Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Beyond pixels…

I bought a Sony Cybershot camera last February to capture family moments and other than some concerns about durability (cracked LCD, sticky shutter over the lens, sticky control dial, all courtesy my now 20-month-old daughter) I'm thoroughly impresse

I bought a Sony Cybershot camera last February to capture family moments and other than some concerns about durability (cracked LCD, sticky shutter over the lens, sticky control dial, all courtesy my now 20-month-old daughter) I'm thoroughly impressed. The pictures are clear, the depth of field is vastly improved, and the colours are brilliant.

I don't use too many of the special features because, quite honestly, I haven't found it necessary. Sometimes I use the ISO function to get pictures of moving objects, or I'll dial up the landscape mode to capture a view. I'll click on the control pad sometimes to turn off the flash, I'll click on the flower button to allow for super close-ups, and I'll take a little video. But there are literally a hundred features that I haven't had to use yet, although I'm glad they're there.

I don't even think about the Megapixels anymore, although at the time I was purchasing the camera I thought 10.1 was kind of ridiculous for a point and shoot compact camera with a 5X optical zoom. I made sure to set the camera to take medium size photos because a large photo at 10.1 megapixels is a little too large, over 10 MB usually, and my old computer isn't great at processing larger images. They're also harder to e-mail, post online, etc.

Pretty much any new point-and-shoot camera is at 10.1 MP or better these days, and some compact cameras are over 14 MP. In terms of the amount of data you actually need to print and blow up the occasional photo that's far more pixels than the average person requires. It's also the thing you should probably focus on the least when making a camera purchase - sure, it's impressive to think about all those pixels but it's the other features of a camera that you should really be looking at.

In fact a few companies like Canon are actually scaling back from plus-14 MP cameras to 10 MP in order to use more sensitive CCD (charge coupled device) chips that are faster and produce better photos.

Here's a list of features, some courtesy of Tech Radar (www.techradar.com) that you might want to look for:

Durability - You no longer need to compromise quality and ease-of-use when purchasing a shock resistant, freeze-proof and/or waterproof camera that you can throw in your mountain bike pack, the pocket of your ski jacket, or take with you on your next snorkeling trip. For example, the Canon PowerShot D10 is a 12.1 MP camera with a 3X optical zoom that you can drop over a metre or take underwater up to 10 metres. It's about $350 to buy, which is expensive for a point and shoot these days but probably close to what you paid for your first digital camera just a few years ago. Almost every camera manufacturer is making a credible waterproof camera these days, so be sure to shop around.

Electronics - Every company has variations in its electronics that improve the way you shoot. Look for things like "Dynamic Range Optimizer," "Intelligent Scene Recognition" and "Intelligent Auto Mode."

Lens - My Sony came with a wide-angle Carl Zeiss lens. Until a few years ago Carl Zeiss only made high-end lenses for SLR cameras, but now Sony and others use them on compacts. Brand names aside, look for lenses that are wider to let in more light and have UV coatings to reduce glare.

Built-in Projectors - Some new cameras, including the new Nikon Coolpix, come with a built-in projector that lets you put on impromptu slideshows just about anywhere you can find a patch of white wall. Most people won't need this feature but as someone with a small child who likes to look at pictures on our camera while eating popsicles it actually makes a lot of sense.

Customizable ISO - My point and shoot allows me to manually set the ISO (which refers to the speed and sensitive of film) to an incredible 3200, which allows me to shoot indoors, on cloudy days, and in environments that seem bright enough but where it's impossible to take pictures of people in motion. Think school gyms, hockey arenas, that kind of thing. Higher ISO ratings also improve the "steady cam" feature on most cameras, so you can take better pictures while you are in motion.

HD Video - I love taking video with our camera, the picture is clear and the sound quality is surprisingly good. We can hook our camera up to our HD television to show videos. Right now most point-and-shoot cameras are limited to 720p footage, although the highest quality 1080p is available on high-end SLRs.

While cameras generally shoot in one resolution, some cameras also offer the ability to switch between normal and HD. If you're planning to post videos to websites or to send them to relatives by mail then normal mode will save you a lot of time and headache.

Geo-tagging - A few compact cameras now come with built-in Geo-tagging, which is basically an on-board GPS that lets you map out where any photos have been taken. Google's Picasa actually integrates with Google Maps to do this. If you don't want to spend extra for this feature then some software will combine data from your GPS and camera to do this automatically by comparing the time signature on your photos with the time recorded on your GPTS. While it's not exactly new technology it's one feature that's getting better.

Face and smile recognition - Our camera will automatically pick out faces in every photo to ensure that they are in focus and lit appropriately, and an additional setting will actually wait until the subject is smiling before taking the shot. It's a fairly standard feature these days, but a good one.