In the previous four episode of this little tutorial, I’ve filled you in on the advertised features of digital cameras. By now you should both have a good idea of what you want in your digital camera and feel a little more comfortable in that electronics department when you go to look for it.
I’d like to use this last installment to talk about some of the intangibles of digital cameras. These are the things that will matter a lot in practical use but really aren’t or can’t be advertised. Factors like, shape, fit, weight, button placement even color are very important to the individual user but are very subjective. I will also give you a list of digital camera review sites and manufacturer’s sites because although you’re armed with a lot more information now, you’ll still need to research the cameras you like before you buy.

”Boy, this is heavy. Gee, this is small”

You will find when you start looking for a camera that they come in every size and weight from tiny, pocket sized, spy cameras to heavy, two handed gorillas. Despite the differences, they all have their place. Its up to you and you alone to decide which one has a place in your hands.

After you’ve narrowed your selection of cameras down to three or four, these human factors will come into play in making your final decision:

1.Weight
2. Size
3. Button Placement

You will find that some point and shoots are featherweights while others are like bricks. Much of this has to do with lens. Most of the rest is a matter of the chassis material and the body’s material. It’s likely that a heavier camera may have a bigger lens, more beefy chassis, and a metal body whereas a lighter camera may have a plastic body, and a small lens. Choose what you will feel more comfortable carrying around. If the camera is too heavy, even if it’s a superior camera, it doesn’t do you much good sitting at home because you didn’t want to lug it around.

Sizes of digitals are all over the board as well. Generally speaking, bigger digitals can have better lens but this isn’t an absolute. Regardless of the features you choose, the camera should fit your hands. A camera that is oversized for small hands will cause missed shots, shaky shots and frustration. A tiny camera in large hands will result in multiple buttons pressed at once, fingers in front of lenses, and buttons pressed by mistake.

You’ll find a collection of buttons on every camera you try. While I can’t tell you the ultimate button layout, I do want to stress how important it is that you get a camera with a good control layout. The best way to explore this is to read reviews. Bad control placement is always picked up on in reviews and you should look for that when you check these cameras out at the store.

Shopping For Your Camera

Armed with all this information, you’re ready to buy your camera! I have some suggestions for how to go about that.

Narrow it Down

Based on your requirements, you should be able to narrow down your camera choices to 6 or less that are in your price range. This will make things a lot easier as you can develop a sort of tunnel vision and not be distracted by other flashy deals.

Research

By reading reviews on your narrowed selection of cameras, you should be able to narrow it further. You may find one model takes poor quality photos and another has badly placed controls. You should balance your review research to cover both “objective” reviews from magazines and camera review sites and subjective reviews from anonymous users left on retail sites and user review sites.

I find that reviewers written by professional or amateur reviewers are often written from the standpoint of someone demanding a lot more out of a camera than an average user. So, one of their harsh reviews could actually turn out to be the perfect camera for you. Alternatively, user reviews are often rubbish. People who allegedly have used the camera and are often written in anger or 15 minutes after the person has purchased the camera write them. Where I find these reviews helpful is when I can find at least 10 and preferably 20 or more reviews. When I can find that many on one camera, I can see patterns arise. For instance if I read 40 reviews on a camera and 18 people report problems with a lens cover, it might be a real issue. Using both types of reviews, you should gain some information about the camera.

Touch It!

Its important to actually get your hands on the cameras you’re thinking about. You will never get a true idea of size or weight by looking online. This is a device you will be holding in your hands and up to your face, not to mention carrying around birthday parties and amusement parks, make sure it works for you!

Buyer Beware

Finally, buy your camera wherever you like but be aware, buying a camera online can be risky unless you have either good recommendations for a retailer or personal experience with them. There are a lot of online retailers that will offer bargain basement prices only to charge astronomical shipping costs or a number of other tricks.
Shop only from reputable dealers with good customer ratings. If you’re not comfortable shopping online, there is no shame in buying from a brick and mortar store. You may paying slightly more but cost discounts online are often largely offset by shipping. An added benefit of a brick and mortar store is a physical place to return the product if something goes wrong.

