Join the Digital Revolution

Digital cameras are everywhere, and with picture quality improving, prices becoming affordable, and many attractive features, these cameras have become the norm for casual photographers and even for many professional photographers.

Although current digital cameras range from simple point-and-shoot styles to advanced models, they all, at heart, operate in the same fundamental way. Digital cameras use no film, but capture images focused by a lens on a light-sensitive device (a sensor) that divides the picture into an array of millions of minuscule picture elements called pixels. A million pixels equals one megapixel. Pixel information is processed and saved as a file in the camera’s internal memory or, more commonly, in a removable memory card. More pixels means more detail (resolution) in the picture, but the tradeoff is a larger file size. Cameras are commonly available in the 4 to 15 megapixel range, with file storage requirements ranging from 125KB to 5MB per picture.

File size is also influenced by the amount of compression the picture undergoes in the camera. Compression is done to keep file size at a reasonable level, but compression can result in some picture quality degradation. Other image processing that can take place in digital cameras involves color saturation, color balance and density. Each manufacturer has its own bias, with some showing more saturated colors or a shift toward green or red or higher or lower contrast. These features all impact on the picture quality, as does the camera’s lens design and manufacture.

Digital cameras incorporate an LCD screen on which you instantly see the pictures you’ve taken, so it’s easy to keep pictures you like and erase the others immediately. That easy.

Transferring photo files to your computer can be done via direct USB connections or the method we prefer: plugging the camera’s memory card into a card reader connected to our computer. If necessary, you can "fix" your pictures by using the software included with most cameras. You can print pictures on your printer or, for better quality prints, take the camera and/or memory card to a photo lab or photo kiosk or upload them via the Internet to online photo sites to share with others or to order prints and other photo specialties. Photo mug anyone?

Some cameras can take short video clips, let you add voice comments for each picture, do picture editing in the camera or use wireless connections to your computer for picture transfer--and these are just a few of the many new features you may find.

To get an idea of what you might expect from a current digital camera, here’s what we found in a mid-range camera we recently used, the PowerShot SD890 IS (Canon, $300). This soap bar-sized six ounce marvel has 10MP, 5X optical zoom, optical image stabilization, Canon quality lens and a 2.5 LCD screen. We used it instantly as a point and shoot and then tried the preset scene selections for portrait and kids (other scenes include beach, snow, fireworks and more) that let the camera pick the parameters for the best results.

For the most control over what this camera does, you can choose manual and select ISO sensitivity, shutter speed, lens f-stop, color balance and more. The camera has automatic face detection for focus, exposure and color balance. Once a face is detected, the camera continues to track the face to keep it in focus as the subject moves. If red eye is a problem, the camera can detect and fix it automatically at exposure time or later.

A cool special effect available in this camera is the color accent feature, where only the single color you select appears in color, and the rest of the picture is grayscale (black and white). We used it for a bright purple flower, and the result was a striking photo of the flower that made it stand out from the background. Very cool. Customization features let you control the warmth or coolness of your pictures or what mode your camera starts in. The camera can connect to a compatible printer for direct to printer prints, and movie mode will record up to one hour of video with sound.

A broad panoramic view can be created from up to 26 pictures by using the Stitch-Assist feature. The camera supports 32GB SDHC memory cards that will hold thousands of pictures at full resolution and lowest compression size. You can shoot in widescreen format (16:9), and there’s also an optical viewfinder for use in bright sun or other situations where you just can’t see the preview image on the LCD screen. This is a solid, compact, feature-filled camera that produces excellent quality pictures.

The camera you select depends on what you are happy with in your price range. Our young friend is tickled pink with her pink compact C613 (Kodak, $69) 5MP (megapixel) point and shoot camera that she uses mainly for friend things and nice snapshot-sized prints; Norma and I use an older SLR 8MP Canon D20 camera (since replaced by the 15MP D50, $1,400) with interchangeable lens for product photos, sporting events, travel, shows and such.

So jump into the digital revolution--it’s really FUN.

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