highest mp camera available
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Cynthia E
I need to buy a digital camera to be used to shoot my wedding initially, and then close-up photography for my online sales after that. I have a maximum budget of $500 for the camera. I tried shopping for one the other day but all the terms were overwhelming. Zoom this, and megapixel that! Can anyone give me the lowdown on what all these terms mean and when/why I might need them?
Answer
Hello and best wishes on getting married! If you are thinking of getting a camera to photograph your wedding, I would caution you to step back and really think about it. Weddings are inherently stressful and chaotic, with too many tasks that need to get done. The last thing you need to be thinking about is how to operate a camera or whether or not your photos will come out. Since I truly wish you well and have your best interests at heart, I want your once in a lifetime memories to be properly captured; you may end up disappointed if you hand an expensive camera to someone who doesn't know how to take a photo or operate the camera. If you can't afford a professional photographer, you might consider looking for a photography art student or a skilled amateur who would be willing to photograph your wedding for the experience and a free meal. And those people should have the proper camera and lighting equipment already (not to mention the skill to use it), if they are truly serious about their work.
Now, since it also appears that you are serious about continuing with photography, given your desire to photograph items for online sales as well as your wedding, you should probably rule out point and shoot cameras (sorry, that includes the Canon S5 IS). For the absolutely highest quality photos of your wedding and your online items, a digital SLR (single-lens reflex) is the best choice. With a budget of under $500, there are really only two cameras to consider, the Nikon D40 or the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. In fact, I priced the Nikon D40 yesterday at US1photo.com for $462 with the basic 18-55mm lens.
If you need even closer shots of items, a set of 52mm diameter close-up filters are cheaply available. This lens alone will let you stay about 11" away and still get a good magnification shot of small items.
For online sales shots, I would suggest you get a light tent and a tripod--this allows you to evenly light the object, provide a white background, and take a sharp photo. You can find examples of light tents on amazon.com
Now, to go over the terms you asked about...
Zoom: If you stand in one place, zoom capability is the ability for the camera to see wider or narrower (telephoto) without having to move farther back or closer. There are two basic types of zoom: optical or digital. Optical zoom is a true zoom, where the lens will get wider or more telephoto. Digital zoom is done by the camera, essentially cropping the photo to fake a zoom look. The images in digital zoom lose resolution if this is done; cameras/lenses should be judged by the optical zoom number, not by digital zoom. Zoom power is often expressed by a number followed by an "x" so that 3x is not as powerful as 4x or 5x. Note though that this X number doesn't tell you how wide or really how much telephoto the lens will give you; it's just a ratio of telephoto to wideness--i.e. the telephoto power is 3x more than the wide view or 5x more than the wide view, etc. Another thing to remember--the more power (10x, 18x etc.) the more optical compromises have to be made, so the poorer performance you get, particularly at the extreme ends (wide and far telephoto).
Megapixel: A pixel is a picture element or in simple terms, a dot of color. A million pixels is a megapixel or a million dots. Thus, a 6 megapixel camera has 6 million pixels. Note though that not all megapixels are created equal--a point and shoot camera with 12 megapixels (12 million dots) will not perform as well as an SLR with 6 megapixels. This is because the SLR sensor is so much physically larger, so it's better at capturing light. For a point and shoot 7 to 8 megapixels tends to be optimal for performance in such tiny sensors; more doesn't improve quality. For most digital SLRs, performance tops out at 10 to 12 megapixels, but even 6 mp is plenty in the SLR world.
Macro: this is a very mis-used term in point and shoot cameras. Most often, on point and shoots, it's really meant to reflect closest focusing distance. In SLR terms though, macro reflects the ability to get a 1:1 magnification ratio; that is, the object being identical to life size on the sensor or film. A 1:1 ratio is huge when seen in a photo; for online sales 1:3 or 1:4 is often plenty. What's nice with an SLR is that you get some working distance, allowing you to properly light your item attractively; too close and the camera lens casts a shadow on your subject or the lens distorts the object.
Aperture: This refers to the lens opening. It'll look like a series of numbers with an "f" in front, like f/3.5-5.6. For your purposes, you don't need to worry about this most of the time.
Exposure modes: again, for your purposes, you don't need to worry too much about this--you can set the camera to do automatic exposures or program exposures or the special scene modes. In brief, exposure modes are how the camera controls the shutter speed and aperture to determine how to get a properly exposed photo.
ISO: a measure of how sensitive the camera will be to light; bigger number = more light sensitive = can expose with less light. With a point and shoot, anything above ISO 400 pretty much is useless; with an SLR, you can go as high as 1600 (more with some cameras) and still be usuable.
LCD: This is the display screen on the back of the camera, measured in diagonal size. Usually bigger is better. 2.5" is the minimum you should get nowadays. SLRs use the LCD for viewing afterwards, not for taking the photo. Point and shoots use the LCD screen for both. The SLR is actually superior, particularly because the focusing and response time is so much faster than on a point and shoot.
CCD or CMOS: These are competing sensor technologies. Both have their pros and cons. Bottom-line: who cares, as long as you get good images.
Hot shoe: some cameras allow you to attach an external flash, which is done via a connection called a "hot shoe."
