Buying a new digital camera

Written by Nick Stubbs


I feel, after visiting so many websites and reading so much advice, and also by frequently visiting photography forums, that I have to speak on this subject.

Forrepparttar majority ofrepparttar 135489 buying public, there are 2 categories that we fall into when getting started or upgrading in digital photography,repparttar 135490 "Absolute Beginner" orrepparttar 135491 "Amateur" (or serious amateur sometimes labelled as semi pro).

Now forrepparttar 135492 beginner, or someone getting started in photography itself (not just digital),repparttar 135493 choice of cameras nowadays is quite overwhelming! Everywhere you look there are cameras, not just in camera shops likerepparttar 135494 good old days. You even get given a cheap digital camera as a gift for buying something else in some places. There are reasonably powerful digital cameras inrepparttar 135495 more expensive mobile phones now and they come in all shapes and sizes.

So where do you possibly start and how do you make that choice for buying a camera for yourself or someone else. Really it is quite simple and there are 3 criteria you should look at:

1.Quality - If you wantrepparttar 135496 camera to last at least a few years and not get bothered by a bit of bashing about, go for quality. A titanium body, not plastic, something that is fairly heavy and robust in your hands, you can feel quality!
2.Features - Do you want quality video capabilities? How big do you want to printrepparttar 135497 pictures that come fromrepparttar 135498 cameras files (how many mega pixels)? Do you want to have at least some manual features so you can get a bit creative? Or do you just want a "Point-and-shoot" digital camera?
3.Price - You will have a budget in mind of how much you want to spend. Getrepparttar 135499 best camera and memory you can for your budget, worry about extras later! Don't be cheap; if you want reasonably good quality prints, by spending too little on a very cheap camera, you will waste paper, printer ink and/or good money at your local lab. Get a good make and model of digital camera now and it will outlast a cheapie 4 or 5 times.

DO NOT be swayed by digital cameras that have "Non-Photographic" features, gadgets and gizmos. Any of these unnecessary features added means that some quality has been sacrificed elsewhere. Buy a camera to be a camera, and nothing else. I would also suggest buying one ofrepparttar 135500 top brands such as Canon, Nikon, Konica-Minolta, Olympus etc., they may cost a little more, butrepparttar 135501 difference in quality is worth it. They all make cheaper end cameras too.

Look for decent features such as a good optical zoom, NOT digital zoom. Digital zoom is an unnecessary marketing tool; it isrepparttar 135502 same as zooming in onrepparttar 135503 photo once you get it onto your PC. 10-20X digital zoom is acceptable but I have seen video cameras with 1000X digital zoom, have you ever tried holdingrepparttar 135504 camera steady at these kind of magnifications, even with a tripod?!!

Basically, write down exactly what you want and need fromrepparttar 135505 camera, go to a reputable dealer and buy a good branded camera that has what you need for your requirements and budget, don't be swayed byrepparttar 135506 salesperson into buying more than you need.

Now,repparttar 135507 Amateur or Semi Pro. When you start to look at Semi professional Digital SLR's or Advanced digital compact cameras,repparttar 135508 choice is a little less but no less confusing. The same advice goes here as inrepparttar 135509 previous section, think about what you needrepparttar 135510 camera for, how you think you may progress in this hobby and your budget.

The "prosumer" advanced digital compact cameras available today are steadily encroaching onrepparttar 135511 quality ofrepparttar 135512 DSLR, although in my opinion, they will never catch them. The optical zooms are fantastic,repparttar 135513 sensors, albeit smaller thanrepparttar 135514 DSLR are powerful and produce stunning images, and some even have "built-in" image stabilisers…Great!

Is your digital camera compatible with your computer?

Written by Doug Rogers


So you recently bought a digital camera or perhaps your thinking about it. And perhaps you may be wondering how many pictures will your computer hold? First you need to answer a few questions to come to an accurate conclusion. First, how big is your hard drive and how much free space does it currently have? You can findrepparttar answer to that question by first left-clicking on "My Computer:" Right-click on "C drive." A menu should appear. Left-click on "Properties." A pie chart should be displayed that will show yourepparttar 135177 size ofrepparttar 135178 hard drive and how much ofrepparttar 135179 disk drive is free. Your next step is too know how many mega pixels does your camera have? A pixel is a light sensing cell onrepparttar 135180 image pickup device. The higher number of pixels,repparttar 135181 higherrepparttar 135182 resolution or picture quality ofrepparttar 135183 camera. A higher pixel number will also require more storage space in your camera and computer for a picture. How much storage does each picture need? If you have a 2M pixel camera, a high resolution picture will require storage inrepparttar 135184 range of 500kb. Two 500 kb pictures would occupy 1 MB. If that one picture requires 500kB of storage, you should be able to store 2000 pictures of that size in 1 gigabyte of disk space. I usually store my pictures in one folder in my computer called “Camera Pics” and then create sub-folders within that folder with different names depending onrepparttar 135185 occasionrepparttar 135186 pictures were taken at for easy reference later on. Most camera manufacturers will provide software to allow you to transfer and edit pictures from your camera. But some of that software is notrepparttar 135187 easiest to install and operate. There are a few ways to dorepparttar 135188 transfer withoutrepparttar 135189 camera software. If your camera has a memory card, you can buy a memory card reader and use it to readrepparttar 135190 pictures from your camera. The memory card reader plugs into a free USB connector on your

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