The Selection

Once you have your Category and Criteria, you can now make your Choice. It is pretty much a matter of matching the digital cameras in your category against your criteria. Now, your confidence level is much higher than you first started. A salesperson will not be able to sell you more than you need or less than you need. You should by now have narrowed down your choices to two or three digital cameras you want to personally handle and try out before deciding on the one that is right for you. More often than not, it will come down to how it handles, whether it is too small or too heavy for you, and the all important price. Do not miss this all important step to try it out first, which means a return guarantee from the vendor in case you don't like it during the trial period (it's usually 2 weeks, but get it in writing from the vendor).

Digital camera technology is advancing at an accelerated pace (perhaps even faster than the PC did) and you should not view your first purchase as your last. So don't worry too much if you make a "mistake." This also means that you cannot really afford to sit back and wait for the "perfect" model. Only you can decide what you can afford and when you can afford it. Though digital cameras in the serious and advanced categories are still high compared to their 35mm film counterparts, entry-level (point-and-shoot and beginner categories) digital camera prices have come down drastically and are now very affordable.

What's (Really) Important To Me?

Digital cameras in each category tend to offer pretty much the same feature set at the same price point than their competitors. So, how do you decide among them? Having decided on the Category, you now have to figure out what Criteria are important to you. Do you want something you can easily slip into your jeans pocket and take anywhere? Do you need a wide-angle? Panorama capability? Movie capability? At first, you may decide you want all of these, and the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure. Then you look at the price and you realize you cannot afford it. So, you have to decide which criteria really matter to you. As an example, if you're into macro photography, then you need a digital camera that can focus in real close; if you want to be able to carry it in your jeans pocket, then you need an ultra-compact model.

To help you in this quest, we have decided not to feature all the available digital cameras on the market। Only a subset make it in our list. They are the ones our editors believe are the best in their respective categories. That does not mean there are not as good or even better ones out there. There are a couple of reasons why we may not include some digital cameras in our list:

• The most important reason is that we do not know enough about them, either because the manufacturers do not provide enough information, and/or there are not enough users out there who have a positive comment about them.
  

• We try to avoid private labels। What private label means is simply that a company takes the digital camera made by another company (which usually makes a "cheap" generic model) and puts its own brand on it. (Note: This is not the same as two companies which combine their respective R&D and strengths to put out the same camera under their respective brands.)
  
• We already cover one of the "similar" model in case 2।
• The manufacturer has a lot of models which approximate one another on features; so, we select one or two from the group.

3 Cs to Choosing Your First Digital Camera

Where Do You Fit?

Once you understand these categories, mosey over to our Buyer's Guide and take a look at the digital cameras we have sloted into each category. This should help narrow down your choices. Check out the QuickFact™ Sheets to get a better idea of why a camera falls into a particular category. If we have reviewed the camera, see if you fit its User Profile.

3 Cs to Choosing Your First Digital Camera

The Four Categories

It helps to understand how camera manufacturers divide up the digital camera market. Basically, the consumer digital camera space is divided up into four categories: Point-and-Shoot, Beginner, Serious, and Advanced. [Notice, we did not mention a fifth category which is the "Pro" category and which targets both the amateur "pros" as well as the professional "pros."] You have to decide the Category you fit into.

Point-and-Shoot: This crowd is the bread and butter of the camera manufacturers. They want a digital camera that is easy to use, takes good pictures, and does not require them to even break open the User Guide. Interestingly, most digital cameras from the other categories can also be used in a point-and-shoot mode, and this crowd has been known to spend $$$ to get "the best" -- yet use only a fraction of the features they are paying for. But then again, there are not too many strictly point-and-shoot digital cameras today; the technology has advanced to the point that a digital camera targeted to the point-and-shoot crowd will usually also have more features than they need. I wouldn't recommend you buy from the Advanced category because these higher-end models might require you to fiddle with more settings than you'd be comfortable with to get good pictures.

Beginner: Here is the budding photographer who wants a digital camera to start off with. A strictly point-and-shoot camera might do the trick, but may not permit too much experimentation. A digital camera in this category should not cost too much but must provide the ability to experiment so the beginner can learn the basics of photography. This is also the time to head off to your neighbourhood library and loan out a couple of photography books on composition and exposure control.

Serious: The beginner has exhausted the capabilities of his or her digital camera and is ready to try out more advanced features, including manual modes, white balance selection, and exposure bracketing. The serious amateur photographer has also a better understanding of the type of photography she or he prefers: landscape, portraits, macro, sports, street, etc. and may seek out a digital camera that is good at that particular type of photography.

