Questions about digital cameras

[RichCsigs]

Hello,

I went to get my first digital camera tonight and was quite confounded. So I hope someone(s) here can answer my questions and give advice.

What is the differance between the types of memory (xD, SD and stick/stickPro)?
What is the differance between optical zoom and digital zoom?
The differance between movie mode and video mode (if any)?

I'm just looking for a camera to take pictures with friends/family functions and to take pictures of stuff I want to sell online. I have about $200 to spend. What do I need?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Psionicist]

The difference between memory is mainly cost, capacity (as in megabytes), size (as in physical size). The most common type is probably Compact Flash. It doesn't really matter what kind of memory the camera uses. I do belive SD/xD-cards are expansive at the moment though.

The difference between optical zoom and digital zoom is like the difference between using binoculars and "zooming" in an image manipulation program. Put in other words, optical zoom is "real zoom", and digital zoom is just a dumb feature cameras have as a sales trick.

Oh, and please note that "zoom" is just the difference between the smallest and largest focal length. A camera with "5x zoom" can not necessarily "get closer" than a camera with a fixed focal length ("1x zoom").

 

[crybaby]

My personal choice for memory for digital cameras is compact flash. However as psionicist said it really doesnt matter what kind of memory the camera uses.

To expand on the digital zoom "feature" many cameras have. All that the digital zoom does is stretch the pixel size to fake zooming in, which makes the picture lose quality and gives it a pixelated look.

 

[ssampier]

I just bought myself a digital camera. I just wanted to add ignore digital zoom; optical zoom is pretty important, depending on the type of pictures you want to take.

Like anything don't believe the hype: higher megapixels camera don't necessarily take better pictures. I would scout some online review sites with sample pictures to see if the quality is up-to-snuff.

http://www.dcresource.com

As for $200, I've been really happy with my Canon Powershot A520. It's a point-and-shoot, but it has some manual functions and loads of extras features available (external flash, "water proof", telephoto lenses, etc).

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a510_a520-review/

 

[FreeXenon]

Here are some links from my my blog that should answer most of your questions.

• What are the differences between the various types of Memory Stick? :: SVP Communication's Helpdesk
• Storage Card Glossary:: Digital Photography Review
• All you need to know about Memory Cards :: EPhotozine

Like the previous people have said. Optical Zoom is very important and another bump for any of the Canon cameras.

 

[crybaby]

I'll go ahead and throw in my vote for a canon camera...hasnt failed me yet!

 

[Psionicist]

I would actually make the bold claim here that optical zoom is not at all that important, at least for most people. The zoom option is mostly a toy people use because they are to lazy to walk closer, not because they really need to

Let's face it, most people use cameras to take photos of other people, or groups of people. There are of course some who like to shoot birds or hide in the bushes and photograph half naked woman at the beach, but most of the photos "most people" take are indoors, or at events, with lots of people around. For example, birthdays, weddings, at vacations.

For these kind of photos, wide angle is more important than zoom. Zoom is basically useless here. Wide angle is almost the oppsite of what we mean with "zoom". Instead of "zooming in" at some detail, we use wide angle mode to "zoom out". Imagine you are in a living room. There are 10 other people here. You want to take a group shot. You want all these people in a single photo, you don't want to zoom in at a single persons ear. You zoom out as far as you can with your new 5x zoom camera, but when you look in the finder you notice a few of your friends won't fit in the photo. You can only do one thing here, walk backwards. And this is not always possible if there's a wall behind you.

What you need is a wide enough option at "1x zoom". 28 mm or so. There are consumer cameras nowadays where the widest mode is 50 mm. This is useless indoors, for large enough objects (such as groups of people).

I am not saying zoom is not important, it's fun and useful sometimes. But I would rather take a 28mm 2x zoom camera than a 50mm 10x camera.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I have somewhat of the opposite experience. I find myself using the zoom quite often because of barriers and distance. Just another data point.

To further agree, optical zoom is important.

And I am also a big fan of my Canon digital.

-Dave

 

[IronWolf]

I am going to pile on to the optical zoom is worth looking at. These days we take tons of pictures of IronPup. We use Zoom all the time to get good close up shots of various things. Lady IronWolf is the better pic taker, but she gets some pretty sweet shots due to the use of the zoom. Without it you end up with lots of junk in the picture. So if it were me, I would at least pay some attention to the optical zoom.

And, since I am here and posting... I will throw more votes to the Canon cameras. We bought one a little over 5 years ago and it has serves us quite well. We will probably look at another one when the time comes to replace the one we have.