One final word of caution is to be wary of protection plans. If you are tempted to get one, make sure you get a full copy of the policy and read it fully before you buy it. Often they offer little protection beyond what the manufacturer offers and are simply a profit booster. Most stores offer a grace period of days or weeks after purchase to buy their protection plan. Use that time to research it. The one plan I can recommend from past experience is Ritz Camera’s ESP. It covers everything but theft and fire. Should anything happen to your camera, they will fix or replace it at no additional cost. As you might expect, this coverage is not cheap but you may want to consider it if you’re accident-prone.

I hope you feel a little more confident about your digital camera knowledge now and can use it to go out, buy a camera, and take some great pictures!

Links

Digital Camera Review Sites

Digital Camera Resource

Steve’s Digicam Reviews

Digital Photography Review

Digital Camera Headquarters

CNet

Imaging Resource

Photography Review

Digital Camera Manufacturers(not a complete list)

Canon

Nikon

Fuji

HP

Kodak

Olympus

Panasonic Lumix

Pentax

Sony

Even with all the information you’ve collected here so far, there are still some bells and whistles that could be thrown at you that will have you scratching your head and seriously thinking about curling up in the fetal position on the floor of the electronics department. So far what we’ve talked about are fairly standard options. We’re now moving into features that you won’t find on all cameras, particularly the cheaper models. Also unlike the features we’ve already discussed, whether or not you add these gadgets to your wish list is entirely up to you. They are a matter of personal preference and require you to ask yourself if they’ll really fit into your style of photography.

Anti-Shake

Anti-Shake is often called OIS or Optical Image Stabilization. It’s a feature that electronically stabilizes the image in the camera to offset minor hand shaking. OIS is not a miracle worker. If you have palsy or are shooting pictures in an earthquake, this is not going to make your pictures crystal clear. It’s meant to provide assistance through normal activity and is especially helpful in low light situations where long exposures require a very still camera. On a day-to-day basis you likely won’t notice the OIS working on your camera. That’s because its helping you take better pictures by curing a problem you didn’t know was there. Unless you are a statue or use a tripod for all of your shots, you move your camera while taking pictures. We all do. OIS will limit that movement’s effect on the pictures.

Personally, I find this an indispensable feature. When I looked for my last camera, this was on the must have list.

Video

Shooting video no longer requires a camcorder, folks. Many point and shoot cameras (but no D-SLRs) are offering the ability to shoot video. Resolution of the video will vary by camera as will the ability to record sound and the duration of the videos.

For the most part, video in a camera is meant for short bursts of up to a minute or two. You are not going to video your niece’s 90 minute dance recital with a point and shoot camera but you may very well shoot a one minute video of her dancing around the living room.

Video is a wide open feature right now meaning that the range of video capabilities among point and shoots is all over the board. You can find cameras that only shoot low resolution videos in mono sound and only allow a few seconds of video and you can find cameras that allow camcorder quality video and stereo sound with no limit on length (the memory card size dictates video length).

Here are a couple of things to think about regarding video. You’re buying a digital camera to take pictures. Video should be a nice little extra rather than a focus when it comes to evaluating your choices. Also, what are you going to do with the videos? Higher resolution videos can be pretty sizable, too big to email. Are you going to keep them on your own computer or do you want to share? Are you comfortable with the thought of editing videos? Do you have a video editor? If not, make sure the camera comes with some video editing software. Lastly, video can take up a fair amount of space on a memory card. If it’s a feature you really think you’ll use, increase the size of the memory card you planned to buy.

Personally, I like having a video setting on my camera. It offers a very high quality video level but because I have a video camera already, I find myself only shooting with low resolution on the digital camera. This way I keep the files small enough to share online and through emails. My advice would be to take the feature if its there but don’t worry about the details too much.

Macro

What’s a Macro? Did you mean Micro? Nope. Macro is a lens setting. Lenses have a minimum focus range, kind of like your own eyes. Hold a piece of paper up at arms length and focus on the writing. Now move the paper closer. At a certain point your eyes can no longer focus on the words. The same is true of any lens. On most point and shoots that will be somewhere around 2-4 feet depending on the lens used. That means the camera just will not focus on anything closer than that. Usually not a problem until you want to take a detailed picture or a picture of something small. This is where Macro comes in.

A macro setting allows you to get up closer to a subject than the standard lens setting. This is helpful for close up shots of flowers, jewelry, or maybe a detail shot of a larger item. Even Macros have their limits though. Typically its measured in inches instead of feet but its still a limitation that will affect you if you take a lot of close up shots. Super Macro takes it a step further allowing you to focus on objects just an inch or two in front of the lens!