Advanced: Once you reach this level, I don't see you asking, "Which digital camera should I buy?" You know what you want, what you don't really care for, and what you are willing to live with. You know there is no such beast as the perfect digital camera, and you don't waste your time and energy debating "my digital camera is better than yours." You simply have no desire to debate any of these things because you are out there busy making pictures (yeah, that's not a typo: making, not just simply taking). You probably demand the best in image quality, rapid performance, reliability, and flexibility; but then you may also purchase the digital camera that "the majority" denigrate but which you consider is right for you. In fact, you can take excellent pictures with a digital camera from any of the four categories.

Panorama (Stitch Assist) vs. Wide-Angle

An interesting development with digital cameras is the "panorama" or "Stitch Assist" feature which allows you to take a number of regular shots and digitally "stitch" them together in an image editing software to produce a panoramic picture. This is a great development and panoramic pictures can be breathtaking to view. It is very impressive when used to take a large group of people, say a club's members or a large family with grandparents and grandchildren, all lined up. Panoramic landscapes are my favorites.

[Editor's note: Do not be confused with the 'Panorama' feature on film APS cameras. This is nothing but an after-the-fact in-the-photo-lab cropping and enlargement. In fact, no matter which picture mode you select, the film APS camera always capture the picture in the 'H' picture mode. In the photolab, the printer reads which mode you selected, then just crops and enlages it to 'simulate' the desired effect. Bottom line, it ain't panoramic and shouldn't really be called panoramic. It can give a nice effect sometimes, though, when used imaginatively.]

Some people have confused the ability of a digital camera to take panoramic pictures with the ability of a lens to provide a good wide-angle coverage. It is an understandable confusion, but really, it is not the same thing and we do not get the same results when either displaying on a PC monitor or in prints.

A lens with a good wide-angle coverage (say, 24 mm) will allow you to include more of the picture in the same one frame. To contrast, a panoramic picture needs many frames to cover the same angle. In other words, I can capture all the glory of a breathtaking view with a wide-angle lens and display it on my PC monitor. With panoramic pictures, the same coverage will be bigger than your PC monitor and you'll have to scroll left and right to view the image. Ditto, on an 11x14 in. print. Different beasts for different purposes.

I hope this clarifies the difference a bit. We are all awaiting camera manufacturers to bring out digital cameras with better wide-angle coverage. I'd rather have a lens with 28-112mm coverage (4x optical zoom) than one with 35-140mm coverage (also 4x optical zoom). With the first one, I get a good wide-angle at 28mm, normal coverage at 50mm, and a good portrait coverage at 112 mm (all using 35mm camera equivalent). With the second, I get normal coverage at 35mm, a good portarit coverage at 112-135mm, and so-so telephoto coverage at 140mm.

Light Metering

To properly expose a picture, your camera has to measure how much light is available. Suppose you are shooting a picture where your main subject is in the shade but it is otherwise a very bright sunny day. If the camera takes a Centre Weighted-Average light measure, it gives extra weight to the centre of the frame, then averages it with the rest of the frame. If the surrounding light is bright enough, the meter might be "fooled" by the bright light all around your main subject, and the main subject might come out underexposed. In this case, it might be better to switch to Spot Metering so your camera takes its light measurement only on your main subject. The result is that the main subject is now properly exposed, though the surroundings might be somewhat overexposed, which might be OK in this particular situation. Matrix Metering takes light measurement from various areas of the framed shot and then sets the exposure accordingly. Different cameras have different light metering schemes, but they are mostly variants of the three basic ones we have just discussed. You would want to favor digital cameras that give you spot metering, plus one or both of the other two light metering options.

Exposure Control / Shooting Modes

Most consumer digital cameras today feature Scene Modes. Scene modes are simply preset exposure/shutter speed combinations (together with white balance and exposure compensation) to account for most of the common picture-taking situations, such as portraits, indoor fluorescent lighting, landscape, and night scene. Scene modes save you from having to fidget around with the aperture, shutter speed, white balance and exposure compensation to obtain proper exposure.

A note of caution is in order when talking about scene modes. The fact that a digital camera offers a particular scene mode does not necessarily mean that you will be able to capture good images with that scene mode. Let me elaborate in more detail, with the following examples, what I mean:

Let's say a digital camera offers a Sports or Action scene mode. You might think that this means you will be able to capture great action shots with this digital camera, right? Maybe. It all depends on what the digital camera offers technically.

To understand this completely, let's review what are the necessary technical requirements for being able to successfully freeze a fast action shot: 1) a fast shutter speed (say, 1/1,000 sec.); 2) a wide aperture (say, F1.8); 3) a powerful flash; 4) ISO of 400 and above; 5) white balance for fluorescent and tungsten lighting; 6) a small shutter lag (you'll never catch the action if the shutter clicks 2 sec. after you press the shutter release).

