A digital camera can appear complicated, but there are certain basic points that can be quickly learned and will help you become a better photographer. It is worth it to spend some time thinking about your camera’s pixel count, white balance, sensor, sensitivity, optical zoom, digital zoom, etc. These features will improve your pictures and increase the enjoyment you get from your digital camera.

A digital camera’s basic unit of measurement is its number of pixels. The clarity and resolution of your pictures improve with the number of pixels per square inch your camera has. Each pixel contains within it three color channels (red, green and blue) and carries a numerical value of between 0 and 255.

Digital camera manufacturers use the pixel count as one way to describe their product. The pixel count of low-end digital cameras are usually around 1 million, a number that seems large, but is strictly for beginners! Better digital cameras and those used by professionals range in the 14 million to 22 million pixels-per-image.

Pixel number also determines the quality of your pictures at a given size. For example, a 3MP camera can give you beautiful 4″x6″ prints, but would not give you the same quality at 5″x7″ or larger. A 4 or 5 MP digital camera is necessary for excellent quality bigger prints.

You should also be familiar with your digital camera’s digital sensor. The sensor element in most digital cameras is small, about the size of a fingernail, which is much smaller than a 35mm camera’s negative. Again, high-end cameras have the larger sensors, which produce better quality large prints.

Another helpful feature of your digital camera is the white balance. This is adjusted to suit the light source and keeps your colors true, ensuring that whites are pure and not yellow or blue looking. Generally, your digital camera adjusts automatically, but for a really beautiful shot, you can manually adjust to get results exactly as you want them.

A digital camera’s sensitivity setting is similar to ISO ratings on film. Generally, the sensitivity settings of digital cameras compare to ISO100 and ISO 200. Some have a setting for ISO 400. A few digital cameras with large sensors (and large price tags) have a setting for ISO 3200 or ISO 6400.

Another very important feature to be familiar with is optical versus digital zoom. Both are important, but for different reasons. Digital zoom physically crops the image to a smaller size; this cropped image expands to fill the frame. This cool feature allows you to cut out ugly background or focus on a particular object in the frame that might not be centered. Depending on the amount you “zoomed” out, there may a significant loss of quality in your pictures. The optical zoom lens actually changes the magnification and focal length, drawing subjects in and out depending on your desire.

Picture image storage can also be an issue and it’s important to familiarize yourself with the manner in which data is stored. Each pixel generates three bytes of data. A photographer using a modest 3MP will need an amazing nine million bites to store each picture! Compressing an image using a format called JPEG significantly reduces the file size, which causes a corresponding loss of quality. For some purposes, this loss is not important, but as a rule, it is not preferable. Digital camera manufacturers have come up with different storage format designed to minimize this data loss. The format is not uniform; for example, Nikon calls its process NEF, while Canon calls its format RAW.

For more information on the advantages of digital photography please visit Digital-Photo-Tips.info where you will find a digital camera buying guide and helpful information on how a digital camera works.

The digital camera market today offers buyers a large number of choices, with products in widely differing price ranges, sizes and degree of operational complexity. From miniatures the size of a credit card, to fully functional professional SLR (Single Lens reflex) systems, you can buy a digital camera from manufacturers including traditional camera brands such as Canon, Olympus, Nikon, film companies such as Kodak and Fuji, and consumer electronic companies like Sony. Then there are other options that include the mobile phone manufacturers, and webcam suppliers.

The advantages of digital photography are numerous. Topmost is the fact that there is no film processing: expensive both in cost and time. But there is also the advantage of smaller sized equipment, portable media and instant picture viewing. And if you don’t like what you see, you simply delete it and shoot again: no wastage.

If you like to take pictures, being a digital photographer makes a lot of sense. But which camera is the best one for you? In a field of excess abundance, how do you narrow down what you need? How much to pay? How many megapixels? (What are they anyway?) Which brand? How much memory?

Digital CamerasEvery shopper is different.

