Know the Digicam : Point and Shoot or dSLR !!

Digital Camera is one must have gadget. The luxury to go on clicking without worrying about film rolls and everything getting automatically saved on that tiny Memory Card having 1 gb, 2gb or more space is something, really. So, lets try to know the digicam in a Simple to learn way.

Basically there are two types of digicam :

1. Point and shoot digital camera : Small and portable camera with Live Preview capabilities and limited motion video features mostly used for taking Snapshots.

2. dSLR (digital single lens reflex) digital camera: The reflex design scheme is a major difference between a dSLR and an ordinary digital point and shoot camera, which typically exposes the sensor constantly to the light projected by the lens, allowing the camera's screen to be used as an electronic viewfinder.

There is also the Bridge / SLR ( Single Lens Reflex ) digicam often confused for a true dSLR Digicam. It has small sensors and Livepreview just like Point and Shoot digicam and shares a few features with dSLR but it's not a true dSLR.

Points on which dSLR digicam scores over Point and Shoot digicam :

1. Optical viewfinders which tend to be more comfortable and efficient, especially for action photography and in low-light conditions.

2. Accurate preview of framing close to the moment of exposure

3. Larger sensors : similar depths of field and picture angle to film formats.

4. Choose from a variety of interchangeable lenses

5. Less shutter lag, faster autofocus systems, and faster frame rates

6. Ability to attach additional accessories. A good dSLR can really be customised.

Now, points on which Point and Shoot digital camera scores over a dSLR digicam:

1. Generally smaller size and weight.

2. Generally lesser cost and if chosen wisely, a great value for money.

3. Few DSLRs with a video mode, while this has become a standard feature of compact digital cameras.

4. Most DSLR models lack live preview on their LCDs, a nearly universal feature among compact digital cameras (many newer DSLRs do offer this).

5. Noisier (audio) operation, due to the SLR mirror mechanism.

6. Small digicams generally can focus on closer objects than typical DSLR lenses.

Simply put, if you really have keen interest in photography go for a dSLR

Also if you have money to splurge and videos are not a priority then go for a dSLR.

On the other hand if you want to strike a balance between cost and performance go for the compact Point and Shoot digicam. There are some real good ones in 6 MP TO 10 MP range. But as I pointed out in last Tuesday's Tech post, Megapixels are not everything.

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Megapixel & Resolution : Difference is Simple To Learn !!

Keep hearing that Megapixel thing all the time. So what is it and how important it really is. Let's try to simplify things. Just imagine a chessboard having 64 squares. A pixel is like one square on the chessboard. In case of digital images it's just so small that we can't really distinguish the borders and the resulting image is very sharp.

So just like a 8x8 chessboard has 64 pixels, a 3.1 Megapixel digital camera has a sensor comprising of 2048x1536 = 31,45,728 pixels = 3.1 Megapixels

Pixels can be both square and rectangular as shown below.

Pixels are mostly used as a unit of measure, like 1200 pixels/inch, 640 pixels/line and a space of 10 pixels. We come across these terms so often in Photoshop or CSS.

Number of pixels is often called the resolution in digital imaging but actually it's the maximum resolution a digital camera or computer monitor can achieve if all other factors are compatible.

Resolution ( or Spatial Resolution ) means the no. of close lines that can be resolved in an image or monitor.

Let's again consider a digital camera having 2048x1536 = 3.1 Megapixels. Now the clarity of the image it produces depends on spatial resolution which depends not only on the number of Megapixels but also the size of sensor, lens type etc.

The image it produces can have any resolution less than 1536 pixels/inch

So, don't just get carried away by the no. of Megapixels. A 6 MP camera with a better lens and sensor and if in the right hands can beat an 8 MP one just so easily.

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