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Buying a digital camera?
IT is the wedding ceremony of your brother. You have been waiting for the occasion since last many months. You want to capture all the beautiful moments of this memorable day. On that special day you take your camera put a film in it. You shoot the whole film capturing some special and unforgettable moments. Next day you give the roll to laboratory for developing. But Oh! What is this? All the prints are black. You probably did not put the film roll properly and all the special moments are gone.
Give it a thought. It may be the time to buy a digital camera or digicam as it is popularly known.
What is a digicam?
Digicam is like any other camera. The only difference is that digicam does not use a film to take picture. Instead images are stored in the camera’s memory in the same way as the images store in hard drive of a computer. After you take the photos you can transfer them to your computer by plugging a cable into the camera, connecting it to your computer and copying your images to your hard drive. While saving an image, it would be saved as a .gif or .jpg file. These saved images can also be edited with Photo Shop or any other software. Then you can print, post on a web page, e-mailed to a friend or do as you please.
Why a digicam?
There are many reasons to buy a digicam. Firstly, the concept of an image has undergone a sea changed during last couple of years. An image is more than a print to be put in an album for display or to be decorated on a wall or a side table in a frame. With the advent of internet and e-mail, now digital images are displayed on personal web sites for sharing with dear and near ones all over the globe. Or images can be sent through email as an attachment. While an image on a paper can not be shared as widely. Through digicam images can be transferred in a computer without any scanner. From computer these images can be shared through internet.
Secondly, a conventional camera does not let you to view your captured shot while a digicam not only gives you a chance to view your shot before printing or sharing but it also enables you to edit or enhance the quality of the image. Through various softtwares, which are easily available in the market, you can remove such common defects in picture like red eye effect or a faulty focus. You can also enhance the quality of an image by adjusting colour, brightness or contrast. You can also put borders or change background or merge multiple images in one. Thus making your image better and beautiful,
Thirdly and most importantly digicam saves your cost in terms of film rolls. A normal digicam captures as much 200 images in its memory of 8 MB which can be enhanced up to 256 MB. It means thousands of images. You can get prints of selected images through a printer. Nowadays nearly all leading photo laboratories are letting you to bring images in floppy and get the prints on normal charges.
Some cameras even allow you to take Clip Motion images for your mobile phone. It means a digital image can be sent from one mobile phone to another mobile phone with digital features.
What to look for in a digicam?
Megapixel: Camera’s resolution is the number of pixels it can capture horizontally and vertically. More pixels mean better quality. Look for a digicam with at least 2MP of true optical resolution. Here’s a rough rule of thumb: 2MP will give you film-quality photos up to 6x9 inches, 3MP up to 8x10 4MP up to 11x14 inches, and 5MP up to 14 x 17 inches.
Zoom and lense: The length of camera’s lens determines what part of the scene will be visible. Less expensive models usually offer fixed lenses. More expensive digicams often have zoom lenses which let you shoot close-ups without the loss of resolution. Cameras can zoom anywhere from 2x to 24x. But a common user does not need a 24x zoom. It is not only very very expensive but sometime unnecessary for a common user. A 4x zoom would is enough for an average user.
LCD Screen: Most digicams come with optical viewfinder (a little window through which you look, just like in regular cameras), but some come with LCD viewer. It looks like a tiny TV screen at the back of camera which let you see your captured or stored image. LCDs range in size from 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide.
Batteries: Digicams require rather frequent battery replacement. Some digicams use rechargeable battery pack or even come with an AC adapter. Digicams can use AAA, AA or even lithium batteries. Some cameras provide rechargeable batteries that come with a charger.
Other Features: Off course you have to look for all regular feature which you usually look for in a conventional camera. It includes flash, self-timer, speed, size, compactness etc. some additional features may be useful including more storage which come in form of flash card. These cards can increase the storage capacity of your digicam from 8 MB to 256 MB. But it will definitely cost you some extra bucks.
Choosing the right thing
There are many factors that play pivotal role in choosing a right digicam for you. These factors include features a digicam holds, model and company and the most decisive factor price.
To start with, here are simple digicams with simple and plain job to do that is to capture a still image. It means there is no additional feature. Then there are digicams with some additional and sometimes necessary features. Some digicams come with webcam. It means you can not only take pictures but also can have video chat with your buddies. Other digicams are bundle with camadors which make you enable to shoot a movie for couple of minutes, depending upon your memory, or even for half an hour of digital movies of a function if you have additional memory cards. These movies can be downloaded in your computer in the same way you download images from your digicam. This movie can be played on computer or if you have cd-writere, these movies can be saved on writeable cd and can be viewed on any cd player. Even some digicams come with sound recorder. This feature allows you to record sound of any person in digital format. This sound recording can be sent as voice mail. There are many sites and email service providers with broad bandwidth that allow you to send voice or even video mail of a specific size. It all depends upon your need and limit of your pocket to choose any, all or none of these features.
Second important factor is manufacturing company. There are many companies that make digicams. These include from notable conventional camera manufacture like Nikon, Olympia, and Yashica to famous computer accessory manufactures like Intel, Canon, and Acer. There are also other relatively smaller companies with some great features and really affordable prices. Again it depends upon your taste and buying capacity.
Third and the important factor is price. As saying goes that more sugar you put more you get it sweeter. Digicams made by reputed companies are expensive but reliable and often come with some warranty. While of smaller companies are affordable. More these affordable digicams also give you more features. An Intel digicam with webcam but without LCD screen cost around 4200 rupees. While there other digicams with all aforementioned features range from 8000 to 30000 rupees depending upon model and company.
Last word
Digicams are still not in much vogue in Pakistan. Only handful of professionals and techi buffs use it. But digicams are going to be a regular feature of our daily life in near and foreseeable future. Still there are not good models and variety available in the market. It is likely that market will develop in six months to one year. It is advisable to start with a cheaper model and then go for better until prices are slashed down and you also become familiar with its working.
The <mkhalai@hotmail.com> is a freelance contributor
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