Digital Camera Technology

Planning on making the switch from traditional film and taking a leap into the digital age? Now is the time to do it. By the year 2008, digital cameras will probably account for 80% of all cameras used in the world. This could be an overshot, but the figures in sales of the gadgets are rising fast. The trick to learning what you need is to know what’s out there. Know the kinds of digital camera before making that crucial purchase.

Compact

The word alone should give you a hint about what these gadgets look like. Extremely lightweight and built easily to fit your pocket, these kinds of digital camera are also easy on the wallet. Very affordable and quite powerful (depending on the brand), compact cameras are for your basic point and shoot activities. They may not look like they can do much but these cameras can take great quality photographs with some of them sold with a 7.1 mega pixel sensor included.

Point and Shoot

Slightly larger than the compact camera, these kinds of digital camera can still fit in pockets and small bags. However, it is more than likely that you will buy a separate bag or cover for these cameras as they do tend to be a little bulkier and therefore need a little more protection. These are built for simplicity and also are quite powerful when all their features are mastered by users. Some of the best cameras are sold in this category and included Canon’s A640, The Nikon Coolpix line, and many of the famous Cybershot cameras from Sony.

Extended Zoom

Just short of being a DSLR, the extended zoom camera is great for those with a sense of adventure and a taste for the outdoors. These kinds of digital camera offer optical zoom ranges of anywhere between 8x to 15x. The most popular cameras to come out of this series of cameras include Sony’s H5, their latest offering found in the H7 and H9, as well as The Panasonic Lumix line, Canon’s PowerShot series, and the Olympus Stylus line. Extended zoom cameras are fast becoming alternatives to the DSLR because they are much cheaper. However, for the professional photographer, they still may lack or have too many features that make it just perfect for photography.

All-Weather

All-weather cameras speak for themselves. They can withstand the elements and are great for use in the outdoors. Built exclusively for those with a rugged lifestyle, most of these kinds of digital camera are not exactly waterproof. However, Korean manufacturer Samsung has come with a totally waterproof model and the Sony U60 can also be fully submerged in water for great underwater shots. For any other model, you would have to purchase special cases that will probably set you back anywhere between $50 and $250, depending on the manufacturer of the cases.

Now that you know what kinds of digital camera are out there (with the exception of the DSLR’s which are usually for professional photographers and are exact digital alternatives to the film SLR’s), you can now make an easier decision knowing what they are all useful for. Know your lifestyle and match it with the kind of camera that will compliment it daily.

When the first true digital camera first came out in 1988 (The Fuji DS-1P), photographers around the world were still a little skeptical as to what would become of the technology. Many thought it was a fad that wouldn’t pick up and then there were those who began to ask if their film cameras could be converted to be able to take digital photographs. But amidst the questions, the first commercially available camera was available in 1991 by Kodak. It sported a 1.3 mega pixel sensor and was priced at $13,000 dollars! The digital camera has come a long way in the last decade and a half and so now we look at why the frenzy still affects us today.

Design

So what is the hubbub about the rise of the digital camera? Well, let’s look at the many things that did change when digital cameras came in to replace their analog brothers. With the absence of the usage of film, digital cameras made it possible for manufacturers to save on material because they could now use less and build smaller and eventually thinner cameras. Digital cameras showed the world that there was no need for the hollowed out spaces found in traditional cameras, meant for the loading of film. This also allowed manufacturers to come up with all sorts of funky designs to help excite and attract the curiosity of the consumer. More functional and fashionable designs started to appear over the next decade.

Function

With the rise of the digital camera came the slow death of film. Digital cameras capture images and store them on either internal or external memory. These memory cards, these days, can be no larger than a thumbnail. The best thing about this was that the images could be developed, erased off the memory cards, and therefore the extra space could be used again for newer images; so you can imagine what this meant for the camera industry and the manufacturers of film used in analog cameras. Since digital cameras rely on a power source (conventional batteries or special ones made by different companies for their products), there was no longer the need to reload a camera in between shots. One now only needs to keep pressing that button, capturing as many images as a memory card can hold.

Affordability

If there’s anything that a digital camera has changed, it’s the way that people spend their money. In the past, photographers would have to set aside a few bucks to buy film for their re-loadable cameras. Digital cameras are kind of a one-time purchase. Buy a digital camera and a memory card with sufficient space and you can snap away at anything as long your battery lasts. So where does all that extra money that should have been for film go? Ideally, that extra money can go into savings; then again, you can spend it all on other gadgets that are to your liking. In any case, the rise of the digital camera has given the consumer more spending power and it’s one less expense for the photographer who used to buy film.