Compact Digital Cameras – Explaining the Technology

As a new compact digital camera user you may be mystified about various aspects of digital camera technology and terminology. We’ve written this guide to assist you through the confusion in order for you to start to understand the technology better. We also hope to help you when choosing your new digital camera. A number of the important terms you need to be aware of include white balance, sensitivity, pixel and ppi and we will attempt to give an explanation for all of these here.

What are Pixels?

This term comes from picture element and every photograph is made up of several millions of these square pixels. when looked at all together the result is of a continuous, smooth photograph. One system to describe digital camers is by the pixel count, the pixels present in the image. ppi refers to the number of pixels per inch. The more pixels the smoother the photograph will appear and the larger the image can be blown up. The pixel count in modern digital cameras is generally between between one million and fourteen million. Digital cameras are labelled as 1 Mp or 10 Mp (where Mp = million pixels) for example. Most of the most popular cameras will have between two and five million pixels per photo.

Excellent prints of four by six inches can be made from a three Mp digital camera whereas 5×7″ prints will probably be a little lower in quality. For larger 8″ by 10″ prints a 4 or 5 Mp camera would be more suitable. For even bigger prints choose a camera with more pixels. Sometimes you might see total and effective pixels described for a digital camera. The number to consider is the effective pixels as this is what you will see in the image.

Sensitivity Settings

The settings for sensitivity on a digital camera are comparable to the ISO ratings for film. Most cameras have settings equivalent to the ISO 100 and 200 ratings of film. A number have settings that are similar to film’s ISO 400 rating. SLR digital cameras often have even higher settings, even up to ISO 6400. Quite a few cameras will automatically adjust to the most suitable sensitivity setting for the lighting and the mode.

Digital or Optical Zooms

The majority of digital cameras have digital and optical zoom. Digital zoom results in loss of picture quality because the way ot works is to crop the image then enlarge the picture to the required size. This is the same technique an image editing program uses. Optical zooms work in the same way as a film camera’s zoom by changing the focal length and magnification. This has no effect on the image quality so it is always a better option than using a digital zoom.

White Balance

The white balance in a digital camera can be changed for different light sources. This allows you to ensure, in a wide variety of lighting conditions, that white really looks white, not blue or yellow. Most cameras automatically adjust to the light source but you can generally change this by hand if you prefer. The white balance can be set for fluorescent lighting, tungsten lighting, shade, electronic flash or sunlight.

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