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Your next digital camera

Last year my mom bit the bullet and finally bought a digital camera, which is always a good sign that a technology has officially become unavoidable.

Last year my mom bit the bullet and finally bought a digital camera, which is always a good sign that a technology has officially become unavoidable. She doesn’t have a cell phone, computer, and only recently got a DVD player — actually a loan from my grandmother, who in turn gave it to my mom so she could watch my wedding disk.

She is finally planning to upgrade from her 1991 Jetta and is looking at next year’s VW Rabbit, but asked me whether I thought it would be possible to put her old stereo — complete with tape deck — in her new car “because the sound is so good.” (It’s not.)

I patiently explained to her that the sound quality would likely be a lot better in her new vehicle with 10 speakers to enjoy instead of four old ones, CDs instead of 15-year-old tapes, and are you serious? I can imagine the reaction at the VW dealership if she didn’t bring this up with me first.

But getting back to the cameras.

Digital cameras have come a long way in a short time, as performance has been arcing steadily upward while prices have been dropping. It has also become a diverse industry, making it confusing at the best of times to buy a camera.

There are a handful of features that I always look for. One is the ability to use AA batteries, which means I can use my rechargeables most of the time, but can also buy batteries in an emergency.

Another key feature is a viewfinder, preferably one that lets me see through a lens rather than a screen on the back. That’s because screens are impossible to see on bright days, and don’t keep up to moving subjects very well. They also suck up a lot of battery power, so with a viewfinder I can turn the display off and only use the screen to review photos.

Another feature I don’t think I could do without is the image stabilizer, which compensates for shaky hands, or taking pictures on the move.

I’m also partial to cameras that have a dial that easily lets you choose between different shooting modes without calling up a screen and pressing a lot of buttons.

As for the technology of the camera, there are a few things everyone should know.

For one, the pixel count of a camera is the number of pixels recorded for a given resolution. For example, a camera with a maximum resolution of 1,600 X 1,200 pixels (it’s always a 4:3 width-to-height ratio, except for specialty cameras) will produce a picture with a total yield of 1,920,000 pixels or 1.92 mega pixels. That’s typically maximized to take a 4X6 or 5X7 photograph.

A camera with a 3.1 mega pixel rating has a maximum size of 2,048 X 1,536 pixels for a total of 3,145,728.

For digital cameras, pixels are squares that correspond to clusters of red, green and blue sensors on your chip. Pixels are not a fixed, universal size, but are determined by your camera’s resolution — the higher the resolution, the more pixels can be packed into a given space.

More pixels don’t necessarily mean better or even sharper pictures, although you can more easily enlarge a digital photo with a higher number of pixels without any distortion. Picture quality is more a factor of your lens, sensor, processor, camera setting, and skill than your mega pixel count.

If you buy a camera that is rated at 10 mega pixels, you usually print your photos to 24 by 18 inches without any pixilation. You’re also going to wind up with larger photo files that are more taxing on your memory stick and hard drive. That’s why most cameras let you choose whether to shoot in Large, Medium-1, Medium-2 and Small modes with less resolution. M1 is usually good enough for most situations.

That’s about all you need to know about mega pixel counts. As for sensors, there are four main types of sensor technologies out there, each with pros and cons. Unless you’re shooting for Vanity Fair, you probably don’t need to know.

What is useful to know is that sensor field sizes range from the equivalent of 35 mm slide film for professional models to about a quarter of an inch for camera phones. A good rule is that the larger the sensor (and more expensive), the better your pictures will be.

How cameras process image files is also important. Some cameras seem to take forever to focus as they compute all the colour and light information coming in through the lens, which means it’s easy to miss the picture. Knowing how to use the manual features on your camera will help, as will learning to pre-focus by pushing the shutter button down halfway. High-end cameras also employ faster sensors that allow for quality sequential pictures.

Of course, none of these things will make any difference if your lens is no good. That’s why SLR digital cameras with interchangeable lens are still more popular among professional photographers than point-and-shoot models that are theoretically as capable of processing image data.

Point and shoot zooms are improving hugely and you can get up to 12X optical zooms that are actually quite good. Don’t worry about digital zoom, because the picture is so bad you’ll never want to use it.

Because zooming narrows your focus and limits the light allowed in, the less zooming you do the better.

Before you buy a camera, ask questions of the sales staff. Camera store staff is generally more knowledgeable about features than staff at the bigger electronics stores, and they generally only carry a few models they feel comfortable backing. Always read the reviews online though — www.consumerreports.com, www.zdnet.com, www.engadget.com, www.imaging-resource.com.