Short Guide to Digital Cameras

Hopi Point, Grand Canyon April 2003 Canon EOS D60 EF 20mm

by Patrick Young
Created: July 11, 2003
Last Updated: July 10, 2004

This article is about looking for consumer-level digital cameras. If you are interested in higher end digital cameras, such as digital SLR's then you should skip this.

A lot of my friends come up and ask me "I'm looking for a digital camera, what do recommend?"

I have a really simple answer to that, "I don't know!" I stopped following digital cameras a long time ago. Camera manufacturers are coming up with new cameras so fast it's almost a full-time job following it. I realized this when I got my first digital camera, the Canon Powershot G1 back in March, 2000. At the time I figured that it would suit my needs for snapshots and replace my trusty Minolta Freedom Zoom 135EX I had for years. (If you're wondering, I don't like to bring big cameras on vacations because I want to have fun, I save the big boys for photo expeditions I take) Of course promptly after I bought the camera for US$800, it was shortly discontinued and replaced by the Powershot G2.

Fortunately for us, there are people who do track this stuff full-time. So if you are looking for a new digital camera, the place to go get information is Digital Photography Review. If you are looking for any sort of information on digital cameras, do yourself a favor and check out this wonderful site.

What to Look for in a Digital Camera

A digital camera isn't much different fundamentally from a regular film-based camera, except that the medium used to record the image is a digital sensor. This adds a whole bunch of interesting possibilities, but you should never forget that it is still just a camera so all the principles that apply to film cameras pretty much apply to digital cameras as well. One principle that never changes is you get what you pay for. If you don't want to spend a lot, don't expect very much.

One thing several people have asked me about--"Instead of a digital camera I can get a DV (digital video) camcorder and it can take still frame images. Wouldn't that be a better deal?" The answer is probably not. Cameras are made to take still photos and DV camcorders are made to record full motion videos. You could do it but your still images would be vastly inferior to a digital camera. DV camcorders have much lower resolution than digital cameras do and it will be noticeable. DV camcorders are also bigger than digital cameras. So if you are interested in taking home videos then the DV camcorder is for you, but personally I hate watching home movies (including my own!) so I'd rather have a camera with me and get nicer pictures.

There are several principles that apply to digital cameras exclusively, so let's take a look at them right now:

• Megapixels - This is one of those magic numbers that infer how good a digital camera is. In my mind, it's a lot like the megahertz debate--that is how much better is 1Ghz compared to 2Ghz--twice as good? Megapixels are a good measurement of how good a digital camera is, but it should not be the only thing to take into consideration. Megapixels tells you how many roughly how many pixels are used to make up an image. For example a 3.11 megapixel camera like the Canon Powershot G1 can create at maximum resolution an image that consists of approximately 3.11 million pixels.

  Fine you say, what the heck does that mean to me? Well that really depends on the output actually. Like film, the larger the original negative the better the image will be able to enlarge and retain detail. For example, if you use an APS camera, your images will look about the same as ones taken by a 35mm camera if your prints are 4" x 6" and only slightly grainier at 5" x 7". But as you continue to enlarge, the grain and difference in detail will be quite noticeable. This same principle applies to digital cameras--the more megapixels you have, the larger you can make prints. If you are only taking pictures that will only be seen on a computer screen, then a 6 megapixel camera is serious overkill. Here is a rough chart to get an idea of what I mean (film also used as a guideline):

Original	4" x 6" Print	5" x 7"	8" x 10"	11"x17"
APS	excellent	good	fair	bad
35mm	excellent	excellent	good	fair
6 x 7 (medium format)	excellent	excellent	very good	good
3 megapixels	excellent	excellent	good	fair
5 megapixels	excellent	excellent	very good	good
6 megapixels	excellent	excellent	very good	good

So when deciding on a digital camera, think about what kinds of prints you are looking for. If you only care about small prints, then having all those excess megapixels is overkill. But if you think you will make larger prints sometimes, or you just want to have that versatility then obviously a higher resolution camera would be a better choice. Higher resolution cameras are much more expensive so if you are on a tighter budget then maybe you can got for something with lower resolution.

• Memory Cards (sometimes called "Digital Film") - The camera has to save the image somewhere, so you need to get memory cards. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and different manufacturers support different types. Some common favorites are:

• Compact Flash
• Smart Media
• Memory Sticks
• SD cards

Which one you wind up using really depends on the camera you get. The best advice is to buy the largest memory card you can afford. It will make life a whole lot easier.

• Digital Zoom versus Optical Zoom - There are a lot of cameras that advertise that they have "10x digital zoom" in addition to their optical zoom. It's all advertising propaganda--ignore digital zoom. Technically all digital cameras have almost infinite digital zoom--it's called Photoshop. What a digital camera does is it interpolates the information in between various pixels beyond the optical zoom limit. Interpolation never gains detail, you can do the same exact thing with any imaging program. Only pay attention to optical zoom.