Let's assume your digital camera offers a shutter speed of 1/1,000 sec. -- fast enough to stop action. It has a maximum aperture of F2.8 -- OK for outdoors action shots in bright sunlight, OK for indoors action shots using a powerful enough flash, but not quite wide enough for indoors action shots where flash is not permitted. In the latter case, you've got no recourse but to increase the film equivalent sensitivity to ISO 400 or above. Now, there are not too many digital cameras, except for the very expensive digital Single Lens Reflexes (dSLRs), that deal well with the increase in noise level at the higher ISOs. And if your digital camera only offers a film equivalent of ISO 100, you're stuck! The Sports or Action scene mode on your digital camera is, for all practical purposes, useless to you if indoors action shots without flash is what you're after.

Similarly, Night Scene mode is really useful if a digital camera provides a shutter speed of 1 sec. and slower, and perhaps even bulb (where the shutter remains open as long as you depress the shutter release). But if the slowest shutter speed is 1/30 sec., ummm... not much is possible as far as night pictures are concerned even though the camera offers a Night Scene mode.

[Not exactly a scene mode, but also consider the case of a digital camera that offers ISO sensitivity of 100, 200, 400 and 800. But, if the noise level at ISO 200 and higher is unacceptable, then, for all practical purposes, the higher ISOs are useless (unless a 'noisy' picture is the 'image effect' you're after). So, when comparing digital cameras, do not trust 100% the features on paper -- it pays to read actual users' opinions to ensure whether a particular feature is usable in practice.]

Ensure that the camera can technically fulfill whatever requirements are necessary to capture the shots you're after. Review our tutorial for further details about the technical requirements for scene modes.

White Balance

The image sensor in a digital camera does not "see" light the same way that film does. The sensor just receives light, generates an analog charge that must then be interpreted by software to digital pixels. This gives digital cameras the ability to adjust color in camera. What white balance allows a digital camera to do is to calibrate all the colors based on the color White. In finding a reference white, all other colors are adjusted accordingly. The better digital cameras allow you to calibrate the white balance using a white (or gray) card. Ensure that your digital camera allows you to select different white balance setting for different situations, such as outdoors, cloudy, fluorescent, and tungsten.

A Note on Shutter Speed/Aperture/ISO

To properly expose a picture, your camera needs to let in enough light to reach the film or image sensor (in the case of a digital camera). So, let's assume we set a fixed aperture (the opening of the iris in the lens that allows light in).

In a sunny situation, there's a lot of light, so a camera set on Auto mode will usually select a fast shutter speed (say, 1/125 sec. or 1/500 sec.) so the image sensor is exposed for only a short time to the light.

In a cloudy or dark situation, the camera on Auto mode will usually select a slow shutter speed (say, 1/30 sec. or 1/15 sec.) so as to allow the image sensor to be exposed for a longer time.

Basically that's how shutter speed works for a selected aperture. Usually, however, the camera on Auto mode will select different combinations of shutter speed and aperture to obtain proper exposure.

In general, the following applies: a small aperture means less light reaches the image sensor, so the camera needs to open the shutter for a long time; a large aperture lets in more light, so the shutter speed opens for a short time.

You can also set the image sensor sensitivity (ISO) to affect exposure. A high ISO needs less light, a low ISO needs more light for proper exposure. Common problem with current consumer digital cameras is that high ISOs introduce quite a bit of noise as to be mostly unusable, so don't get fooled by 'features on paper.'

Shutter Speed

Your camera relies on the combination of aperture and shutter speed to determine proper exposure. If you have a wide range of shutter speeds, you have more latitude in deciding what aperture to use and what kind of pictures you can take. If you have a limited range of shutter speeds, or worse only three or four shutter speeds, you might find that most of your shots are underexposed, or the camera applies software techniques to "boost" the available light by manipulating the image captured, which usually results in loss of image quality. So, even though you might buy a high resolution digital camera, your limited shutter speed range may effectively diminish the image quality you obtain in capturing a properly exposed picture (e.g. the camera might have to use a higher ISO setting and introduce noise in your picture). Bottom line: ensure that your digital camera provides a full range of shutter speeds ranging all the way from fast (e.g. 1/1,000 sec.) to slow (1 sec. or more).

Maximum Aperture

Why should you care what the maximum aperture is? Simple, the maximum aperture decides how much light your camera lets in to record the picture. The larger it is, the more light gets in, thus allowing you to shoot in a bigger range of lighting situations. With a large enough aperture, you could shoot on a cloudy day without the use of flash; you could shoot action pictures using a fast shutter speed; you could shoot portraits and throw the background out of focus.

