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Beautiful & Inexpensive Photography :: Get a digital camera!

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mysterious megapixels * digital zoom? * Kodak EasyShare * Canon PowerShot


Tired of spending money developing film? It gets more and more expensive, and if you want to use the pictures on your computer, you pay even more.

I finally did it. I got a digital camera. If you haven't done it yet, you really have to think about entering the 21st century.

I'm here to talk about what you can do with a $100 digital camera. Look what I did with mine! (Well, the camera, a beautiful baby, and the sun and sky, which I had nothing to do with creating.)

Crawford Colorado

Here is a picture I took while visiting Crawford State Park in Colorado. Isn't it beautiful? I can't believe the things I saw on this trip.

It was dry, and the sagebrush and the yellow flowers--we never did find out what they were called--were everywhere.

What do you think?

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What's a megapixel?

The number of megapixels (3mp to 7mp, usually) is simply the number of dots that make up the picture. Well, actually, it's the number of millions of dots, but you get the point.

The more dots, the bigger you can print the picture and have it look nice.

Web cam: no printing. The quality is usually not high enough to print anything more than a little picture, an inch across or so. On the other hand, if you're only using your pictures on a computer screen, they might be just fine.

3 megapixel: A 3mp camera will let you make good quality prints, but not enlargements, and not if you crop the image (see below). Perfect for pictures you use on websites or ebay.

4 megapixel: You can enlarge a photo up to 8 x 10, as long as you don't want to remove any of the background (crop).

5 megapixel: 5mp is medium-level and lets you create good 20 x 30 prints. If you crop the pictures, the resulting size will be smaller.
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What to watch for

Going digital is easy, once you know what's important, what's not, and what's just camera-company hype. Here's the stuff that matters most.
  1. How many megapixels?
    You can get a one megapixel camera off the shelf for $20 or less. But will it do the job you want it to do?
  2. Optical vs. Digial Zoom
    Digital zoom isn't really zoom at all. It's a way of cropping the picture while it's still in the camera. You don't need it. Optical zoom, on the other hand, can be useful.
  3. View Screen
    Some view screens are larger than others, and some are brighter than others. I have to cup my hand over the screen to see mine when I'm out in the sun (though indoors it's perfect). If your vision is poor, or if you think that might frustrate you, look for a big screen.
  4. Batteries
    Get rechargable batteries! Your camera will probably run on AA batteries, and it will need lots. But you can get a recharger and rechargable batteries for $25 or so, and switch them out. You'll save a lot in the long run.
  5. Memory cards
    Make sure your camera has a space for a memory card. You will probably be able to take around 10-15 pictures without an additional memory card. An inexpensive card will let you take hundreds!
    You'll need to know what kind of card your camera uses: SD, XD, MMC, etc. Don't worry, you'll only end up needing to remember one of those!
  6. USB Port
    Make sure your computer has a USB port, and that you know how to find it. That's how the pictures will get from your camera into the computer for you to email, print, crop, upload, etc.
  7. Macro Setting
    I just discovered a new feature. The macro setting lets you take pictures close up, like if you want to sell a piece of jewelry on eBay, for example. Or if you want a close-up of your brother's first zit.

Batteries

I keep two charged batteries in my camera, and two more in the camera bag, so I'm never out, and I never have to buy new ones at a convenience store!

AA batteries,at a good price, run around $1 each. If each time you take pictures, you go through 2 batteries (each game, picnic, birthday, etc.) it adds up! To save money and increase your battery life too, try rechargables!
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Optical Zoom: Can you see it?

This photo contains a male white-tail deer. He's roughly in the center, but is overshadowed by the mountains and the hillside.

A camera with optical zoom would have let me take a closer picture of the deer.

Optical Zoom: A little closer now.

My camera, like many, says it has "digital zoom." What that means is that I can use software to enlarge the picture. But when I do that, I lose resolution, and the picture gets fuzzier.

Optical zoom is a true zoom, where the camera takes a picture of a smaller area, with the normal resolution. Imagine it like this: If I have five million dots to use to make up a picture, optical zoom lets me use those millions to make up just the deer rather than using the five million for the scene, and just a fraction of them for the deer only.

If I were to print this picture of the deer only, I'd need to print it very small in order for it to be clear.

Optical Zoom: Now really close.

Now that I've zoomed in to the deer's head, you can see that it's a bit fuzzy. I'm down to a small fraction of the five million dots I started with.

If I were to print this picture, it would be very fuzzy.

(Computer screens don't show much resolution anyway. They're always fuzzy with pictures; we just don't notice it. If you only want to use pictures online, resolution isn't as important.)

Canon PowerShot A530

I love this camera!

I bought a new one. The Canon A530 is also 5 megapixel. 6 and 7 are available, but I'm still on a budget, and 5 is enough! If I take a great picture at 5MP, I can blow it up to 20 x 30 and have a lovely poster!

But this one has 4x optical zoom (see above!) and a terrific macro setting. It also has audio recording for videos! I'm having loads of fun.
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Memory cards

With film photography, you spend about $10 on three rolls of film, which gives you about 75 pictures. Then another $20 or so to develop it and print the pictures (all of them, ugly or not).

When you go digital, you can spend less than that on a memory card, and then you can take hundreds and hundreds of pictures before having to empty the card by loading the pictures on to your computer.

NOTE: You need to know what kind of card your camera takes -- not the brand, but the shape.

Here are three of the most common: SD, XD, and CF.

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Got questions?

Here's the place to ask questions about getting a digital camera, or share your experiences!

  • Sean Apr 28, 2010 @ 2:28 am | delete
    Your explanation and possibly knowledge of digital/optical zoom are questionable, making me not so sure about a lot of what you may have said. Nonetheless, a good read, though I would like to argue against the death of film :) I'm not sure, but I'm assuming film has better resolution than any digital camera. Very true though, super inconvenient
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Margaret_Schaut

I'm not a photographer, but I love taking pictures. I finally got a digital camera, the Kodak EasyShare C315, and it's really great! more »

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