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Digital Camera FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about Digital Cameras

  • Digital cameras must be difficult to use?
    Digital cameras seem to have lots of features that I'll never understand. They must be difficult to use? It's true that digital cameras, particularly at the higher end of the market do have some pretty amazing features. It is also true that these will really only be of use to serious photographers who want to experiment with their digital cameras and want to learn and use all that their camera has to offer. Even then digital cameras come with a fully automatic mode that will allow you to use it in a similar way to a traditional point and shoot camera. The important point to remember here is that feature rich digital cameras also cost a lot of money. If you are not planning to make use of all the available features then I would suggest that you buy a model with a smaller feature set and save yourself a lot of money. You will find that digital cameras that are more basic in the functionality that they offer are also more easy to use.

  • What's the difference between SmartMedia CompactFlash Memory?
    Smart Media and Compact Flash are both memory cards. Smart Media has been with us for about as long as digital cameras themselves. More recently we have seen the rise of Compact Flash. Smart Media is used primarily in Fuji and Olympus digital cameras. The majority of the remainder of the market utilised Compact Flash cards.

    The growth in megapixels that digital cameras can use has caused a big problem for Smart Media. The increase in the number of megapixels has meant that digital cameras produce larger images. These larger images then need more storage space. That is why a while ago an 8 or 16mb memory card was sufficient certainly for consumer digital cameras. The problem with Smart Media technology is that the maximum size that a Smart Media Card can be is 128mb. Compact Flash cards do not suffer from the same limitations. Over the next few years it looks as if Smart Media cards will take more and more of a back seat. If you already have Smart Media cards this isn't really a problem. As far as storage goes they are a perfectly acceptable medium. The only problem is their lack of capacity.

  • Do all digital cameras suffer from shutter lag?
    It is true that digital cameras do suffer from shutter lag. Shutter lag is the time in between clicking the shutter button and the picture actually being taken. Once the button is pressed digital cameras get to work setting the focus, white balance and exposure time. They also need to charge up the CCD. The end result, a brief pause before the picture is taken can be very annoying and can prove to be the difference between a great picture and a missed opportunity. As with most things in the world of digital cameras shutter lag times are decreasing as the technology evolves. In fact in higher spec digital cameras shutter lag has almost been eliminated. It won't be a problem with the majority of pictures that you take, but it is something to be aware of.

  • How can I tell which digital cameras allow playback through my television?
    Not all digital cameras allow playback through your television. When you are reading specifications for digital cameras look out for ones that have "video out" under interfaces.

  • How many pixels do digital cameras need to produce good quality 6x4 prints?
    It depends on just how pin sharp you want the image. Two megapixel digital cameras will produce very good 6x4 prints, but if you are looking for exceptional quality then you will be better off looking at 3 megapixel digital cameras. Likewise with 8x11 prints. Three megapixel digital cameras will produce very good prints, but if you are looking for exceptional quality then you need to step up to 4 megapixel digital cameras.

  • What kind of printer do I need to print out my photos?
    There are a couple of options here.

    Regular color inkjet or laser printers are not great for photos. Sure they do nice text and charts, but they usually are pretty poor photo prints.

    An inkjet photo printer is the lowest cost option. These have 6-8 colors of ink and produce stunning photos as large as 13 x 19 inches. Ink and photo paper can be pricey though. Most modern photo printers are PictBridge-enabled, which allows you to print directly from the camera! Some other printers can grab photos off a memory card -- just insert the card into the slot and use the LCD on the printer to select the photos you want to print.

    A dye-sublimation printer is a good option for 4 x 6 inch prints -- if you do larger prints then there are not many options. Dye-sub printers run the paper through four times: once each for cyan, magenta, and yellow, and then again for a protective coating. Prints from dye-subs are quite durable and are usually waterproof (unlike some inkjets). The catch is that materials are expensive.

  • Can I get pictures taken by digital cameras printed professionally?
    If you don't want to have the expense of buying a dedicated photo printer or you just like the idea of having prints made for you then there are services that you can use to have your prints made. Most camera stores will be more than happy to take your images and provide you with prints. There are also Internet based companies where you can send your images to and receive a set of prints back through the post. The main disadvantage of having your prints made by a camera store is that people need to transfer the images from their digital cameras to their computers and then download the images onto floppy disks or burn them to a CD. If you use an Internet service, once the images have been transferred from digital cameras to a computer it is quite easy to send them to the online printing services. One of the biggest advantages of having prints made of photographs taken with digital cameras is that you can select the images that you like the best before you send them off for printing.

  • What is the best digital photo editing software for images taken with digital cameras?
    The market leader is Adobe Photoshop. This remarkable piece of software will let you do almost anything with an image. Before you rush off and buy Adobe Photoshop there are two things that you need to consider. First it is aimed at digital photographers who are looking for serious image manipulation. This gives Adobe Photoshop a fairly big learning curve and there are plenty of books and courses dedicated to helping you get the most from the package. Secondly it doesn't come cheap.

