25%If you have ever looked into acquiring a new piece of technology whether it's a printer, camera, monitor,
computer system or even a new mobile phone then you'll know how complicated a task it can be to choose between the different makes, models and manufacturers. Sometimes there is an over-abundance of technical specifications that can be overwhelming.
What is the solution? Knowledge, and we're here to help.
So here's a quick overview of the most important technical terms about digital cameras, allowing you to make a more informed purchase, have more control over the camera's features and allow you to get the camera that best suits your requirements.
Megapixel
The term megapixel refers to roughly one million pixels. You'll normally see the term quantitatively referring to the maximum resolution that the camera can take photographs. Therefore a camera advertised as a 6 megapixel camera can take an image with 6 million pixels. Roughly speaking the higher the number of megapixels the better quality your pictures will be (ie. the more detail) the image will have. If your intending to print the images we would recommend a camera with the minimum of 3 megapixels. You'll be really pushed to find less than this for sale now.
Focal Length
Focal Length can be thought of referring to the lens' angle of view. Lenses are generally split into two categories: wide-angle or telephoto. In 35mm film terms a lens with the focal length of 50mm sees about the same as a human eye. Any lens with a focal length less than this is considered a wide-angle lens whilst longer focal lengths are considered telephoto.
The sensors within digital cameras are not the same size as 35mm film therefore quoted focal lengths must be multiplied by a factor known as the focal length multiplier, depending on the sensor area, to give understandable focal lengths to those used to 35mm film. Typically, digital SLRs require the focal length multiplied by around 1.6 times whereas many digital compact cameras require a focal length multiplier of around 4 times eg. a focal length of 7mm on a compact digital camera could equate to a 28mm lens on a 35mm film camera.
Digital Zoom
Digital zoom (unlike optical zoom which uses the cameras lens' to magnify the image) uses an electronic method of enlarging the image by increasing the pixels in the centre of the photo. Doing this, however, decreases the overall quality of the image, so we would recommend ignoring this feature/figure when considering a digital camera and don't use it when composing and taking photos.
ISO
ISO stands for International Standards Organization - an organisation that verifies proposed standards, such as those used for Digital photography. In this instance the ISO range refers to how sensitive the camera is to light just as the ISO setting of film does. For example ISO 100 is not particularly sensitive to light and would require good lighting conditions such as exterior daylight for a good image. A higher value means that the camera can take a properly exposed image in darker conditions. It is best to get a camera with an adjustable range, ISO 100 to 400 should suit most users.
Shutter Lag
Shutter Lag refers to the time taken between pressing the button to take a photo and the time a photo is actually taken. This may not be too important in a lot of cases but if your taking an action photo and it takes a second between pressing the button and capturing the image you may well have missed what you were after. Older digital cameras are more prone to this . Definitely worth investigating if you intend buying second hand.