Digital Camera Hub

The Digital
Photography Book
$14.62

The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design
$18.99

The Moment It Clicks: Photography Secrets
$32.18

Megapixel: A megapixel (MP or Mpx) is one million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras. Basically, the higher the number, the bigger the picture it can take. This can also be factored into the number of pictures you can store on a particular size of memory card.

CCD and CMOS Sensors: The camera's image sensor is what captures light when the shutter opens. There are two primary types of sensors used in digital cameras today, CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor).

LCD Screen: Liquid Crystal Display screens are used in most forms of digital cameras today and often double as both user interface and viewfinder. Bigger and brighter is often better.

Viewfinder: This is used in most cameras to aim and line up the shot. In digital cameras, it's used if glare obscures the LCD screen. Viewfinders come in a few types like optical (lens based, old-style), electronic (adds an interface similar to the way the LCD works), and pentaprism (You see exactly what the lens sees).

Memory Card: This is used to store photos or videos in a digital camera. The megapixels and quality of pictures as well as the size of the memory card (in megabytes or gigabytes) will determine how many photos you can save. In addition to size, some cards come in different speeds, faster being better and allowing you to take more pictures. Various formats exist today, be sure to get the card type that your camera needs.

File Formats: RAW, TIFF, and JPEG are some of the formats that a digital camera can use when it takes a picture. It refers to how the picture is stored digitally and how it's compressed. RAW and TIFF use no compression and allow for the best quality, but at the cost of a much larger file size. JPEG allows for more photos, but the compression settings will determine the quality of the photos, so it's a balancing act depending on what you need.

Battery Types: Many cameras these days use either a NiMh (Nickle Metal Hydride) or Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) battery. The point is to get the most life out of the battery as possible, but more importantly, to allow for a rechargeable battery. No point in shelling out for extra AA batteries if you can just plug the camera in.

Startup / Latency Times: Very simply the amount the amount of time the camera takes to start up as well as take and store a picture. The higher the time, the less shots you get at a moment's notice. This can be reduced partly by using a faster memory card and making sure the battery is charged properly, but otherwise it's going to vary from camera to camera and the more you want to reduce the latency, the more money you'll have to shell out.