Image processing: chips in the camera to make the image from the data off the sensor. Canon calls their Digic, Nikon has Exspeed, Panasonic has Venus, etc. Again, for your purposes, who cares, as long as the image is good.
Hope this makes sense to you and explains not only the terms, but the other things you have to think about.
For a digital camera how many photos can I take with a 28MB?
glow 21
I'm going to get a digital camera but I want one with a big memory so I was just wondering how many photos a 28MBcan take?
And what cameras do you recommend that is easy to carry around and has a large memory?
Answer
Some cameras come with built in (internal memory) so make sure your camera can take added (external) memory. Internal memory is something you want to have in case you run out of external memory. I have never heard of 28mb memory unless the camera you are eyeing has that much internal memory. All of the memory cards correspond with multiples of 8, ie 8,16,32,64,128,256, and 512 and then you get into the gigabytes of memory (1000mb) -- 1gb, 2 gb, 4 gb...
A camera recommendation would be almost anything that is greater than 3megapixels. 4MP seems to be the standard starting point these days. If you are new to digital photography, make sure it has a viewfinder because not only will you be more comfortable getting used to it, there are situations (bright daylight) where you can't see the screen to compose your picture. You will want to be able to see it through the viewfinder. Some newer cameras have brightness features to help you see the screen better but I still like to have the option of viewing it the old-fashioned way, not having to reset the screen options and missing the shot.
The number of pictures corresponds inversely to the number of megapixels you have your camera set at -- the larger the megapixel setting, the better your resolution (you can enlarge your prints) but the fewer pictures you will be able to take. All of the memory card packages have charts to let you know approximately how many shots you can take at various camera settings. Here is my rule of thumb for shooting at my camera's "normal" setting (not "fine" or "basic"):
At 6MPixel setting, multiply the MB on the memory by 0.85 to get the number of pictures.
At 4MP, multiply the MB on the memory by 1 to get the number of pictures.
At 3MP, multiply the MB on the memory by 1.73 to get the number of pictures.
At 1MP, multiply the MB on the memory by 3.2 to get the number of pictures.
With a 256MB card, this comes out to :
218 pictures at 6MP
256 pictures at 4MP
443 pictures at 3MP
819 pictures at 1MP (lots of pictures, but only good enough for online auctions, emailing, and 3.5 x 5 inch prints.)
The actual memory card that your camera takes is the same size, no matter what the MB capacity is -- a 512MB card will take up the same amount of space as a 256MB. There are about 6 different types of memory cards available -- the camera box will specify what type your camera requires. When you purchase the memory cards, some record faster than others (stay away from the really generic cards).
Keep in mind it is better to take a picture at a higher MP and have fewer pictures than wanting to enlarge a small MP picture later because it was such a great shot and not being able to because it looks "pixelated" (the little boxes that make up the digital picture become larger, thus blurring your photo-- similar to zooming in on something on your computer.) You can always make your large pictures smaller for emailing, so it is better to shoot at the higher resolution in case you have captured that "once in a lifetime" award-winning shot!
As far as choosing a camera, look for the features I mentioned. Picking a camera with a larger lens will yield better results as well. Think of the size of a lens on a disposable camera -- the lens is so small it doesn't capture a very good image, the prints are never as good as using my larger lensed film camera. Also, look at optical zoom and pay no attention to the digital zoom. The optical zoom is real, just like on a regular camera. The digital zoom is useless, all it does it blows up the picture -- again, similar to zooming in on an image on the computer screen. Go for a camera size that feels good in your hands or one that will fit into the size bag in which you want to carry it around .
Another good feature is a camera that has less of a lag time -- that means the amount of time it takes from when you press the shutter to the actual recording of the photo. Sometimes what you get and what you hoped to get do not match because the camera takes too long to record it. I was reminded of this inconvenience while using my son's camera at the zoo today -- that jaquar was just not walking slow enough and I kept getting his tail not his face! The only camera that doesn't have this gap is a single lens reflex (SLR) because it captures the shot instantaneously, just as a film SLR would. A SLR camera will be pricier, bulkier, and heavier to carry so you might want to stay with a point-and-shoot.
I have used different cameras by Sony, Fuji, Olympus, and Nikon. The only camera I didn't like was the camera without the eyepiece feature and the ones with a long lag time. The newer Kodaks are nicer now than they were when digitals first came out.
On a final note, if your camera takes video, it will not be the high quality footage you would get with a camcorder AND video takes up quite a bit of the memory on the memory card so if you plan on using it for videos, make sure you purchase more than a 512mb card and it is always good to have more than one memory card with you, in case you haven't had a chance to transfer your pictures and videos to a CD or hard drive.
And now for the real beauty of digital photography: You can delete and never have to print the bad shots. Whatever camera you choose, it will pay for itself by not paying for the unneccessary printing of bad photos. I have already shot over 4000 photos on my Nikon -- had this been film, it would equal 166 rolls of film. At $4.00 for a roll of 24 pictures and $7.00 for processing, I would have spent over $1800 in the past year. Yes, my camera has paid for itself and more!
Before you head off to buy your new camera, print this and take it along because I realize no one would ever remember this much information when looking over all of the "candy" behind the counter at the store. So many decisions...So many options...
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