If the maximum aperture is small to start out with, you can only shoot in a limited range of lighting situations, and would be overly relying on the flash to provide enough light to properly expose your shots. And more often than not, the camera flash is pretty weak and useful mainly as fill-in flash. You would be using slow shutter speeds which means that action shots without flash would be impossible. Slow shutter speeds also mean that any movement on your part (i.e. camera shake) results in blurred pictures.

Some digital cameras have a limited aperture range. Instead of an iris that opens (larger aperture, more light gets in and less depth of field) and closes (smaller aperture, less light gets in and more depth of field) in increments, they might have only 2 preset aperture settings. In fact, some might not have an iris at all, which means that you cannot really control depth of field. The aperture might be "electronically controlled" by moving a filter into the light path to cut off the amount of light reaching the image sensor; this, in effect, simulates a smaller aperture setting but depth of field is not affected. Is this good or bad? Well, the jury is still out on this one. Technically, 2 preset apertures with no ability to control depth of field is a limiting factor for those who want to explore digital photography, but if such a camera takes superb pictures, and you're just interested in point-and-shoot, then who is to complain? Keep an open mind, and don't judge a digital camera only by its features -- it's the picture quality that counts in the final analysis.

Storage Media

How much storage media is enough? Some beginners wonder why people get so hung up with large storage media when we previously could at most capture 36 exposures on film? They're wrong, of course, because we were never satisfied with 36 exposures and carrying all those rolls of film in our pockets were a real bother. Pros attach a film back to their SLR, giving them hundreds of exposures. Wonder why they would do such a thing? :)

Anyway, a good rule of thumb is the following: at least 128MB for a 3 megapixel digital camera and at least 256MB for a 4 megapixel digital camera. The reason that 'bigger is better' is because it's a real bother to change film or memory card (it usually happens when things just start to get interesting around you) and you risk missing a good picture. After all we are talking digital here, so forget the past. There's just no good reason to change memory cards. Having said that, it is always a good idea to have a spare memory card with you in the odd and rarest of unlucky chance that the first one should stop working for any reason (when this kind of rarest of event happens to you, it is a good time to go out and purchase a lottery ticket ).

You also want to shoot at the highest resolution at all times, which means that you need all the storage space you can get. Shooting at the highest resolution allows you to print a nice sized 8x10 in. photograph to hang on your wall or to crop a smaller part of the picture and blow it up without loss of quality.

Megapixels Resolution

How many megapixels resolution should your digital camera be able to capture? The more pixels you have, the larger the prints you can print. Consider the following table, and the answer becomes obvious:Megapixels Print Size
2 4x6 in.
3 8x10 in.
4 11x14 in.
5 20x30 in.


It is not just a matter of print size, for you may not want to ever print your pictures. The print size gives you an indication -- serves as a proxy for -- the quality of the image you can capture. Here at Photoxels, we recommend that you consider only digital cameras with 3+ Megapixels resolution. This way, you will never regret capturing that superb shot -- but due to the low resolution of your digital camera, it does not display or print like the way you saw it in the viewfinder or on the LCD.

The higher megapixels also allows you to crop and enlarge ('digital zoom') your original image in an image editing software without noticeably losing too much quality.

[Editor's note: A note of caution is necessary here. The megapixels resolution of a digital camera is the number of pixels it uses to capture an image. In general, the more megapixels, the more detailed the image that is captured. However, the captured image is then saved, usually as a jpeg file which is compressed. Most digital cameras allow you to specify the amount of compression to use: the less the compression, the bigger the file and the more detailed the image saved; the more the compression, the smaller the file and the less detailed the image saved. However, many beginner cameras do not give you that option and save the image with a lot of compression. So, even if a digital camera is advertised as 5MP and theoretically you should be able to obtain a 20x30 in. print from it, the truth of the matter is that it may save its final image with too much compression to provide the amount of detail necessary to print such a large print.]

all in one card reader(Digital camera )

Features: USB2.0 All in 1 Card reader

More Features:

Four flash memory slots offering simultaneous read and write capabilities, bootable
feature, and hot-swapping (inserts or removes flash memory card without turning off the system)
One front panel 2.0 ports for easy front panel access. Offering high-speed data transfer rate of up to 480Mbps
Backward compatible with USB 1.1 specification
Two (2) front panel diagnostic LED lights
Designed for standard 5.25 drive bay
Driver required for Win95/98/2000/NT
Cards type supported by 9 in 1 card reader: CF I/II, SM, SD, MC, MS, MSP, MD, Mini SD Card
Cards type supported by 12 in 1 card reader:CF I/II ,SM,SD,MC,MS,MSP,MD,Mini SD,Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro,Memory Stick Duo Card
Cards type supported by 18 in 1 card reader:CF I//I, IBM Microdrive,SM,SD,MSP,Mini SD,T-Flash,MMC-II,RS-MMC,Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro,Memory Stick Duo, Memory stick Magic gate Pro,Memory stick Mag



