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By Brandon Layne
Consumers have been pretty receptive to the lower priced "point and
shoot" models (some 5 million digital cameras were sold in the U.S.
during the Christmas 2005 holiday season), but there are still some
holdouts.
Great strides have been made in digital technology over the past few
years, but more sophisticated digital cameras have only recently come
down in price enough to attract the "serious amateur" market. In the
past, the price of high-end digital camera equipment was more suited to
the professional who could turn that investment into an income
source.
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Even traditional film buffs are slowly coming around to the benefits of digital
photography. Among the holdouts, the chief problem seems to be confusion. There
are so many choices, with a broad range of options, and just as many price
ranges.
It's cheaper not to make a decision, than to make a mistake.
They get lost in the terminology, and have reservations about the quality of
digital photos and about the reliability of the digital cameras. With the
whirlwind of innovation flooding our lives everyday, it's become really
difficult to keep up.
Technology advances, prices come down, and a deal today may be obsolete
tomorrow. At least that's what worries many potential digital camera
owners.
So let's look at five of the most common questions about digital camera
photography to shed some light on the matter, for those who are hesitant about
this new technology, or who have dismissed it as a mere fad.
1. Do digital cameras produce quality photos?
Digital photos can be
displayed at very high resolutions, and could easily surpass conventional
photographs, but many have seen poorer quality images. Early color printers
could be used to print color photos from digital cameras, but the quality just
wasn't there. Blurry images on low-grade computer monitors or on the small LCD
screens of the cameras themselves, do nothing to increase your confidence.
But view the high resolution images available from today's digital cameras on a
capable monitor or after being printed on one of the newer photo quality
printers (using photo quality paper) and you'll see the crystal clear quality
of what is available today.
2. How durable are digital camera photos?
Digital camera photos are
not stored on film. They're stored on electronic memory devices that actually
require much less care than negative film.
As long as reasonable care is taken of the particular storage device, there
shouldn't be any problems with protecting images caught on a digital camera,
and you can easily make copies of the digital image files on your computer or
even burn them to a CD - an option that isn't available with film.
3. Are digital camera photos more expensive to process?
Not anymore.
First, you can eliminate any poor images before printing and only pay for those
that you print. With "easy share" technology and photo quality printers now
available, it is both affordable and convenient to print digital camera
photos.
You can even do the task yourself, in the comfort of your own home - without
buying expensive development chemicals that are required for film processing!
Or, you can send your images electronically to a professional processor, and
receive professionally produced photos back in the mail in just a few days.
4. Can I get different effects with a digital camera?
That depends
on the digital camera. High end models have built-in features that allow
different kinds of effects. But even if your digital camera doesn't have these
advanced features, you can always manipulate the photographs on your desktop
computer, using any image editing software.
5. Are zooming features comparable?
Here digital cameras actually
have a distinct advantage over film cameras. While cheaper digital cameras may
only have digital zoom (which is really just a form of in-camera enlargement
that results in a lower resolution original image), high end models are
available with both digital and optical zooming.
When shopping for your digital camera, give priority to the optical zoom
capability and buy the highest power optical zoom that fits within your budget.
Digital zoom is a nice extra, but the effects can easily be replicated during
the "processing" of the image on your computer, prior to printing the images.
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