At MyShopping.com.au we recognise this fact, and so we list practically all brands and models from hundreds of suppliers. These listings include the cold hard digital data facts about each camera and a range of comparative pricings offered by different suppliers. But just as every shopper is different, every photographer is different too. And just having the facts may not make you feel any more knowledgeable about which camera is right for you.

You could begin with the question: What sort of pictures will you take with your new digital camera? This is a valid starting point because from here you can begin to qualify your requirements in terms of technical capability and price. What sort of pictures will you take with your new digital camera?

Is it simply for happy snaps whenever you get together with friends and family at weekends and holidays? Or are you a serious bird watcher and you want to capture nature at its finest? Perhaps you want a camera for work to record your inventory, or recording information from a client. Maybe you’re a PI on a mission. The point is, you need to begin by recognising that your reason for buying a digital camera may not be the same as that of your best friend who is recommending the model she bought.

Once you’ve figured out the sort of pictures you are going to take, you can then set about deciding on the type of camera that will meet your needs. If you need something highly portable that fits in your shirt pocket or your handbag and lets you take it anywhere you go, make size a big consideration. If you want to take seriously good photographs, and you want to pursue an artistic endeavour, make image flexibility your main concern.

It might also be worthwhile considering your own position in the digital photography experience. Are you a novice about to buy your first camera, do you have some intermediate experience, or are you an advanced user?

Someone new to the market will likely not want to spend a lot of money, nor have a lot of mind-boggling features that leave you confused. There are cameras ideal for beginning users that have basic ‘point and shoot’ features including optical and digital zoom lens, flexible storage media and built in flash. There is a huge range of cameras available with simple features at low cost.

If you consider yourself an intermediate user with some operational knowledge of digital camera technology, you may want to consider more advanced features that give you more control over the pictures you take. These features usually come in a range of automatic settings and manual settings for capturing the image and different storage options in terms of resolution and picture type (raw data, jpeg, tiff). Naturally there is some cost attached to additional features when compared to more basic cameras.

For advanced users, there are a lot of professional options you can consider; such as SLR view finding and lens interchange ability. Cameras in this range provide much greater control over the image, both before and once it is captured. These options include shutter speed and aperture adjustment, and many cameras offer the ability to manipulate images ‘in camera’, such as cropping, and brightness and contrast adjustments.

After the picture is taken

A further main consideration is what are you going to do with your images once you have them? The great beauty of digital photography is the simple fact that you can store them on digital media such as CDs and media cards, and view them on computer screens and in many cases, your television. You need print only when and those you want to see, or show to others. Digital photography also gives fantastic opportunities to manipulate your images using popular image manipulation programs, resizing them, altering brightness and contrast characteristics, and correcting problems such as red eye, or removing skin blemishes.

Most digital cameras are computer ready, able to plug directly into your PC or Mac using USB connectors. They usually include proprietary software allowing you to easily and instantly manage your image files in photo albums or slide shows. Many digital cameras also include a video capture facility enabling you to take short motion pictures.

What you want to do with your images after you have them can have an impact on your choice of camera. If you want to make enlarged prints for example, you will want a high megapixel capacity (also talked about as ‘resolution’). If you want images for website use, you will want to get the best quality images that can be reduced in resolution without severe degradation.

Beauty is in the “I”

Great pictures usually come from great conditions. You capture a great moment, the light is just right, the subject is at the perfect distance, the image is perfectly framed. But not every digital camera offers the flexibility to make the best of existing light conditions, or position. Most digital cameras (certainly at the budget end) come with a built in automatic flash, which is terrific for happy snaps in darkened environments. And the automatic flash automatically does not ‘go off’ in bright sunny conditions. But in those times when you want to use the existing light, you need a camera that gives you manual control over the operation or not, of the flash.

Moreover, most digital cameras in the lower and medium price ranges are highly automated. If you are moving from a traditional SLR film camera where you have maximum control over shutter speed, aperture and ISO speeds, it may be frustrating to not have easy access to the same range of tools to take advantage of existing light conditions.

In the more advanced (and therefore more expensive) range of digital cameras, most lens and aperture functions are available in exactly the same way as other SLR systems. What differs is how the colours and light of the image is translated through pixel capture compared to the chemical processing systems.