General specification


Compatible with Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98,98SE
Compliant with USB2.0 Specification
Compliant with USB1.1 Specification
Supports PCI-Bus Power Management Interface 1.1 Specification
Supports 1.5/12/480 Mbps data transfer rate



Support


Compact Flash Type I
Compact Flash Type II
IBM Microdrive
SD
Mini SD
T-Flash Card
Smart Media
MMC
MMC-II
RS-MMC
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
Memory Stick Duo
Memory Stick Pro Duo
Memory Stick MagicGate
Memory Stick MagicGate Puo
Memory Stick MagicGate Duo

Getting To Know Your Digital Camera

OK, so Santa was nice to you and brought you that digital camera you wanted. Now what? The one big advantage of owning a digital camera over a film camera is you don't have anymore film developing and printing expenses. Yeah! You can now experiment to your heart's content by taking hundreds of pictures (without first talking to your bank manager).


Ever tried that? If all you do is use Auto mode, there's not much you'll learn. But if you switch to Manual (or Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority, or Scene Mode) and start using different settings for the same picture, you might just start understanding your digital camera, and, more importantly, what it does best.

So, let us venture outside in this cold January (for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, brrr), and select a scene (such as a branch covered with snow) as our subject.

We set our camera on a tripod because we are going to take multiple shots of the same scene, so we do not want the camera to move. We first take a picture of our scene using Auto mode. We note down the settings, switch to Manual mode, and use slightly different settings than the one used in Auto mode.

For example, we might compensate the exposure by +1/3 EV, and take a second picture. We then take a third picture with exposure compensation of -1/3 EV.

Next, we play with the White Balance, and take a couple of pictures. We turn on fill-in flash, and take another picture. We try all the different settings our camera allows us. This is going to take us some time, but that's OK because we're having fun.

We stop when we have either filled up our digital camera's storage media -- or our face and fingers are too numb from the cold to handle it anymore. We go inside, make ourselves a hot cocoa, then settle down and review all the pictures we've just taken. While we do that, we plug in our battery into the recharger for the next picture taking session.

Which picture is the best one? We note the settings. Chances are it will not be the one where we used the Auto mode setting. In the case of the snow picture, it will probably be the one we took with the extra +1/3 EV.

Now we delete all the pictures except the one(s) we like, transfer them to our electronic photo album (or personal web site), noting down (in a special small notebook, if we desire to carry it as a handy reference with us) the settings for each picture.

There, next time we want to take a picture of this particular scene (snow on branch), we know the settings to use! The settings that our digital camera needs to be set at for the best quality image in this particular situation.

We can repeat this exercise with other situations: indoors, action pictures, macro photography, sunny skies, cloudy skies, portrait, etc. At the end of these photo exercises, we will know what our camera is capable of doing well -- and, perhaps more importantly, what it does not do well. In so doing, we will gain a better appreciation of -- and respect for -- our digital camera.

Too many times. we think we need more lenses, external flash, bigger storage media, even a better digital camera so we can take those fabulous pictures we see others take. Not that extra equipment won't help make better pictures, but if we're honest with ourselves, we might just be suffering a bit from equipment accumulation syndrome.

Consider that probably what you really need this Valentine from your significant other is not a better digital camera and extra equipment, but simply extra free time to first get to know your digital camera a little bit more intimately! Of course, your signifiant other should come first.

Digital Camera For Adventurers

Source:www.cameratown.com

When I was young, and money was even scarcer than it is now, I often left my camera at home when I went fishing or hiking, for fear of damaging it.

Because of that I missed a number of opportunities for pictures, and now, because of medical problems I can't revisit those places, so those shots are gone forever.

Well, if you're into rough stuff, or if you're just a clumsy person, but would like to have a high quality digital camera along for the ride then this new camera from Minox may be just right for you.

Minox has just introduced the 6 mega pixel, "DC 6033 WP", weather proof camera.

I have a small Minox 35mm camera, with a short zoom lens, and the pictures it produces are exceptionally sharp and contrasty. If this Minox digital camera is at all like that one then it's a winner.

Check it out here.

Take a camera with you whenever possible, and look around, you'll find a picture somewhere.