I have a few questions about digital cameras and understanding which are good ones...?

Question

What does the megapixels actually do for the camera? What is the difference between digital and optical zoom? and what would u suggest the camera have and why?

thanx, 10 points to the most detailed answer

Answer 1

First mega pixel is resolution. That mean how many pixels are used to compose the image. For example 1280x1024 = 1.31 MP. That's how detail the photo is. How much you will need depends on how big you want to print your photographs. Typically a 3MP picture can be printed up to 8"x10". Optical zoom is like regular zoom lens. If magnify the image optically so there is no lost. Digital zoom will let you zoom into an image but in return you lose resolution. For example, if you carmera is 6MP, you zoom in 100%, and now you can only take the picture at 3MP.

The important things in select a digital camera are:
1) focus system. Especially indoor, some cheap cameras do not focus well in dim area and you will resulted in fuzzy pictures.
2) aperture. In general, the large the lens the more light can enter the sensor. We call that aperture size. A larger aperture size will also allow you to take better picture in a low light situation.
3) resolution. The more resolution, you have more flexibility if you want to crop out only certain area of the photograph to use.
4) ergonomics. Hold it in your hand to see if you like the feel of it. you must be able to hold the camera steady or your pictures will not be sharp.
5) functions/features. Some functions are very useful, such as aperture priority, shutter priority, exposure lock, focus lock, and macro photography.
6) max aperture and max shutter speed. I have seen some cheaper camera that can only go down to F3.5. I would prefer to have one go down to F2.8 or F2.0 so you can do camera tricks with depth of field. Also I have seen some with max shutter speed of 1/400 sec. That is hardly enough for sport photos.
7) Video capability. It is very handy if it can take full size video too. I would prefer to have video size at least 320x240. That is minimum requirement for full screen video.
8) price. A lot of decent pocket size cameras are very inexpensive today. So make sure you don't over spend. A $300 should be very good already.

Just remember, the most expensive part of the camera isn't the electronics, but it is the glass (i.e., the lens). So do pay attention to that. What size, and who makes the lens are important too.

Answer 2

Megapixels is a measure of how much memory is used to store each picture. The larger the megapixels, the sharper the image will be when you print it or display it. Of course, that means that the file you download to the computer will be larger, too. But if you crop a small section of this picture, you can enlarge it more if you want and still have it stay fairly clear.

Optical zoom is the same on digital and the old film cameras. Lenses move back and forth to zoom in. Digital zoom means the software on the camera takes a smaller section of the picture in memory and enlarges it inside the camera memory. You will still get a fairly sharp, clear picture, but you can't enlarge it as much as you could one taken with just optical zoom. That's because when it enlarges it, it takes each pixel and enlarges it to 4 pixels in a square, or 9 pixels, etc. Suddenly the enlarged pixels start to look blocky and fuzzy.

Which camera you get depends on what you want to use it for, and how much you want to spend. I have a Kodak EasyShare that has 3.1 megapixels, with 3x optical zoom and 10x digital. It was about $140 2 years ago. Now that much buys even more camera. It's fine for snapshots and vacation pictures. It will even get great pictures for most anything you'll want to use on the web. But it takes several seconds after I snap the picture to store it into memory. It's not good if you want to take several quick shots in succession. That's one thing that the more expensive cameras do better.

The one other thing I would look for would be how easy is it to transfer pictures to a computer. Do you need special software to transfer them? Do you get any editting software to modify the picture? You can also download free software to do some special effects. IrfanView and Picasa are two that I've used that I like.

Answer 3

If you have a Digital or any SLR camera that accepts interchangeable or different focal length lenses you can usually get a standard lens (approximates what our eyes see), telephoto ( for close ups) or wide angle (gets more in picture) or macro (extreme close up).It will cost a lot to buy all four though. A zoom lens is a variable focal length lens which can be all four lenses in one and many have a built in macro. For example if you could buy a 28- 300 mm lens, the 28 would give you a wide angle shot and the 300 a telephoto shot with standard and many other choices in between. One zoom is lot cheaper than all 4 other lenses but some would argue that the picture quality is better with the separate lenses. Unless your a prize winning professional photographer you probably would not notice a difference. The other numbers might mean: 16mm- diameter of a point & shoot lens/ f2- lens maximum aperture opening. 8D might mean 8x digital zoom magnification. OPTICAL zoom on a digital camera will give you better quality than digital. Buy as much OPTICAL zoom as you can afford.

Answer 4

Basically, the more megapixels (MP) a camera has...the larger the photo you can print from it.
But not all cameras produce great photos and prints just because they have high megapixels. It also depends on the quality of the lens (optics) and the sensor & processor used in the camera.
These days, a good starting size for a digital camera would be 6MP. That is plenty for most people. However, you will notice some brands are now using 8-10MP.
With zoom...Optical zoom is the most important...never ever consider digital zoom because the photo quality will be quite poor.
There are several good brands to choose from, however, being a longtime Canon user, I can easily recommend them. Canon is well known for the quality of their optics.

Here are my pick of some of the best Canon cameras available.
If you want Pocket-sized, then look at either one of the Canon SD models...
SD630, 6MP, 3X optical (won a European award for 'Best Ultra Compact')
SD700 IS, 6MP, 4X optical, image stabilizer.
or the slightly larger...
A630, 8MP, 4X optical
A640, 10MP, 4X optical
All the above cameras take very good 'movies' also.

Answer 5

I've gone through a number of digital cameras and now have a Nikon Digital SLR.

Megapixels have to do with the clarity of the image that the
digital camera takes -- the more megapixels, the less grainy the pictures are going to be.

Optical zoom is the traditional zoom method -- has to do with collecting and projecting light rays.
Unlike optical zoom, digital zoom works by scaling up the pixels in the final image after it is captured. This is very similar to cropping and resizing your picture in your favorite paint program, except that the camera does it for you.

I wouldn't go for less than 4 megapixels because below that you will have a more difficult time blowing up pictures, and manipulating them in a photo program without getting too much
graininess. And I would go for digital zoom in a camera with a big enough motor like the ones in the digital slr cameras.

One other thing -- the digital SLRs are bigger in size, but don't have shutter lag. I got tired of missing sports shots with the smaller cameras because by the time they actually took the picture the play had moved on. I never have that problem with my existing camera -- you push the button and it takes the picture, no lag.

good luck!

Answer 6

the mega pixels are how sharp the camera is going to take the pictures so the more mega pixels the better the pictures, about the zoom i think the digital zoom zooms in closer than optical i cant really suggest any thing it all depends on what you will be using it for

Answer 7

I don't want 2 pts for this comment, but psxfff123 with so MANY great answers, how in the world do you choose one for 10 points?

Answer 8

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