The Mac Experience in Business & Home: Help, Tips, Discussion & Radio Show Notes

With such a wide selection of digital cameras to choose from, it can be confusing when you’re ready to plunge into a purchase. Depending on your specific needs and previous experience using digital cameras, you may not need the latest, greatest model. Here are 3 tips to consider when choosing a digital camera that fits your needs.

1. Megapixel value is not as important as the camera companies want you to believe. As discussed in Ken Rockwell’s excellent article “The Megapixel Myth “, megapixels play a small factor in overall performance. Nearly all current digital cameras have enough megapixel value to produce decent prints. Instead, you’ll be better off thinking about factors such as lens performance (contrast, not sharpness) and preset color balance for the types of photos you enjoy taking.

2. Choose a camera that fits you. Probably the most important factor to consider when buying a digital camera is whether or not you will use it. Consider the layout of the body design - does it have easy to remember knobs such as a fully automatic mode or flash on/off switch? Or do you control settings via a LCD panel? Picking a camera that’s easy to use is half the battle in taking great photos.

3. Zoom. Does the camera have more optical zoom or digital zoom? Camera lenses with optical zoom increase the lens focal length mechanically. Cameras with large optical zoom are not necessarily better. The more zoom, the more light your camera needs to record an image, thus increasing the likelihood of blurry photos. Stay within a 3x optical zoom range for better picture quality.

Digital zoom hurts image quality, so it should not be a deciding factor in choosing a camera. Digital zoom operates either by increasing the size of the pixels in digital images, or by interpolating them so that an image appears closer. It may bring you closer to your subject, but your image quality may show distortion. Most cameras have an on/off feature for digital zoom.

By considering these factors in your digital camera purchase, you’re well on your way to taking great photos and making great prints - whether printed from your Mac at home or by a professional lab.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 4th, 2006 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.