Personally, I think the Macro setting is a great feature to have. If you plan on any nature photography it’s a must. Its also something to consider if you’re planning to use your camera for shooting items for eBay or other online selling agent. A Macro or even better, Super Macro, will enable you to take great detailed shots of smaller items for sale. Super Macro is not as available as Macro though and neither are standard on every camera. Decide for yourself if you think shooting things up close is something you may do. If you regularly shoot small items, Macro is a must and Super Macro would be highly recommended.

Viewfinder

Believe it or not, not all digital cameras include a viewfinder. Because LCD screens are so prevalent, some cameras are going without the standard optical viewfinder or are replacing them with digital viewfinders. A digital viewfinder relies on a tiny LCD screen inside the view finder window to show you the framing of your picture rather than the standard through the body glass viewfinder.

Now, a viewfinder may seem like a lame option to discuss but it does matter. Because LCDs are backlit, they’re very hard to see in bright light. This means that in an outdoor situation, on a sunny day with the sun behind you, it may be very difficult to see the image on the LCD. If you don’t have a viewfinder, you’ll be forced to just hope you’re seeing enough on the screen and take the shot.

With a standard, glass viewfinder, you have an issue of parallax. This is an issue we’ve all experience with 35mm point and shoot cameras. You line up the shot with the viewfinder and everyone is in the frame. When you get the pictures back, uncle Fred has the left half of his body cut off! What happened? Because the viewfinder is separate from the lens, and in fact off the side and above, they’re really aiming at different places. At greater distances this will be less noticeable but up close, it’s a problem. To get around this, you’ll have to allow space around your subject so you can crop later.

Digital viewfinders offer a compromise. You can look through a viewfinder to avoid bright light and glare but because you’re viewing an LCD screen, it has the same, through the lens view as the LCD panel on the back of the camera. As with any compromise, there is sacrifice. The LCD screens in digital viewfinders are usually small and of a pretty low resolution. This makes the images in them appear a bit grainy. Its still better than a parallax viewfinder in terms of accuracy but not a substitute for the back panel, just a good backup.

Personally, I have a digital viewfinder and really like it for outside shots. I certainly would not have paid a lot of extra money just for this feature, however. The reality is there are very few times when an LCD screen will be unreadable in daylight so you should be able to work through it. Like the Macro setting, it’s a nice feature but unless your particular intended style of photography demands it, a digital viewfinder isn’t essential.

Summary

This takes us to the end of the big stuff. We’ve now covered most of the major features in point and shoot digital cameras and even explained how they work a bit. You should have a lot more confidence now walking into that electronics department to find your perfect camera.

Next time we’ll wrap this up by covering some of the odds and ends of cameras that we haven’t covered. I’ll also post a list of links for digital camera review sites and manufacturers.

By now, you should feel like you can at least narrow down your choices when you step into that electronics store looking for a digital camera. Its no longer just a counter of 30 cameras that all look the same to you. Now we’re going to help you break down some of the bells and whistles associated with digital cameras. I call these bells and whistles because not every single camera has these features.

Types of Cameras

We know we’re talking about digital cameras but even with that category there are a few different types. Some people may break these down differently and you could probably slip them up into tinier categories until you cried but here’s the way I think of it.

Point and Shoot

This is one giant category. It covers everything from the small, pocket sized cameras, to large ultra zoom cameras that look a bit like 35mm SLR cameras. What these cameras have in common is that they use a view finder and/or an LCD screen to help you compose the picture.

In a point and shoot, the camera operator needs only point the camera in the right direction, center their subject, and press the shutter button. The camera takes care of everything else including focusing! This is by far the most popular camera for amateur shooters and because so many are made, you are bound to find one in your price range. They can sell for anywhere between $100 and $800 depending on the bells and whistles attached.

One of the strongest points of these cameras is their ability to let you preview a picture on an LCD screen before you snap away. The LCD screens are anywhere from 1.5” to 3” wide depending on the model and can make the difference between an opportunity wasted, and a great shot.

D-SLR

D-SLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. These are the cameras you traditionally think of when you thing of a 35mm. They have a big cylindrical lenses and a rectangular body. In an SLR camera, you look through a viewfinder in the back of the camera. This guides you, with the use of mirrors, to the view through your lens. When you press the shutter release, the mirror in the back of the lens flips up exposing the film, or in this case the sensor, to the image you are shooting.

