Digital Camera Terminology

Here is a quick summary of the Basic Terminology most often used when describing a digital camera's features and options.

This knowledge will put you far ahead of the general public and be of great benefit when choosing a camera that is just right for you.

So here are the most important and common terms used to specify a digital camera.

Resolution: Is a fancy term for quality. The higher the number of pixels (little points holding the photographic information), the better the image quality. This is measured in megapixels (millions of pixels)

Sensor: The internal element of the camera, that now acts like film used to, namely to record the image electronically, so that it may be stored in the memory for future use. The sensor is usually specified by type (ccd, cmos etc.) as well as number of pixels.

Megapixel: Determines the actual quality of the image recorded. Not long ago a 2.3 megapixel camera was regarded as reasonably high quality for domestic use. You were able to make postcard size pictures, that looked very good. Today a good quality compact camera, will have between 5 and 8 megapixel resolution. This allows you to take sharper pictures. The SLR cameras that professionals use, go as high as 12.8 megapixels, and studio equipment can go into the hundreds of megapixel. This is not required for all but the most demanding professionals.

For home use, taking pictures of the children, holiday snaps etc, anything around 5 megapixel and above will achieve excellent results. So no need to be lured into paying for a multi megapixel camera, unless you know that you will definitely use that quality.

Digital Zoom: Is used by a lot of compact cameras, to magnify the recorded image, effectively making it appear closer and larger. This is done by using a portion of the total image, and enlarging it to fill your frame of vision. This effectively reduces number of pixels available to make the image, so reducing the quality. For this reason, it is usually a good idea to get a higher megapixel camera if you intend to use the digital zoom function often.

Optical Zoom: This is different from the digital zoom as it uses the lens to actually magnify the image that is recorded. The image is captured by the sensor using all the available pixels, enabling no quality loss.

Memory type: This is required by any type of digital camera to electronically store the captured image. There is usually internal memory, built into the camera, and then external removable memory that the internal memory writes to to store the images. The memory used is not standardized by the industry. So Sony will use something called a memorystick, or memory stick ultra, Canon, Nikon and others use Compact Flash, then there are SD cards, mini SD Cards etc etc. There does not seem to be any real leader at this stage, so the actual type of memory would not be a deciding factor.

Memory Capacity and Speed: Even though the external memory types are inconsequential, the size and speed could be important. If you have a high megapixel camera, set to high resolution, each image could take up a lot of memory. So the bigger the external memory capacity, the more images you would be able to store. Modern memory comes in sizes of up to 16 gb (gb= gigabyte or 1000 million bytes) The speed of the memory determines how quickly the camera can write the images to the memory, enabling pictures to be taken in quicker succession.

Digital viewfinder: This is like a mini laptop screen, which displays the image that the sensor is seeing, enabling you to focus and frame your picture before taking it.

Optical viewfinder. This is a lens which is separate from the electronics, basically allowing you to position the image correctly, usually at a fixed magnification.

Once you understand the above, you are 90% ahead of the people using digital cameras. You will also be able to look at a product specification and make a more intelligent decision on its suitability for you.