WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR 
DIGITAL PHOTOS

Choosing a digital camera doesn't have to be difficult. The key is knowing what you want to do with the photographs it creates.

Digital camera advertisements all push megapixels and for good reason. At the heart of every digital camera is an electronic sensor or CCD that records the image. The sensor is composed of thousands of microscopic dots called picture elements, or "pixels" for short (''pix'' for picture, "el" for elements). The more pixels an image has the better its resolution, and the more detail it will have.

Simply put a megapixel is a million pixels. A one-megapixel digital camera, at its maximum quality setting, produces images composed of approximately 1,000,000 individual pixels. This is also described by an equation showing the amount of pixels laid out horizontally and vertically on the CCD. For example a camera with 1152 x 864 pixels means it has 995,328 pixels---shortened to 1 million pixels.

Why is this important? Resolution is important because to get large images that equal conventional photo print quality you need a certain amount of pixels. Otherwise, your pictures will become jaggedy or pixelated. So in determining how many pixels you need, you first have to decide what size prints you want to make.

The rule of thumb for printing digital images is that you need 300 dpi (dots per inch) for top image quality. So for example, you want to print 5 x 7's you would need at least a 3 megapixel camera.  So depending on your personal standards--what one viewer considers fine, another might find unacceptable--a good 8 x 10-inch print needs at least 8 megapixels.

On the other hand, perhaps you just want to take pictures for posting on the Web, to put on CDs, or E-mail to friends. There your requirements would be much lower. For the Web you only need 72 dpi―a full 75 percent less resolution than for a high quality print. So obviously, you'd be able to get away almost exclusively with a 2-megapixel camera, but of course, most people today use whatever cameras they have, most of which have a resolution of 10 megapixels or more. Incidentally, if you want all the options, shooting either high and low quality pictures, you can use just about any digital camera, since all offer several different shooting resolutions. This way you won't lock yourself into shooting 16-megapixel files when all you may need is 1 megapixel.

When you are in the upper deck of a ballgame, nothing comes in more handier than a good zoom lens. Nine out of ten cameras today come with a zoom. And since all digital lenses are made of glass, the optical quality will be equally as good. A digital zoom, however, takes a smaller image captured on the CCD and crops it, then enlarges it by duplicating every pixel. If your camera features digital zoom, disable it.

Choose the Camera for the Use

Unlike 35mm cameras, not all digital cameras work equally well for all subjects. With the wide variety of cameras to choose from, it’s important to know how you will use your camera. A lighter superzoom or compact model will serve you well if you travel a lot. If you’re into more serious photography, then a digital SLR is your best choice. And for everyday candids, a smartphone will do nicely.