Sunday 18 October 2009

Buying A Camera And Understanding Zoom

By Andrew Kelly

At one time photography was a hobby limited to those with bottomless pockets and a keen understanding of the mathematics of light, focal distances and other confusing terms and phrases. Pioneers such as George Eastman (of Kodak fame) introduced many inventions that brought photography to the masses bringing down the costs and simplifying the processes. With the appearance of the instant camera we saw the removal of the need to wait for long periods of time before we saw the results of our snaps. Today the film camera has been replaced by the digital camera and it is no longer necessary to even print our photo's but have these advances made photography easier to understand?

As soon as you look to buying a digital camera you begin to realize how difficult it can be to make a decision. There are more companies producing cameras now than there has ever been. Well known manufacturers such as Canon and Nikon are still around but the infinite number of smaller companies appearing all the time just make the matter worse. These small firms often release fantastic bargains but it is often very difficult to understand if the digital camera deal before you is actually a bargain or not.

When buying a digital camera there are a few things to get to grips with. Most people are aware of the word megapixel but do you understand interpolation? These two words are incredibly important as two ten megapixel cameras are not equal if one interpolates the image. Interpolation is a digital way in which to increase the size of an image so a 5 mp camera can interpolate the image up to the equivalent of a 10mp one.

Zoom is another term which can be confusing but gaining an understanding of the two types, digital and optical, will help you find a digital camera bargain.

You will often see an impressive figure for digital zoom quoted on digital camera packaging but in actual fact you would be better off ignoring it. The reason for this is that digital zoom takes your photo and cuts it down in size (to the area you have zoomed into) and then simply enlarges this part. Of course the more you zoom in the more the photo degrades.

On the other hand, optical zoom, is something of importance. Optical zoom does not have an effect on the quality of your photo. Therefore you can zoom in and your image will still be as good quality as before. The greater the optical zoom the better the camera. However not all optical zoom is equal as the quality of the lens can vary between cameras.

The quality of the lens is one of the most important factors to consider when buying a digital cameral. Those tiny cameras for a $100 are not going to produce photo's of the same quality of those taken with a camera where the lens alone can cost several thousand dollars. Generally the higher the price of the lens the better the quality of the resulting image.

What will you be using your camera for? This is important because if most of your photos will be of friends and general snaps you will not need to spend a small fortune on a DSLR camera with a large mm lens with a large optical zoom. In such cases a compact digital camera would be the best buy.

The world of the DSLR camera is huge, far too complicated to cover here in one article. Many people are buying them for home use now but they are usually only used by professional photographers.

Personally I use a professional Canon DSLR and a superb Canon PowerShot A480 for quick snaps. I think the A480 is fantastic for the price and suitable for all manner of photography. It only has a 3.3x optical zoom but this is ok for most situations. When comparing cameras look at the specifications carefully and always read reviews before making your final decision.

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