    There are a couple of very good alternatives to Adobe Photoshop for those of you who are looking for more general image manipulation. One is Adobe Photoshop's little brother Adobe Photoshop Elements. The other is Paint Shop Pro which is quite inexpensive. I have used this package myself and it does everything that I've ever wanted to do with an image.

  • What are compression modes?
    Digital cameras use different compression modes to store images. If you use high or fine or super fine etc. compression modes then the image produced will be much sharper. Pictures taken at a high resolution will also take up more room on the storage card. Therefore if you are using digital cameras with relatively small storage cards then they will soon become full if you are shooting at a high resolution.

  • Are digital cameras under $200 worth the money?
    It all depends on what you are looking to get out of using digital cameras. Digital cameras have really come down in price and some of those available for under $200 are very good cameras indeed. In fact there are digital cameras on the market for under $100 that will do a very good job if you are looking for a camera that will take good quality snap shots and is easy to use.

  • Why are some memory cards cheaper than others?
    Higher priced memory cards have a higher speed rating. This means that the picture is written to the card faster and the digital camera becomes ready to take the next shot quicker. This is really only an issue for anyone using digital cameras and wanting to shoot a number of pictures very quickly. It is also felt that the faster memory cards are of a little higher quality.

  • I have seen effective pixels referred to on specifications for digital cameras. What does this mean?
    Not all the pixels that are on a digital camera's CCD can be used when the photograph is taken. Some fall outside the range of the lens and some are painted black to help with colour balance. Therefore it is the number of effective pixels that people need to look out for when buying digital cameras.

  • I have a 35mm SLR camera. There seems far less choice with SLR digital cameras.
    It's true that SLR digital cameras are few and far between all though this too is changing. They are also expensive, but recent additions to the range have caused a real price breakthrough. There is no need to despair though as the group of digital cameras known as "Prosumer" carry the same advanced features as most 35mm SLR cameras. Check out this range of digital cameras before you buy.

  • What is Digital Zoom?
    Digital zoom causes digital cameras to zoom in on the centre section of an image. The centre area will then look bigger, but the same number of pixels are used. This means that the quality of the image is reduced. If a zoom lens is important to you then make sure that you look out for digital cameras that come with an optical zoom. Digital cameras with optical zooms will produce images of a far higher quality.

  • Do all digital cameras offer a movie mode?
    No. Not all digital cameras come with a movie mode or though it is fast becoming a common feature. You may also find that some digital cameras at the very top of the range don't offer a movie mode either. Also don't be fooled into thinking that the movies that digital cameras take will be up to the standard of your digicam. At the lower end of the digital cameras market you can find that the movies are shot in black and white. There are certainly a good number of digital cameras where you can't record sound when you shoot the movie. Movie time also varies between digital cameras. At the lower end of the market you normally get around 15 seconds. The higher end hits the three minute mark. The way that I would look at it is that the primary function of digital cameras is to take great still pictures and short movies that you can shoot are very much a bonus. Watch out as well. Shooting even very short movies can drain the batteries very quickly.

  • Do you need a card reader to upload images from digital cameras?
    You don't necessarily need a card ready to upload images taken by digital cameras. Digital cameras come with a lead that will connect them to the PC and you can upload your pictures through that cable. Some people do experience difficulties from time to time uploading their images using this method. A card reader simplifies the process by creating another drive on your computer and from there it is relatively straight forward to transfer your images from the card to the PC.

  • Do all digital cameras use batteries very quickly?
    It is certainly true that all digital cameras use batteries very quickly indeed. There is some good news though in that the latest digital cameras are a lot more efficient in the way that they use power and this means that batteries last a lot longer.

    There are also one or two things that you can do to conserve the life of your batteries and get more out of them. The most simple way is to turn off the camera when it is not in use. I know that this sound obvious, but it can be tempting to leave digital cameras running so that you are always ready to take your next shot. Another tip is to turn the LCD screen off when it's not in use. The LCD screen is a big power user and therefore can run your batteries down very quickly. From my own personal experience I am also well aware that overuse of "movie mode" on digital cameras can drain the life out of a battery quicker than anything.

    More and more digital cameras will also take rechargeable batteries. These can be either Nickel-Cadmium rechargeables (NiCD) or Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeables (NiMH). O.K. there is more to pay up front with the cost of a recharger and the batteries themselves, but it won't be long before the investment has paid for itself many times over. If you are a heavy user of your digital camera then I would recommend buying two sets of rechargeables so that you always have one charged and ready for use.

  • Should you buy additional memory cards when buying digital cameras?
    Digital cameras can be expensive especially when you are on a limited budget. Even so I would make sure you allow for extra memory cards in your overall budget when you buy. You can often work out a much better deal if you pick up extra memory cards at the point of sale. A lot of people who have bought digital cameras are pleasantly surprised to find that they take far more pictures than they ever did when using a traditional camera. You will find that it only takes a few shots using digital cameras before the standard memory card supplied with your camera soon gets full. Digital cameras are still being shipped with cards as small as 8mb. I would recommend a minimum of 64mb, but 256mb is not exactly excessive.

