however, has a smaller sensor area then the film camera which makes the 7mm lens look more like a 35mm lens. So the second set of numbers on this lens would be 35mm-136mm. This is generally called the 35mm equivalent. When looking for a digital camera these are the numbers you should pay attention to when checking for focal range as they will be more familiar to you.

Many amateur digital cameras do not provide a wide spectrum of wide angle lens choices. Most will commonly go down to 35mm or even 28mm but rarely can you find a 24mm or wider due to the difficulties in building such a small focal length lenses. So if you enjoy wide angle photography you many want to think about moving up to a digital SLR.

When it comes to long telephoto lenses, however, the digital cameras have a big advantage! Their smaller sensor size turns even moderate telephotos into very long lenses. For example a real 57mm focal length behaves like a 370mm! This is a real boon to folks who like to shoot "long". Beware however of cameras which claim their longest focal length as Digital Zoom. Digital Zoom should always be avoided. We are concerned only with real or actual focal lengths.

The last lens specification to consider prior to purchasing is the focusing distance. If you like, or need, to shoot macro, look for a lens that has the ability to focus very close. They will usually be signified by a "macro mode" or be called "close focusing".

Shooting your digital camera in the field Taking photographs should be the fun part. It is important to not let all of the bells and whistles confuse you when you are out in the field. I agree that there are many choices and they can be a bit overwhelming. Here are three of the most important things you should always check before you start photographing.

ISO- Keep it set to a low (100 or 50) if you are outdoors or in areas where you have plenty of light. Raise your ISO only when you need to keep from getting camera shake. Most digital cameras provide great images all the way up to 400 ISO. If you need to go higher than 400 ISO, you may run the risk of introducing a noticeable amount of noise to your photos. Experiment with your digital camera to determine which ISO produces unacceptable noise levels.

Jpeg vs. Raw- This choice is an easy one. If you want to work on every image in your computer, shoot RAW. This format is much more flexible and allows you to correct for errors in exposure and color cast without degrading your image quality. If you do not have the time or desire to work on every image, then shoot in the highest quality Jpeg mode. This mode will use a minimum amount of image compression which will provide extremely high quality pictures.

Image Size- Many cameras automatically come with multiple resolution choices. The options may look like this: 2304×1728, 1600×1200, 1280×960, 640×480. Basically, always choose the highest resolution. In this case that would be 2304×1728. This setting will supply you with the highest quality images possible.

Digital Camera Accessories To say that there are a lot of accessories for the digital camera would be an extreme understatement! It can boggle the mind with all of the different options, cases, cards and storage units. There are however, only a very few accessories that are absolute necessities.

Compact Flash-The first is the type of storage that your camera uses. Personally I prefer cameras the use Compact Flash storage option. This medium seems to be the best all around Flash Card. These cards are sturdy, durable, and not too small to lose or to big to be bulky. It also comes in very large capacities-up to 8 gigabytes! I recommend you have a least two cards on the off chance one becomes damaged or lost. The total amount of storage available to you will be determined on how much you want to spend on your cards (cameras rarely ship with a card that is adequate for most photographic purposes). Having two 512Mb cards seems to be adequate for most shooting situations, unless you are very trigger happy. Having 4 of these cards or two 1 GB cards will ensure that you will never be without storage.

Portable Storage-If you have an ample amount of Flash Card storage, you will not need a portable storage unit. This is however contingent on downloading your cards on a daily basis. If you are in a situation where you will not have access to your computer for long periods of time you may want to consider a portable storage unit. The most basic form of storage is one that allows you to plug your card into the unit, and download your images. You can then put the card back into your camera, reformat it, and continue shooting. When you get home you simply attach the storage unit to your computer and transfer the images. Most of these units come with enough storage space for many days of shooting. I would consider a unit with at least 10Gb of storage.

Storage and transfer are the most basic function which all of the models will perform. From here they can get really fancy. There are units that will automatically burn Cds from your cards, which produces an immediate archive of your images. Others come with an Lcd screen that allows you to view your images right on the storage device. Advanced features will even enable you to organize your images into folders and albums. Think about the length of time you will be away from your computer before purchasing one of these storage units. You may not need one.

Extra Batteries / Charger Digital cameras use batteries at an alarming rate. You will definitely need to have back up batteries. Because you will be using so many, rechargeable batteries are the intelligent choice. Most digital cameras come with a proprietary battery with a charger. This is a good thing as it allows a stronger battery. If this is your situation, purchase extra batteries when you buy your camera. If your camera is powered by common AA batteries, you would be wise to buy a couple sets of rechargeable batteries.

Bulb blower- this is a must if you are considering purchasing an interchangeable lens SLR. Often when you change the lens on these cameras dust is introduced into the camera body. Ultimately the dust will migrate to your sensor and manifest itself as small blurry splotches on your final image. A few seconds with the blower bulb will save you hours on the computer cleaning up your photographs!

By: DanFeildman

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