Digital Cameras
By Marty Rubenski, Fri Dec 9th
With the bewildering number of digital on the market,it's increasing difficult to know where to start for your firstpurchase. One of the major determining factors of the price of adigital camera is the number of pixels. Nowadays, even 5.0megapixel are affordable, even for casual snapshots. But is bigger always better? Higher megapixel do have some drawback. The first, andmost obvious, is price. A basic 5.0 megapixel camera currentlyruns between $200 and $300. A 1.2 megapixel camera can be hadfor less than $50. Storage for those large pictures will alsocost you more. A 32 MByte memory card will hold around a hundred1.2 megapixel pictures. This drops right down to around 60pictures for 2.0 megapixels and to around 40 pictures for a 3.0megapixel model. One other consideration, not often mentioned,is that a higher megapixel camera has to do more work tocompress and store images, leading to longer waits betweenpicture shots and viewing.
Before you rush off and spend $300 for a camera, consider whatyou will be doing with the pictures. Are you viewing them juston your computer? Sending them as email attachments? Printingthem on an existing inkjet printer? Having them professionallyprinted? The larger the number of pixels, the larger the file
size. Animportant consideration if you are emailing them as attachments.The following chart shows sample file sizes, typical resolutionand maximum print size for different pixel counts stored ashigh-quality JPEG files: Pixels - - - File Size - - - Resolution - - - Print Size 1.2 - - - - - 480k - - - - - 1152 x 864 - - - - - 4 x 6 inches2.0 - - - - - 980k - - - - - 1600 x 1200 - - - - 5 x 7 inches3.0 - - - - - 1.2M - - - - - 2048 x 1536 - - - - 10 x 8 inches5.0 - - - - - 2.3M - - - - - 2592 x 1944 - - - - 11 x 14 inches Most computers will only display the 2.0 megapixel image (atmost) without scrolling, so you may find yourself resizing allyour pictures - or not using the maximum resolution of yourcamera - if you have a 5.0 megapixel camera. Only ever print pictures at 5 x 7, or only view them on acomputer? Then a 2 megapixel may be enough for now. The priceswill be lower next year if you want to upgrade later. Obviously, the higher pixel do have some advantages,especially when it comes to cropping and editing - and you knowthe salesman will want to sell you the best camera in the store- but I hope this information will help in making an informeddecision. About the author:Marty is the editor of a number of websites including http://1PhotoProducts.comand http://discountgolfequipment.us
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