  • What do digital cameras use a LCD screen for?
    The LCD screen that is found on the back of digital cameras comes in very handy indeed. It has two functions. First it displays menu options. For example it controls the deletion of images that you don't want to keep. It's main function is that it allows you to see the picture that you are about to take before you take it and how it turned out afterwards. For me this is one of the biggest advantages digital cameras offer an inexperienced photographer. The ability to see exactly how you picture turned out immediately after taking it allows you to identify areas that you can improve on. It can also allow you a second chance with a photograph. If you take it and don't like the look of it you can always delete the image and take the picture again.

  • I have heard that digital cameras use a CCD. What is it?
    The CCD is the Charge Coupled Device. It is a light sensor that sits behind the lens in digital cameras. It records the image when you take a photograph. It is a grid made up of millions of tiny light sensors. The capacity of the CCD is measured in megapixels. The higher the number of megapixels the higher the resolution of the picture.

  • I have seen that some digital cameras have a burst mode. What is it?
    Digital cameras with burst mode have the ability to take a number of pictures in quick succession. The number of frames that can be shot is denoted by frames per second and the number of seconds that the camera is able to operate for in this manner.

  • What are the different "quality" settings on my camera?
    Most, if not all, cameras have several image quality settings to choose from. They are first broken down by resolution (e.g. 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, etc) and then by quality (e.g. SHQ, HQ, SQ). What's the right one to use?

    The deal is this: quality is inversely proportional to the amount of JPEG compression the camera uses. Thus, a higher quality image will have less compression, and vice versa.

    High quality, low compression
    Low quality, high compression

    As you lower the quality and increased the compression, there will be more "artifacts" in your image. The artifacts are a result of the higher JPEG compression. You will notice that edges will seem blurry, or little squares will appear. See the example above for a good illustration of this.

    I recommend using the middle setting for everyday shooting. If you're making big prints, consider using the highest quality JPEG level. I'd skip over TIFF mode, as the quality really isn't any better than high quality JPEG, but they take up much more space on your memory card.

  • Will a high resolution camera make better prints than a lower resolution camera?
    To be more specific: will you get better 4 x 6 inch prints from a 3 or 4 Megapixel camera versus a 2 Megapixel camera? Possibly, but the average person won't notice. The real advantage of a higher resolution camera is that with the larger image size, there's more room to crop images. In terms of quality though, it's not a huge deal. At print sizes like 8 x 10 inch, you will notice a difference.

  • I'm having trouble downloading photos to my computer with the software that came with my camera. What can I do?

    Buy a card reader. Then, when you insert the memory card, it will mount to your desktop just like another disc, and you can copy the photos directly to your hard disk. You can then use your favorite photo editing software to retouch your photos.

  • What's the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom?
    It's important to understand this difference, as you could end up mighty disappointed with the results if you get one rather than the other. Optical zoom is similar to what you'll find in a regular 35mm camera: When you push the button to zoom in or out, physical lens elements move inside the camera, to achieve the desired effect.

    Digital zoom, on the other hand, has no moving parts. Using the "electronic brain" within the camera instead, the camera takes a look at what it's "looking at", and digitally zooms in, usually two or three times closer.

    The problem with digital zoom is that you lose quality when you do this -- your images will tend to be more "pixelated" than the same image taken with an optical zoom camera. This is due to the "interpolation" the camera uses, which is a nice way of saying that it makes a guess about how the picture should look while zoomed in. Having optical AND digital zoom on a camera isn't bad, but I'd try to avoid cameras with only digital zoom, myself.

  • Why do all my indoor photos come out blurry?
    This is a very common question and nine out of ten times it's the same problem: people taking shots indoors without the flash. Just because the camera is digital it doesn't mean that the laws of physics don't apply! If the shutter speed you're using is slower than 1/30 or 1/60 of a second, odds are that the shot will be blurry! A lot of people migrating from film cameras say "well my photos were always sharp with my film camera in these situations", and a likely explanation for that is the use of ISO 400 film.

    So what's the solution? Here are a few suggestions:

    - Use the flash
    - Add more light to the room, if possible
    - Use a tripod
    - Turn up the ISO sensitivity a notch or two. Note that doing this will increase the amount of noise in your image
    - If you haven't bought a camera yet, consider one with image stabailization (this is still a rare feature, though)

  • What does megapixel mean, anyway?
    A pixel is a little square that makes up the image on your computer screen. My computer's 17" 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. My Olympus D-600L can capture at a resolution of 1280x1024 (just like my monitor), which is a little over 1,300,000 pixels (think of the image as a rectangle-- 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. My Nikon Coolpix 950 has 2.1Mpixels.

  • Should I be have any concerns about putting my digital camera through the X-Ray machines at the airport?
    No, there is no evidence that putting your camera through those machines causes any harm.

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