How To Decode Digital Camera Gobbledygook and Take Good Pictures of Your Life?

Answer 1

Digital cameras are typically sold on the basis of two easily quoted numbers: megapixels, and the length of the zoom lens. For most people who simply want to take snapshots of their friends, families and trips, these are the two least important factors . Much more important factors are the camera’s speed and the width of the lens.

A 4x6 print requires a 1 megapixel image to print with adequate sharpness. For an 8x10 print, only 3.2 megapixels are required. A 1 megapixel image is also more than adequate to email to friends and may be too large for a Facebook or MySpace page.

In the real world, anything over 6 megapixels is overkill. Furthermore, the more megapixels, especially on a small non-SLR camera, the worse those pixels will be. Color accuracy and, more importantly, performance in anything but the brightest daylight will be degraded.

Most casual photographers have more trouble squeezing everything into a frame than bringing in distant elements. Because of this, try to find a camera whose wide angle lens is at least as wide as the equivalent of a traditional 28 mm lens. A zoom of at least 90mm equivalent will be fine.

Buried in the statistics for most cameras is information on how quickly it will take a picture after the shutter button is pressed. One professional DSLR has a 37 millisecond shutter lag. Due to slower response and autofocus, shutter lag on a well respected low cost point and shoot can be as high as 700 ms. A car moving at 60 mph will move only 3 feet in the time that the DSLR needs to actually shoot, but 61 feet (4 car lengths) before the point-and-shoot takes a picture. When photographing fast moving children, this lag is huge.

Ultimately, numbers do not tell the story. The best way to figure out which of the many digital cameras available will work is to go and try them. Since pricing on major brand cameras is relatively standardized, a trip to a reputable local store will allow you to try a number of cameras and, most likely, save more by buying the right one than one would save by going to the internet. Happy shooting!