Sunflower February 2003 Canon EOS D60 EF 50mm

Now here's a list of things to look for when shopping for that digital camera:

• Zoom Lens and Aperture - A good lens can really make like easier. Look for cameras with larger lenses, these tend to be much better in image quality (if you are looking for a compact camera, just look for the biggest lens in the size of camera you are looking for). Look for lenses with very large apertures (if you don't know what aperture is, it's usually embedded on the lens with something like "f3.5"--you want to look for the smallest value possible). Large apertures (smaller f-numbers) makes the camera more versatile and also lets you take pictures in darker places more effectively. Also, don't go for the really large zoom ratios (e.g. bigger than 5x). Smaller zoom ranges have less optical compromise and you will get better images. A good range for a digital camera is to get one with a zoom equivalent to approximately 28mm to 70mm for 35mm cameras. On the Canon Powershot G-series, this is a 7-21mm zoom lens--other manufacturers may vary.

• USB or IEEE 1394 (Firewire) support - All digital cameras can connect to computers to download their contents. Try to find digital cameras that have USB 2.0 or Firewire connections. Older and cheaper cameras usually have USB 1.0 or 1.1 support, but this is really impractical for anything over 3 megapixel. If not, you can always simply buy a USB2.0 or Firewire card reader for your computer. If your computer does not support these, you can also buy an interface card, well worth the cost in time savings.

• Shutter lag - This one you can only observe if you go to the store and try out cameras. Shutter lag refers to the amount of time that it takes between when you press the button to when the camera reacts and the image is recorded. This isn't a big deal when you are doing still photography, but when you are trying to catch something in motion it can be a frustrating experience. Play with different cameras and check to make sure that the shutter lag is short, or at least tolerable.

• Memory Buffer and Memory Write Speed - The memory buffer is fast, built in memory used to temporarily store the image after it is taken. Your image will sit there until the image has been copied onto your memory card. Most digital cameras have enough of a memory buffer to store several images before completing image transfer to your memory card. It's a good idea to find out how big this buffer is and how many images it can store, this allows you to take pictures faster--without having to wait a few moments. Fast memory write speed is also a good thing, although this is much more dependent on the memory card than it is on the camera. Look for cameras with fast write speeds and a good size buffer. Look at continuous shooting frame rate in the camera specifications to get an idea of how fast the camera is.

• LCD - A digital camera's LCD should be bright enough for you see and use even in midday sun. Also a good thing to look for is the ability to turn off the LCD and use the normal viewfinder to take pictures. This is handy when you are trying to stretch your battery power.

• Color Matching - Look to see if your digital camera supports color matching. Every device that will handle your images deals with colors in its own way--your camera, your monitor, and your printer. To make sure that what you see in real life is what you see on your computer screen and is what you see when you make a print, you need color matching. Usually this means your digital camera will come with a color profile, basically a file that is installed when you set up the software for your digital camera. Sometimes the information is embedded in the images themselves (EXIF information, embedded ICC profile data). Not having a color profile means it will be much tougher to make prints that have accurate colors.

• Shutter speed - check the available shutter speed range of the camera. This doesn't mean look to see if you have shutter-priority mode! Look to see if the range is wide and the top speed is adequate. You definitely want to look for maximum shutter speeds of at least 1/500ms (or better at least 1/1000ms). Minimum shutter speeds aren't as important, but something around 1/2 sec (or better greater than 1sec)

Slides, Loupe and Light Table Canon EOS D60 EF 50mm

Flashy Features That Don't Make a Difference

The market for consumer-level digital cameras is very competitive, so manufacturers will cram each of them with just about as many features as possible, even though they aren't really useful. A digital camera is just a camera that uses an imaging sensor instead of film, that's what matters. Things to just ignore:

• Black and White modes
• Panoramic modes
• Voice note-taking, recording
• Digital movie recording
• Digital zoom (just a reminder)
• Total zoom (digital-zoom multiplier times optical-zoom multiplier)

Advanced Features

Some cameras will come with advanced features that can be very useful if you know a thing or two about photography. If you get these, that a nice bonus. These are,

• Shutter priority, Aperture priority or outright manual exposure control modes
• Bulb exposure (lets you expose as long as you hold down the shutter release button, rare)
• Exposure compensation (+/- 1/2-shots, sometimes in 1/3-stop increments)
• Spot metering (ooh, very fancy!)
• Histogram (very useful!)
• RAW image output (a true "negative" produced by your digital camera)

Researching a Digital Camera

The best place to find information online is Digital Photography Review. Look for cameras that fit your price range and that meet your requirements. Then read the reviews and be sure to look at the sample images, the color and resolution charts. Image quality can vary quite a bite between cameras, even those of the same resolution.

When you find one you like, definitely go to the store and play with it, get a feel for it and ask lots of questions.

When you do buy one, be sure to buy a memory card at the same time or soon. Although digital cameras nowadays come packaged with a memory card, they are usually too small to be of any use. Memory cards are cheap and the bigger the better.

Finally you will have your new digital camera, and you will stop harassing me with all these questions :)

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