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Digital Cameras

Digital cameras have come of age. Their quality has improved so dramatically since their introduction, and their feature sets are so impressive, there no longer seems to be a good reason to keep a film camera in the stockroom.

Companies in all walks of life, from retail to real estate, and Fortune 500, are finding uses for digital cameras, due in no small part to the e-commerce explosion. In a matter of minutes you can record an image, transfer it to your PC and post it on your Web site. The hardest part is choosing the camera that best suits your needs-for a price that won't bust your budget.

Before you start shopping, get the lowdown on the features and specs you'll hear them talk about:

Megapixel. 

Overview:
A pixel is a little square that makes up the image on your computer screen. A 17" computer monitor has a resolution of 1280 pixels wide by 1024 pixels tall. A digital camera's CCD can only capture so many of these pixels, which are then stored in memory, and later transferred to your computer. 

A resolution of 1280x1024 (like the monitor), is a little over 1,300,000 pixels (1.3 megapixels). To find out the total pixels you multiply width by height. The word "mega" is taken from the Greek word meaning "great", and usually means "one million." Hence, a camera with 1,000,000 pixels is a 1 Megapixel camera.

Megapixel. This is the word you'll hear most often. Contrary to what you may think, vendors use it to refer not to the maximum resolution of the image, but to the number of pixels on the sensor or charge-coupled device (CCD). This electronic chip collects the data that's stored in each image. However, the resolution of each image may not be the same as the CCD resolution. Let's say you're looking at a 2.11-megapixel camera with a maximum optical resolution of 1600x1200. If you do the math, you'll see 1600x1200 equals 1.92 million, so your final result will not be a 2.11-megapixel image. The extra pixels on the CCD are used for image management and data processing. Make sure you check out both numbers before you make a decision.

Today, most quality cameras have optical resolutions above 1 megapixel. When you get above 2 megapixels of optical resolution you'd be hard pressed to differentiate these images from film-based photos. Many vendors say 2-megapixel cameras will soon become the de facto standard.

Compression ratio:
 All JPEG files are compressed, but different cameras rely on different levels of compression to fit more images on a card; the higher the compression, the lower the image quality. So, even if a camera's top resolution is 1600x1200, if it compressed that image at a 1:24 ratio, quality would suffer. 

Removable media:
Most cameras ship with either a SmartMedia or CompactFlash card. Sony uses their proprietary Memory Stick priced about the same as the CompactFlash but are used only in Sony devices. The number of images a card holds depends, of course, on its capacity (measured in megabytes). But it also depends on the resolution and the compression ratio of the images you store. For example, the Nikon can squeeze as many as 128 VGA (640x480) images compressed at a 1:16 ratio on an 8MB card, or as little as one uncompressed image at 1600x1200.

SmartMedia cards are thinner than CompactFlash, but they offer lower capacities. An 8MB SmartMedia card costs around $24, compared with $49 for the equivalent CompactFlash card. Larger capacity cards are available and can be purchased at Naples Technology, Inc. 

Card Readers: 
These cards end the wait time associated with downloading images. Although most cameras allow direct connection from your camera to your PC via serial cable, you can also use a Card Reader. A small external device which remains connected to the computer (usually though a USB port) and acts as a transfer station for your photos. You take your pictures on the camera, and when you get back to your PC you simply remove the card from the camera, insert it into the Card Reader and access your pictures from your Windows Explorer. The Card Readers will be set up giving you another drive letter. For example on your computer would have the A drive (floppy), the C drive (hard drive), the D drive (CD Rom), and a new E drive (Card Reader)

Using a Card Adapter/Reader is fairly easy. First you must make sure the the reader you buy is the same media as what your camera uses e.g., Smartmedia or CompactFlash. Installing is usually just a matter of installing the driver for the device and restarting your computer. For parallel or serial versions you will plug in the device first , then install the drivers for it and restart. For a USB version, it is the other way around. As with most USB devices you install the software FIRST the then plug in the device. 

Note: Your computer must have USB enabled as most newer models do. If the USB is not detected when you plug it in...it is probably not installed, give us a call we can help you with that..

An alternative for SmartMedia and Memory Stick users is the FlashPath Adapter. Just pop your SmartMedia card or Memory Stick into the FlashPath adapter and insert the adapter into your floppy drive!  A special floppy disk which can then be placed in a regular floppy drive in your computer for very easy transferring of pictures to hard disk.

