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January 27, 2004

I don’t have to tell you how popular digital cameras are these days. They are everywhere. Everyone and their brother seems to have one. In fact, for the first time more digicams will be sold this year than film cameras. More are being sold for good reason. They have now become a mature technology and that means they are getting better and cheaper at the same time. The sheer number of models available on the market can be overwhelming, so I’m going to make this simple for you.

First off, if you’ve never bought a digicam before, here’s what you can expect:
· Higher initial costs compared to a film camera, but potentially lower costs in the long run
· Shutter lag – Unless you buy a very high-end camera, you will experience a slight delay between pushing the shutter button and the taking of the picture. This has gotten much better on the more recent models.
· The ability to shoot away without worry: You can always delete a picture and memory cards have gotten huge and very affordable.
· Pictures at film quality: Digicam technology has matured to the point that even low-end models take excellent pictures.

Mega-marketing of megapixels

Of course, the first thing mentioned about a digicam is how many megapixels it has. While this is a highly marketed spec, its importance is greatly exaggerated. Here’s the lowdown on megapixels:
· A pixel is a single point in a graphic image. In theory, the more pixels a digital image contains, the better it will look. One megapixel is equal to one million pixels.
· Pixels in an image are measured horizontally and vertically and this makes up the resolution. For example, an image that measures 1280 pixels by 1024 pixels has a resolution of 1280 x 1024. Multiplying 1280 by 1024 gives you 1,310,720 pixels or 1.3 megapixels.
· In simplest terms, the resolution of a digital picture means its size. So, more megapixels means you can make larger prints. A 2-megapixel camera can produce good 8 x 10 prints, a 3-megapixel will produce quality 11 x 14 prints, and so on.

This brings me to my megapoint about megapixels: unless you plan on blowing up your pictures to fit on the side of a bus, anything over 3 megapixels is overkill. How many times have you blown up your film pictures to something bigger than the average 4 x 6 or even a 5 x 7? That’s what I thought. So why would you need a camera that produces poster-size images? High megapixel cameras do take and print beautiful pictures, but they are not noticeably better than pictures from quality 2- or 3-megapixel cameras except to the most discerning eye. The one nice advantage to a high-megapixel camera is that you can crop small areas of the photo and still maintain acceptable print quality. I personally like to take my pictures so I don’t have to take the time cropping them on my computer. Plus, smaller areas of the image may be out of focus or in bad light because the camera focuses on the main subject.

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