The huge benefit of the SLR is that you get to see exactly what the camera’s lens sees and even preview the effects of aperture. They also allow you to change out lenses depending on your needs. Wide angle, telephoto, macro lenses, and more can be swapped out as the situation demands. If this is all over your head, don’t worry. D-SLRs are the toys of professionals and serious amateurs only. Their price tags start at about $600 for an entry level camera with no lens and go well up into the thousands.

LCD

Almost every digital camera on the market today has an LCD screen on it that allows you to compose, preview, and review your photos. In my humble opinion, this is the single biggest practical advantage that a digital camera has. Because you can review the pictures instantly you can see whether someone blinked, made a funny face, turned away, or in some other way ruined the picture and before they walk away, you can try again. Think about how many shots you took on vacation only to find out two weeks later when the prints came back that the photos you took in Hawaii didn’t come out. That won’t happen with digital unless you want it to.

Of course, simply having an LCD doesn’t make for perfect previews. LCD screens cost money and therefore are often small on less expensive cameras. A small LCD will still give you an idea of what you’re shooting but you’ll easily miss some finer details. For instance, a shot that looks great on a small LCD may prove to be a little out of focus once its printed. This is because the LCD view was too small to reveal the detail.

An additional LCD feature is its ability to be repositioned. While many cameras have a stationary LCD on the back of the camera, many more are offering LCDs that are on hinged panels. This allows you to reposition the LCD so that you can take difficult shots (shots with the camera over your head, at your waste, or even self portraits) while still being able to see the LCD screen and align the shot.

As with many things, bigger is better with an LCD. Get as large an LCD as you can manage without sacrificing too much else (resolution, zoom). A positionable LCD will open the door to many more types of shots but because you were never able to do it before, it may not be worth it if it means going with a smaller LCD. 1.5” is about as small as you’ll see in an LCD today. The average is somewhere around 2” with some hitting 2.5” or even 3”. The important thing is to look at them in the store to really judge their readability.

Controls

Even with a point and shoot camera that is fully automatic, you are likely to find some level of manual adjustability. Many more expensive cameras will offer Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual Priority, Manual Focus, or multiple program shooting. If your head is vibrating and about to explode, count backwards from 10.

The simple answer her is that you only need be concerned with most of this if you are interested is photography as a hobby. If you are, you should check out some photography websites to learn more. If you’re a shooter only concerned with preserving memories as simply as possible, this is pretty basic.

Without getting into too much detail, different situations call for different camera settings. For example, shooting fireworks calls for a much different setup than shooting a daytime landscape. Shooting an indoor portrait is much different from shooting a track meet. Even an automatic camera will have a tough time differentiating between the two. That’s why in some cameras, Shooting Modes are employed. Different manufacturers will call this feature different things but the bottom line is that these shooting modes, adjust the camera’s settings to best capture what you’re shooting.

Let’s say you’re shooting a birthday party, just set the camera to Party Mode and its setting adjust to best shoot that situation. At your son’s baseball game? Set the camera for Sports Mode and it adjusts for it. There can be as few as two or three or a dozen such shooting modes on a camera that has them.

Why be concerned about these modes? By using them, you can allow your camera to take the best pictures possibly. Without it, the camera will average tings out which may result in blurred action shots, or under-lit portraits.

To find out if a camera you’re interested in has these modes, you may be best reading about the camera’s features on the manufacturer’s web site or on one of the many camera review sites (I’ll post those at the end of the feature.)

Summary

Now you know you’re looking for a point and shoot camera. You also know that you want an LCD screen and that while you’d like a movable screen, you’d go for a bigger screen over a movable one. Finally you know that while you don’t need to get full control over your camera, you would like one with preset shooting modes for common photo situations.

I promised more about other bells and whistles this week but I’ve once again proven to be long winded! Next time we’ll cover features like Anti-Shake, Video, and others.

What’s All This Megapixel, Memory, 3x Zoom Nonsense?

With all the terminology that gets thrown around in digital camera sales, its amazing that anyone gets what they want. Its so easy to be baffled by the jargon that most people give up and just trust the salesperson who often doesn’t really know much more than the confused shopper! So let me try to demystify this a little by explaining the core features of a digital camera.

