Ok, great, you’ve decided to get into the Digital Camera
age! You’ve seen the cameras; loved that you didn’t
need to buy film ever again; didn’t need to get your
pictures back from the developer to only then find out that
NONE of them turned out; etc; etc. You’ve seen
that your friends can see their pictures immediately and can
even display them on a TV immediately for all to see.
So which one is best for you? Should you be spending
US$100 or US$5000?
Here are some tips:
Think pixel. The number of pixels limits the size you can
blow up the image to for printing. More pixels equal better
prints. You need 3 to 4 megapixels to make nice 8x10 prints.
But more pixels also means larger file sizes, which means
you need larger memory cards for the camera (the digital equivalent
of film--fortunately, these are removable and reusable) and
more space on your computer’s hard drive for storing
your photo collection. Here’s a chart to help
you see pixels vs. print size:
Two Mega-pixels will give you these:
640 x 480 Pixels = Minimum Computer Resolution
1280 x 960 Pixels = Film Resolution of 4” x 6”
print
Three Mega-Pixels will give you this:
1600 x 1200 Pixels = Film Resolution of 8” x 10”
print
Four Mega-Pixels or more will give you these:
2048 x 1536 - Very high resolution. Capable of 8 x 10 photos
cropped from the original image.
2560 x 1920 - Extreme Resolution. Capable of huge prints and
cropped, photo-quality 8 x 10s from a fraction of the
original image file.
To zoom or not to zoom? Don’t buy a camera without a
zoom lens, but concern yourself more with an optical zoom
(meaning the lens does the work) than a digital zoom (meaning
the camera does the work). You can do digital zooming to your
heart’s content back on the PC.
How will you use it? If you are going to be sending your photos
over the internet or updating web pages, then you don’t
want large files sizes so a 2 mega-pixel camera will do fine.
If you want to print 8x10, or larger photos then you’ll
need the 3+ mega-pixel cameras.
Where to buy? Yes, purchasing equipment online is generally
the cheapest way to buy anything photographic (that, and the
ads in the back of the photography magazines). If you need
some hand-holding, consider buying in person from a local
dealer. RIMO Bali Computer Center has several stores with
lots of cameras to choose from. I purchased a very nice
Sony digital camera for my wife and it was cheaper at RIMO
than I had seen as the ‘cheapest’ price in the
US! Plus no shipping, taxes, etc.
How easy to copy the images to your computer? This ends
up being very important. You’ll want a USB connection
from the camera to the computer.
Storage? The camera stores your images internally before
you move them to your computer. There are many types
of storage (and sizes).
Cnet has just done a review of digital cameras and here are
the top 4 highest rated ones for under US$400. You can
find all these at RIMO in Denpasar and now with the rupiah
to dollar exchange rate at around 8700rp to the US$, these
prices are actually about 15% less NOW!
1. Canon PowerShot A700
a. Cnet rating: 7.6 out of 10 (Very good)
b. Easy-to-use exposure and focus controls; 6X zoom range;
solid image quality; usable ISO 800.
c. The price: $350
2. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7K
a. Cnet rating: 7.2 out of 10 (Very good)
b. Extensive set of manual features; 12X optically stabilized
zoom lens; relatively speedy.
c. The price: $400
3. Sony Cyber Shot DSC-T9
a. Cnet rating: 7.6 out of 10 (Very good)
b. Excellent design, portability and build quality; decent
photo quality; very quick performance; optical image stabilization;
58 MB of internal memory.
c. The price: $400
4. Kodak EasyShare V570
a. Cnet rating: 7.2 out of 10 (Very good)
b. Ultrawide lens for an ultracompact camera; abundant scene
modes; in-camera panorama stitching and distortion correction;
versatile video capture; included dock.
c. The price: $400
Ok, now you have your camera and have taken some great shots.
You’ve transferred the shots to your PC. Now what?
Purchase Photoshop or Photoshop Album to do all the ‘darkroom’
types of changes – cropping, adjusting the color, contrast,
etc. Photoshop Album is the easier of the two to use,
but Photoshop is much more powerful! Now just buy a
good color printer and some Photo paper and you’re all
set!