Lens quality:
No doubt you've heard the expression "garbage in, garbage out." If you take a picture using a camera with a plastic lens, garbage is what you'll get. Whichever camera you buy, make sure it has a glass lens. Another feature to look for in a lens is aspherical glass, which produces a sharper, clearer image with better contrast by focusing light rays entering the edges of the lens at the same plane as the center rays.

Optical zoom vs. digital zoom:
Optical is better because the glass itself performs the magnification. A digital zoom uses only a portion of the sensor, then multiplies the number upward through interpolation to obtain more data. The portion of the pixels it uses is inversely proportionate to the magnification of the zoom. So a 3x zoom would use fewer pixels than a 2x zoom. The result is pixelation, or ladderstepping, and softer focus.

LCD vs. optical viewfinders:
If you're shooting outdoors, an optical viewfinder is much better but not necessary. On all the cameras we tested, including those with features that use sunlight to illuminate their LCDs, the screens were virtually useless in bright sun. LCD screens are useful for reviewing images, though. They tell you instantly if you got the shot you need, or if you need to reshoot it. They also let you review images, so you can ditch the ones you don't need to conserve storage space.

White balance:
If you've ever taken a photograph under fluorescent lights without a flash, you probably noticed how green the image looked. By adjusting a camera's white balance settings you'll get whites that are white, whether the image was taken under orange-hued incandescent or green-hued fluorescents.

Burst mode:
Speed is one of the things we take for granted with film cameras. Digital cameras take a while to boot up, a while to shoot a picture and a while to process that information before they're ready to take the next shot. The higher the resolution, the more information they have to process; the more information they have to process, the longer it takes to get ready for the next shot. If you're taking action or candid shots, you'll want a camera with a burst mode. This enables continuous shooting while you hold the shutter down. 

Battery life:
Digital cameras suck the life out of ordinary alkaline batteries almost before you can say, "I think my batteries are running low," thanks in large part to their LCD screens. Most cameras ship with rechargeable batteries, and some even throw in a charger. It's a good idea to keep an extra set or two of charged batteries on hand, and a must if your camera takes the kind of battery you won't find in your local convenience store.

Image quality:
If your images are solely for the Web, a lower-resolution camera is adequate. But if quality is your primary concern, choose a higher quality camera. You can use it with confidence for everything from corporate brochures to company Web sites. It may be a little more comlicated to use, but the superior image quality will get you past the learning curve. 

Understanding image size and image quality settings on your camera is very important. The settings are specific depending on your use for the pictures. If your photos are taken for online use (emailing, websites etc) you may choose one combination of settings. If your primary use for the pictures is for printing purposes (portraits, flyers, newsletters etc) the settings will be very different. 

Below is a typical chart cross referencing image quality, image size to help you determine which settings are right for your situation. Note that these particular settings are from a Nikon digital camera. These settings will vary slightly between  cameras but most will have a similar layout in the instruction manual. 

Image settings, again will vary between cameras but this will give you an idea:

The picture size is usually adjustable too. The picture size is measured in pixels, so you need to pay attention to how many pixels wide and high the pictures you take are. Generally, a computer screen is 800 to 1200 pixels wide, with 800 being the most common setting. If you are e-mailing someone a picture that they are going to look at on their screen, then there is no reason to send them a picture bigger than their screen. Many cameras take pictures at 640 x 480 pixels, which is a good size for viewing on a screen. For comparison, the largest photos we use at How Stuff Works are about 400 x 300 pixels.

Print Size For printing, the general rule is that you want 150 to 200 pixels per inch of print size. Resolutions vs print size:

File Size In general, if you are e-mailing the pictures to friends who will view them on a computer screen, you will want to send them pictures in the jpeg format at 640 x 480 pixels. If you are printing the pictures, you need about 150 pixels per inch of print size. To give you an idea of file size which is important if you are emailing pictures, see the chart below:

Image capacity:
Probably the number-one quality for field photographers is image capacity. Digital film, while reusable, still isn't as cheap as photographic film, and you may not want to haul a laptop for storage. If image capacity is important to you, look for a camera with at least 8MB of capacity and upgradeable to 64MB + via CompactFlash card or SmartMedia cards.

Also read about NetMeeting to learn how to use your camera for video conferencing over the Internet!

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