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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Learning Digital Camera Basics

By Barry Craft

One of the first things to decide when choosing a digital camera is how many megapixels you should have. This is important because it determines how large you can print an image and still maintain good quality. The more megapixels your camera has, the larger the print.

Nowadays, 5 megapixels is a good starting point for an entry level digital camera. You can expect excellent prints at 4 x 6 and even as large as 8 x 10.

The next important thing when buying a camera is which type to get. An SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera is expensive, but if you are looking for a high-resolution camera with excellent picture quality, SLR cameras are the way to go. This would be the digital equivalent of a 35 mm film camera.

If you are accustomed to using a 35mm film camera you'll recognize many of the same features. In particular the ability to change various lenses in the camera makes it quite popular.

If you are just starting out in photography you may want to consider a point and shoot camera. They are generally less money and much easier to use. Many of these types of cameras have preset programs which give you a variety of possibilities when shooting your photographs. This allows you to produce some wonderful images even if you don't have a lot of photographic experience.

After you get a camera, you must choose a good memory card for your camera. The most popular types of memory cards for digital cameras are Multi Media Card (MMC), Memory Stick (MS), Smartmedia (SM), Secure Digital (SD), xD-Picture Card (xD), and CompactFlash (CF). Certain cameras require certain memory card types, so make sure you ask an expert which memory card is right for the camera you have.

After you purchase your camera make sure you get the proper memory card for your camera since there are various formats. If you plan to keep the pictures stored on your camera's memory instead of downloading them to your computer you want to get it's a memory card with a larger storage capacity to allow you to this save more pictures.

You have to learn how to transfer the pictures from your camera when she take them since you can only sender and the pictures once they are on your computer. Your camera most likely came with the USB cable as an option. You can also purchase a USB card reader that plugs into your computer.

By using a card reader instead of the USB cable, it allows you to save the batteries on your camera because the camera does not have to be powered on during the transfer process. A memory card reader simply plugs into your computer using the USB cable and the card reader has various slots and all you do is remove the memory card from your camera and insert it into the card reader.

It depends on what type of computer system you have but usually a message will pop up a telling you that your camera is connected. Depending on what type of software you have installed there would usually be some type of message where they would ask you if you wanted to transfer the pictures or edit them. If you're using a Mac computer especially a newer Mac, iPhoto would pop open and a help tab would instruct you on how to download the pictures.

Once you have completed the download process and the pictures are on your computer, you can delete the pictures from your memory card which will free up additional space. That way you can take many more pictures. Is a very good idea to regularly make a backup copy of the pictures on the computer neither burn them to an external hard drive or perhaps any CD or DVD you invested a lot of time and effort in taking those beautiful pictures and you would not want to lose them.

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