Megapixel
The base component of digital photography is the pixel. A pixel is, quite simply, a point of light. A digital image is made up of hundreds of thousands or even millions of pixels. Each pixel has an assigned color so that when they are grouped together, they form a picture. The more pixels there are, the more detail. The example below shows two versions of the same picture. The one at left has twice as many pixels as the one at right and so appears much sharper. The more pixels the are, the more information the camera has to make an image sharp and clear.

When the tag on the camera refers to megapixels, its referring to how many pixels the camera will record on each shot or its resolution. A one megapixel camera will record approximately (they’re never exact) one million pixels in a picture. A 3.1 megapixel camera will record 3.1 million pixels, and so on. You may see this expressed as a ratio. For example a 3.1 megapixel camera may be explained as having a resolution of 2048×1536. If you multiply 2048 by 1536, you’ll get 3,145,728 though so it’s the same thing as 3.1 megapixels.

So how many megapixels do you need? The easy answer for me is “As many as you can afford.” It’s a bit of a cop out though so I’ll explain. The higher the resolution of the camera the higher the quality of the image. Most cameras on the market right now are at least 2.1 megapixels which is what I would say is the bare minimum for decent printed photos of up to 4″x6”. The low end standard on most of the cameras is at about 3.1 megapixels right now. That resolution is pretty good and will get you decent 4″x6” prints. At 5″x7” you’re less likely to get a real good print though. If you are interested in printing 5×7 or larger, you should look more toward a 5 or even 6 megapixel camera.

Memory

If pixels are what the camera records, a memory card is how it stores it. Digital cameras today are using flash memory which does not need moving parts to store data and can be made using very small, plastic cards.

When you buy a camera, it will come with a memory card. This card will be enough to play around with but will likely hold very view pictures taken at the highest resolution of the camera. Most come with 16 or 32 megabyte (mb) cards. As an example, a 16mb card would hold about 7-8 pictures on a 4 megapixel camera. Hardly impressive. That means you’ll have to buy a memory card.

Flash memory cards come in a few flavors currently. The popular ones in cameras now are Compact Flash, SD, XD, and the Sony Memory Stick (click here for a chart of memory card types). The camera you buy will take one of these but only one. None have a huge advantage over another but compact flash cards usually have the highest possible capacity, something that won’t be relevant unless you buy a very expensive camera. SD cards are a bit smaller and very popular in most point and shoots. XD is even smaller and popular with the ultra compact cameras. Sony uses its Memory Stick in all its cameras.

So which card should you get? First, don’t let the card type influence your decision on the camera. For most people the type of card won’t matter unless you have a shoebox full on one type at home. Second buy as large a card as you can afford. I would recommend at least a 256mb card for most people. This will allow you to take over 120 pictures on a 4 megapixel camera. A 1 gigabyte card (often called 1 gig) will hold twice as many. You might say, “Tom, there’s no way I’m taking 250 pictures of anything.” You might be right but trust me, once you are free of the limitations of film rolls, you take a lot more pictures. Add the fact that you can use the camera’s LCD screen to show off previous pictures, and you need the space. Remember this; the higher the resolution or megapixels your camera has, the larger the images it creates. That means that a 256mb card may hold 120 images from a 4 megapixel camera but it will only hold 80 from a 6 megapixel camera. Click here for an interactive chart on memory card size and capacity.

I would suggest buying two cards for piece of mind. Should something, anything, happen to your primary card on vacation or at a wedding, you’ll always have a backup if you buy two cards. The second card does not have to be as large (although that would be nice) just a good size to get you out of a jam. Additionally, if you fill up a card with tons of great shots, a backup card will allow you to keep shooting without interruption.

Zoom

One of the most important features of a point and shoot digital camera is its ability to zoom. A camera with little or no zoom will allow you to take good pictures only of the things you can physically close to. For example, you take the kids to the zoo and get great shots of them eating an ice cream cone right in front of you. They fill the picture completely. When you try to take a picture of the tiger in the back of its enclosure though, all you get is a little, striped thing in a big field of green grass.

Unless you plan to take pictures only in settings where you will be close to your subjects, consider zoom as an important factor. With zoom, the camera’s lens can focus in on a subject far away and make it seem closer. In digital cameras, zoom is measured in multiples of the base focal length. For example, most digital cameras now have a focus length beginning at 35mm. A camera with 3x zoom would have focal lengths between 35mm and 105mm. The bottom line being that the higher the number before the “x” the closer you will be able to zoom in. As I type this, 12x is about as high as you can get in a point and shoot.

