I’m going to go over a few of the common terms here that you can reference in my upcoming compact/DSLR guides. They’ll help you get a grasp of the basics.
Megapixels – Any modern camera has more than enough megapixels to take care of most printing needs. If you need something the size of a poster, you’ll want to look into higher-end SLRs. If all you want is 4x6s or even 8x10s, you’re fine with anything listed in any of the guides I publish. You just need to worry more about taking decent photos.
ISO – The easiest way to put this is ISO will enhance your camera’s performance in low-light but it raises the digital noise in an image. In most situations, you’ll want to shoot at the lowest ISO possible, often 100. During low-light conditions, it may be required for you to raise your ISO to 400, 800, or even 1600. Just keep in mind on most compact cameras, ISO 1600 may make your image unusable. With a DSLR, it can still come out great.
Ultra Compact/Compact/faux DSLR/DSLR – There’s a few important differences between camera types that should be mentioned.
- Ultra compacts typically lack manual controls but are the smallest and most convenient.
- Compacts are a little wider and thicker, often have manual controls, and are still small enough to carry with you.
- Faux DSLRs go by a few names, they’re cameras that look like SLRs but only have one lens and they’re usually portable enough to fit in large pockets.
- DSLRs are the big boys of the camera world(well, until you get to medium format and the like, but no one reading this is buying one of those). They usually feature extensive manual controls, they’re fairly large and can be difficult to carry around, and they allow you to switch out lenses. They also feature the best low-light image quality, and with proper lenses, the best image quality. Unfortunately, this comes with a huge price increase.
Optical Zoom – Most cameras only report their optical zoom but some still list their digital zoom as well. Always ignore digital zoom, it’s digitally zooming in on your image, like you would do in Photoshop. Optical zoom is the only important measurement. It means how many times the physical glass in your camera can magnify the image. Most compacts are around 3-4x. Some of them can get up to 12x. DSLR’s vary depending on the lenses you purchase.
Macro – This is a special focusing mode for up close photography. If you want to take pictures of smaller things such as bugs, coins, miniature items in general, this is a mode you’ll want to have. Most compacts have this mode and certain DSLR lenses have this as well.
Compact Flash/SD/SDHC/etc… – These are all examples of memory types used in cameras. There are a few more such as the Sony Memory Sticks and so on. The primarys thing you need to worry about is buying the proper memory card for your type of camera, which is always mentioned on the box and product descriptions of the camera.
Batteries – Most first party batteries are a huge source of profit for the camera manufacturers. They’re expensive and little better than the third party batteries you can purchase from Ebay. A few cameras have firmware that require you to use official batteries, this is often mentioned in reviews. Keep an eye out, it’ll cost you money down the line.
