Spy Diary

At one time photography was a hobby limited to those with bottomless pockets and a keen understanding of the mathematics of light, focal distances and other confusing terms and phrases. Pioneers such as George Eastman (of Kodak fame) introduced many inventions that brought photography to the masses bringing down the costs and simplifying the processes. With the appearance of the instant camera we saw the removal of the need to wait for long periods of time before we saw the results of our snaps. Today the film camera has been replaced by the digital camera and it is no longer necessary to even print our photo’s but have these advances made photography easier to understand?

If you have been investigating buying a digital camera you will be aware of the multitude of camera manufacturers out there today. Well known camera producers, such as Nikon and Canon now compete against companies usually associated with other electronic items and a huge number of small companies producing digital cameras a knock down prices. Which company do you choose and is that digital camera bargain such a deal after all or are you paying far too much for old technology repackaged?

Buying a digital camera can be confusing and there are a few things you should become familiar with before proceeding. The word megapixel will be recognized by many but not so many may recognize the word interpolation. If a camera uses interpolation another camera with the same amount of megapixels without interpolation will be superior. Interpolation is a digital method of increasing the megapixel size of a photo so that a 5mp photo will be the same as one taken using, say, an 8mp camera.

Another term which can confuse some is zoom. Basically there are two types of zoom, digital and optical and understanding them will help you pick up a digital camera bargain.

You will often see an impressive figure for digital zoom quoted on digital camera packaging but in actual fact you would be better off ignoring it. The reason for this is that digital zoom takes your photo and cuts it down in size (to the area you have zoomed into) and then simply enlarges this part. Of course the more you zoom in the more the photo degrades.

On the other hand, optical zoom, is something of importance. Optical zoom does not have an effect on the quality of your photo. Therefore you can zoom in and your image will still be as good quality as before. The greater the optical zoom the better the camera. However not all optical zoom is equal as the quality of the lens can vary between cameras.

It is usually the case that the more you pay for a lens the better it will be. One thing to remember is that a photo taken with a lens costing $thousands is bound to be far, far superior to the exact same photo taken using a camera which cost a couple $100.

What will you be using your camera for? This is important because if most of your photos will be of friends and general snaps you will not need to spend a small fortune on a DSLR camera with a large mm lens with a large optical zoom. In such cases a compact digital camera would be the best buy.

DSLR cameras and their lenses are really meant for professional photographers and although many folk are now buying them for home use it is a huge topic too great to explain here.

Personally I use a professional Canon DSLR and a superb Canon PowerShot A480 for quick snaps. I think the A480 is fantastic for the price and suitable for all manner of photography. It only has a 3.3x optical zoom but this is ok for most situations. When comparing cameras look at the specifications carefully and always read reviews before making your final decision.