You may want a wide range of focus options. Most digital cameras have two different types of image magnification, lens magnification (zoom) that may be equivalent of a 35mm to 150 mm lens, and a digital magnification that may be to ten-fold (expressed as x10). This provides you with zoom lens capability, which may be limited in its depth of field control and is subject to soft focus and movement if the conditions aren’t just right, and a digital magnification of the pixel image. If being able to capture magnified distant images is important to you, you need more megapixels, and a lens system that gives you some control over its focus and aperture management.

A final word on accessory

Digital cameras are electronic equipment. That means they run on batteries, and if you use your camera a lot, you will find that you will be frequently replacing batteries. Some cameras have rechargeable batteries; others simply use dry cells (AA), which you can of course load with rechargeable ones. It pays to have spare batteries so that you always have a charged power source. Some cameras have docking stations to help manage the connection with computers. Many digital SLR cameras have interchangeable lens systems, some of which may be compatible with traditional film SLRs.

You can also print your own pictures at home with special printers that handle standard photograph paper, and connect directly to your camera. Although it may be less expensive to simply take your camera’s card, or a CD to your local camera store, and now many supermarkets and department stores, and use the automatic printing machines to print the images you want.

There is a lot you can do with a digital camera, and you can pay les than $200, or more than $10,000. It all depends on how you see yourself as a photographer, what you’re shooting, and what you want to do with your pictures. At Myshopping.com.au you can very quickly compare specifications and prices.

Andrew Gates is a writer for comparison online shopping site MyShopping.com.au. MyShopping.com.au helps you compare digital cameras and buy online from top-rated online stores. You can also read digital cameras reviews and specifications.

If you’re like most people, you don’t know a megapixel from an f-stop, you just want a camera that works well and takes nice pictures. But the ads and websites are almost drowning you in computer jargon and mysterious numbers.

The good news is that today’s digital cameras are much better than even a couple years ago, and most cameras from reputable brands will do a decent job. So the pressure’s off; don’t worry about your decision too much. Armed with just a little understanding, you’ll be able to find a camera that fits your needs and won’t break the bank.

Here are the things you’ll want to look for, and how they’ll affect your digital camera experience:

1. Megapixels

I’m listing this one first not because it’s really the most important, but because it’s the one the camera makers harp on the most. You’re going to see a megapixel number in every camera ad and product listing, so you might as well know what it is.

In a nutshell, the number of megapixels a camera can capture describes the level of detail and sharpness you will get. A 3-megapixel camera divides a photo into three million individual dots and records the color of each one of them. A 10-megapixel camera divides it into ten million dots, so of course it is recording more details.

However, it usually stops mattering after about 6 megapixels. That’s because this is already enough resolution for photographic-quality 8×10″ prints, which are the largest that most people ever make.

Having a larger number of megapixels than that does give you some extra freedom - for instance, you can crop part of your photo away and still have enough for a large, high quality print.

But if you don’t think you’re going to be making poster-size prints, or using photo manipulation software to crop large areas out of your images before printing them, then don’t worry too much about extremely high megapixel counts.

2. Zoom

Zoom comes in two flavors - optical and digital. It’s usually expressed as a number followed by an “x”. A zoom listed as “3x”, for example, can make the subject of your photo appear three times larger. That’s a typical zoom for pocket-sized cameras, but larger digital cameras may have up to 12x or more.

Optical zoom means lenses, just like with film cameras. The size of the image is increased by moving two lenses farther apart from each other in the camera. If the lenses are of good quality, then the resulting enlarged image will also be sharp and clear.

Digital zoom, on the other hand, is not so useful. Using digital zoom always decreases the quality of your image; no serious photographer would ever use it. Camera manufacturers include it because it doesn’t cost them anything and allows them to claim higher zoom ratios than they’re willing to provide with optics.

So it’s very important to look separately at the optical and digital zoom numbers, and only pay attention to the optical zoom.

The flip side of powerful optical zoom is that it makes the camera larger and heavier. So you have to decide how much extra weight that 10x lens is worth to you.