How much zoom do you need? It depends on what you want to photograph. If you shoot mostly family events, something in the 3x zoom range will work fine. If you are interested in nature photography though, a 10 or even 12x zoom would allow you to close in on wildlife without having to risk spooking them by getting physically closer. Try out the camera’s zoom in the store to see what the zoom length means practically and decide what best suits your needs.

Whatever you do, do not be confused by “Digital Zoom.” Digital Zoom refers to a method of zooming in on an object by reducing the pixel count. With Digital Zoom no extra information is collected in the picture so it loses resolution. It is useless and should not be considered a selling feature. Concern yourself only with “Optical Zoom.” Optical Zoom is sometimes just called zoom but “Digital Zoom” is always labeled as such.

The Basics

So now you know you’re looking for a camera with at least 3.1 megapixels but if you want to print larger than 4″x6″ you’ll want higher resolution of around 5 or 6 megapixels. You also know what to look for in a media card. Look for two so you have a backup and shoot for around a 256 or 512 megabyte size. Finally you know that optical zoom is important for any picture opportunity that doesn’t let you get up close to your subject.

Next time we’ll take a run at the bells and whistles of cameras that can get people really confused like LCD size, anti shake features, video, and controls.

I’m not expert, in anything, but I’m often asked for my opinion on things by friends and family. I thought it might be fun to put some of that down in print as it may be helpful to others. In this instance, I want to try to explain a little bit about digital cameras to those who are new to them. So, I’m starting this little series of posts to explain what I know about digital cameras and what you should know before you buy one.

I’m So Confused

If you’re not a technically savvy person, cameras probably freak you out a little. Digital cameras probably terrify you. If you own a camera its probably the simplest, fool proof, point and shoot camera you could find. You walked into the store bewildered, listened to everything the teenager in the blue polo shirt told you about the camera, bought what he told you to, and ran. You’re not alone, and you’re brave compared to the soles who are still using their 110 Kodaks or their Disc cameras for fear of getting digital.

I want to give you a little base of knowledge for digital camera so that at the very least, you can do a little research and pick the best camera for you. We’ll start by talking about what a digital camera is in the first place and move on through to selecting the one that fits your needs best.

What’s a Digital Camera

Unless you’ve been holed up in a Montana shed for 5 years or making furniture and churning butter on a farm in Pennsylvania, you have at least a vague idea of what a digital camera is. It doesn’t use film and it has something to do with computers or something, right? Its actually no crazier in concept than a film camera, its just different.

In a film camera, a chemical coated film is exposed to light through a shutter. The timing of that exposure or, shutter speed, determines how much light hits the film. Since everything around us reflects light, the film captures those light reflections in color or black and white to create a photograph. In a digital camera, the film is replaced by a Charged Coupling Device (CCD) or CMOS (depending on the camera) and a memory card. Instead of burning an image onto film, a digital camera records light in pixels and stores the recording as images on a memory card.

You now have a digital image instead of a film negative. There are a lot of practical benefits of a digital image over a film negative. For one thing, you don’t need a lot of space to store them. You can store hundreds of images on one compact disc. When you want to make prints, you no longer have to drop your negatives off at the photo lab and wait. You can go to your local drug store, pop your disc or memory card in a machine, view your pictures on screen and print the ones you want while you stand there. Sharing your photos is easier too. You can email a picture or post a photo on any one of the many free photo sharing web sites instead of lugging around a photo album. Operating costs are much less as well. You never need to spend money on film and although you still pay for prints, you choose which prints you want. There’s no need to print a whole roll of 24 or 36 pictures only to find your thumb blocked 3, people were making goofy faces in 6, 4 were underexposed, etc.

Once you get comfortable with digital photography, you’ll find that touch ups and modifications to your pictures are pretty easy to do. Not so long ago, only professional photographers with lots of darkroom skills could do things like erase skin blemishes or improve the lighting in a shot. Now, with relatively inexpensive programs, you can do these things and more to your photos.

In short, a digital camera offers you far more versatility today than a film camera. Regardless of your purpose for taking photographs you should consider a digital. Whether you just take pictures at birthday parties and vacations or aspire to breathtaking landscape photos, you can benefit from a digital camera.

Next time I’ll talk about the key ingredients you need to look for in a digital camera and what the hell they mean! In the mean time, feel free to post any questions you have in the comments and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.