| Digital Camera Terms |
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Resolution - A computer screen is broken up into thousands or millions of small squares that each display one color at a time. These squares are called pixels. When you sit at a computer screen, the squares (pixels) of different colors blend together to form recognizable images. So, a certain number of pixels line the screen in columns and a certain number of pixels line the screen in rows. It resembles a bingo card in a huge scale. The resolution is written: "Number of columns x Number of rows". Normal screen resolutions are 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768. The resolution of digital images are usually much higher so your photographs will have more pixels. More pixels mean more detailed photos and also much large file sizes. |
| Mega Pixel - This is simply a camera with a high enough resolution that the images it produces have over a million pixels. Usually, MegaPixel cameras start at 1280 x 960, or 1.3 million pixels. They can go up to over 4 million pixels, and in specialty cameras, over 6 million pixels. The higher the resolution, or the larger the megapixel amount, the more detailed your photos will be. This also allows for enlargements. A 2.1 MegaPixel camera can make photo quality 8"x10" prints on an inkjet printer. Cameras of higher resolution also cost far more. Moving from a 2.1 MegaPixel camera to a 3.34 MegaPixel camera usually raises the price $200-$300. So, only buy enough pixels as you will need. |
| Image Storage - Remember, digital photos are simply computer files. Digital cameras, like all digital devices, store data in memory (like a computer uses a hard drive). Cameras can use various types of memory, soemetimes calle digital film. Common types are CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MemoryStick, Floppy Disk, or built-in memory. CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and the Sony MemoryStick are all small cards, the size of a credit card, that store from 4MB to upwards of 196MB (most cameras have a limited amount they can use. Only some can use huge cards like 196MB). They act like rolls of film you use in a standard camera. When a card is full, pop in a new one. Floppy disks hold only 1.4MB of data and are only used by Sony in the Mavica line. They do not allow high resolution photos and are very slow. Some inexpensive cameras have fixed amounts of built-in memory for storage. |
| USB Cable Transfer - USB is an acronym for Universal Serial Bus. This is a type of cable that plugs into your computer to carry data from the camera to the hard drive on your computer. USB is very fast (about 1.3 MB/sec) and can be hooked up without shutting down the computer. For these reasons, it is very popular with digital cameras as photos may be over 1MB a piece. Most new PC's and all new Macintoshes come with built in USB capability. Camera manufacturers ship software that allows the computer to communicate with the camera and then download the pictures from it's memory. Some USB cameras show up like a normal drive on the desktop and allow downloads by "drag and drop" into a new folder. There are also USB devices that can read directly from memory cards like CompactFlash and SmartMedia. They work like a normal disk drive and can be used to download photos when the camera is not present. |
| Zoom: Optical & Digital - Digital cameras can use two types of zoom: optical and digital zoom. Optical zoom is the traditional type. The focal length of the lens physically moves to get closer to a subject. This gives the same image quality from wide angle to full zoom. Digital zoom uses algorithms and zooms in on the digital image in the camera. This can greatly improve the zoom capability of the camera, but also loses some image quality. Some will love digital zoom, some will never use it. |
| Movie Mode - Some digital cameras can take short movies. Some even have sound. Common formats for movies include QuickTime (.mov), MPEG (.mpg), and AVI (.avi). They are all compatible on PC and Macintosh. These movies are usually short, 10-60 seconds and low resolution. But, they may be useful for projects, the web, and are very fun to play with. |