3. Manual features

All consumer digital cameras offer fully automatic focus and exposure control. This means you usually don’t have to worry about getting your subject sharply focused, or think about the level of light at different points in your shot and how that will affect the photo.

But sometimes the camera doesn’t make the right guess. It may keep focusing on the wrong thing, or it may get confused by bright or dark areas, and the whole photo may come out too light or dark.

If your camera only has automatic mode, then you’re stuck. On the other hand, if it has manual overrides, you can tell it exactly how to focus, or how bright to make the photo. Most people don’t care, but if you think you might want to be a perfectionist, then you should look for a camera with manual focus and manual exposure controls.

4. Movie mode

These days, digital cameras don’t only take still photos - almost all of them can also make movies. The movies usually aren’t that great, and the length may be extremely limited (maybe even less than a minute), but sometimes it’s nice to be able to capture something with motion and sound.

The most important things to look for is the maximum length of the movie - the longer the better, and unlimited is better still. Be aware that long movies can take up a lot of your camera’s memory - after all, a movie is really just an awful lot of still shots, one after another. You may find that after taking a long movie, you have to move it off your camera and into your computer before you have enough room to take many photos.

You may also want to check the resolution of the movies (this is like megapixels, explained above, except that the resolution for movies is usually much lower than for still photos). 320×240 is a standard resolution, but many cameras are now offering 640×480 or even higher.

The last thing to look for is frame rate. 15 frames per second (fps) is standard, but these movies tend to look kind of jerky, especially if there’s fast motion. 30 frames per second is the same as television.

5. Screen size and quality

You’ll spend a lot of time looking at the little (or not so little) screen on the back of your camera, so make sure it’s a good one. It should be large, have a lot of pixels and be bright.

Most current cameras have two-and-a-half inch screens, but larger ones are slowly becoming more common.

The more pixels the screen has, the easier it will be for you to check the quality of your pictures without having to view them on a computer monitor or print them out. 75,000 pixels is on the low end; 250,000 is currently about the best on the market.

The brightness is something you can only assess for yourself. If you get the chance, try out the camera in a shop during the daytime. Take it to the window, so there is lots of natural light, and check whether you can still see the image clearly with the sun at your back. It’s frustrating trying to use a camera when the screen is washed out and dim in daylight.

6. Size and weight

Cameras keep getting smaller and smaller. Some of them, like the latest Exilim cameras from Casio, are smaller than a pack of cigarettes and still deliver good shots. But you’ll pay for the privilege; the tiniest cameras cost a lot more than larger models with similar features.

When you’re thinking about size, probably the most important threshold is whether or not you can fit it in your pocket. If you can, it’s likely you’ll find yourself carrying the camera around - and using it - much more than you would if it required toting a bag. But any smaller than that, and you’re probably paying extra just to be able to show off.

7. Batteries

Some digital cameras use standard AA or AAA batteries, like you might use for a remote control or a portable CD player. These have several advantages. Probably the most significant one is that if you find yourself totally out of battery power, you can always nip into the closest convenience store and buy a new set, and be right back out taking pictures again.

Of course, it doesn’t make sense to use disposable batteries all the time for these cameras. It’s expensive, and bad for the environment. And they don’t last very long: A set of rechargeable AA batteries may last up to twice as long in your digital camera as the most expensive name-brand disposables. And that’s just on one charge - you can keep recharging them again and again.

Other cameras don’t give you the choice; they use custom batteries that are specially designed for digital cameras. These batteries tend to be smaller and lighter than AAs or AAAs, packing more power into a smaller unit. On the other hand, they’re also quite expensive. One will be included with the camera, but if you want to get a backup (so you can keep shooting photos after running through a full charge), you may find yourself ponying up $50 or more. Same thing if you accidentally lose it.

Well, that’s it. It’s still a lot to think about, but it really comes down to a few simple questions about priorities. At least now you know how to decide whether all those features are really worth the extra money. Good luck!

Max Carlton is a digital photography expert who has been advising consumers for almost ten years. His website can help you find your perfect digital camera in a snap: http://www.camera.u.nu