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Create high-quality images with Digital cameras

Digital cameras have recently grown in popularity because of their increasing image quality and easy interaction with desktop PCs. Digital cameras create high-quality images that allow you to send to others over the Internet or print on a color printer. Red Hat Linux supports several brands of digital cameras and has applications that help you access, view, and modify your digital photographs. digital camera has many advantages. It saves you money in the long run because you don¡¯t have to buy rolls and rolls of film and you don¡¯t have to ... read more

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Digital cameras have recently grown in popularity because 
 
of their increasing image quality and easy interaction with 
 
desktop PCs. Digital cameras create high-quality images 
 
that allow you to send to others over the Internet or print on 
 
a color printer. Red Hat Linux supports several brands of 
 
digital cameras and has applications that help you access, 
 
view, and modify your digital photographs.

digital camera has many advantages. It saves you money 
 
in the long run because you don¡¯t have to buy rolls and 
 
rolls of film and you don¡¯t have to pay for development. 
 
You don¡¯t have to go to the store to drop off an then pick up 
 
your pictures. A digital camera shows you the images 
 
before they are printed, an if you don¡¯t like it, you simply 
 
delete them.
 
Digital photographs are incredibly easy to distribute and 
 
use. You can insert them into word processing documents, 
 
send them to friends by email, or place them on a website 
 
where anyone in the world can seem them. You can also 
 
connect your digital camera to the TV and show them like 
 
a slide show. It¡¯s like instant photography without the film 
 
costs.
 
You can also use photo-editing programs to improve your 
 
pictures. Red eyes are easily removed, you can change 
 
colors or contrasts, element can be deleted or added¡ It¡¯s 
 
like a darkroom without the chemicals. Some digital 
 
cameras are also capable of capturing sound an video. 
 
They are so useful that they are being incorporated into 
 
more and more devices like PDAs and cell phones. This 
 
way you can send your images to other phones or post 
 
them on the internet.

Digital cameras have recently grown in popularity because 
 
of their increasing image quality and easy interaction with 
 
desktop PCs. Digital cameras create high-quality images 
 
that allow you to send to others over the Internet or print on 
 
a color printer. Red Hat Linux supports several brands of 
 
digital cameras and has applications that help you access, 
 
view, and modify your digital photographs.

Shopping for a digital camera can be a difficult task 
 
considering the sheer number of choices out there. The 
 
number of manufacturers, models, and price ranges that 
 
need to be sorted out 
 
make the process difficult enough, but throw in all the 
 
buzz-words that need to be understood, and even a short 
 
list of cameras can become difficult to analyze.

This Tech Tip will take a look at a few key words that may 
 
come up when researching a digital camera,
 
and will hopefully reduce the headaches associated with 
 
the process.

Pixels

Digital images are composed of thousands or millions of 
 
tiny squares called picture elements, or pixels for short. 
 
Each square has its own color assigned to it, and the 
 
compilation of all of these little colored squares allows for 
 
images to appear smooth when viewed at original size. If 
 
an image is magnified several times, the appearance of 
 
the pixels can become more obvious, and at high 
 
magnifications each colored pixel can be distinguished 
 
individually.

Megapixels

Basically, the term megapixel means one million pixels, 
 
and it is used to describe the maximum number of pixels 
 
found in an image produced by a digital camera. It is 
 
generally the criteria used to classify cameras, and 
 
checking the Geeks.com selection 
 
(http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=CAM) shows that 
 
their cameras are all sorted into ranges of megapixels 
 
(MP).

Many people assume that because cameras are marketed 
 
so heavily by their megapixel specification, that this is the 
 
single most important criteria when choosing a camera. 
 
More megapixels do not necessarily equal better images, 
 
they mean larger images (both in physical size and in file 
 
size).

The megapixel count is achieved by multiplying the 
 
number of pixels in one horizontal line by the number of 
 
pixels in one vertical line. So, if a camera can produce 
 
images at a maximum resolution of 1600 by 1200 pixels, it 
 
is a 1.92 megapixel (1,920,000 pixel) camera.

It is not fair to assume that the images from the 5.0 MP 
 
Kodax CX7525 are automatically better than those from 
 
the 4.0 MP Kodak CX7430 strictly based on their 
 
megapixel count. All it means is that the maximum image 
 
size of the CX7525 is 2560 x 1920 and the maximum 
 
image size of the LS743 is 2408 x 1758. Many other 
 
features in the cameras can impact the quality of the 
 
images they produce, and may be far more important for 
 
the typical user to consider than the maximum overall size 
 
of each image.

Larger image size may do nothing for a user who only 
 
wants to view images on his computer screen, or for use 
 
on the web, but the higher megapixel images are 
 
important for those looking to make prints of their images. 
 
Generally, higher pixel counts in an image translate to the 
 
ability to create larger prints.

Sensors ¨C CMOS and CCD

Digital cameras use a small sensor to capture the image 
 
before transferring it to flash memory for storage. 
 
Equivalent to a negative in a film camera, these sensors 
 
come in a variety of sizes, with most being between 20 and 
 
40 millimeters squared. There are two types of sensors 
 
that may be found in cameras: CCD (Charged Couple 
 
Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide 
 
Semiconductor). CMOS sensors are usually found in 
 
cheaper cameras and offer lower image quality than a 
 
CCD sensor that would probably be found in a more 
 
expensive camera.

There is an exception to the rule that CCD is better than 
 
CMOS, and that is with the Digital SLR-type (Single Lens 
 
Reflex) cameras. They use a much larger sensor (greater 
 
than 300 millimeters squared) and can provide excellent 
 
image quality, but the quality does come with a much 
 
higher price tag.

Zoom ¨C Optical and Digital

Most digital cameras offer some sort of zoom, but it is 
 
important to identify which type is being provided. Optical 
 
zoom functions just as on a film camera, where the lens 
 
physically moves to produce the magnification. Digital 
 
zoom uses circuitry to enlarge a portion of the standard 
 
sized image and crops the content outside of the zoomed 
 
area. The quality of images produced using digital zoom 
 
suffer due to the nature of the process, and optical zoom is 
 
a far more desirable feature.

The price of a camera with optical zoom may be a good 
 
deal more than one with digital zoom, but the quality of the 
 
images cannot be compared. The Kodak CX7330 and the 
 
Kodak CX7300 are comparable cameras in many regards, 
 
but the CX7300 features only digital zoom, while the 
 
CX7330 features both optical and digital zoom for about 
 
$30 more.

Memory - Digital Film

The two important things to consider when choosing flash 
 
memory for a digital camera is that the right format is 
 
chosen, and that a quality module is chosen that can 
 
record quickly and be ready for the next picture as soon as 
 
possible. A photographer looking to snap a rapid series of 
 
high resolution images on their Kodak DX7440 has many 
 
options in SD (secure digital) memory to choose from but, 
 
they would be far better off with something like the SanDisk 
 
Ultra II SD card capable of a sustained write speed of 9 
 
MB/s, than with a generic SD card capable of a burst speed 
 
rated at only 2.5MB/s.

Aliasing

Even if you think you know the basic definition of this term, 
 
it may seem confusing in the context of digital cameras. 
 
Aliasing refers to the appearance of jagged edges 
 
generally seen on diagonal or curved surfaces in images. 
 
This effect is caused by the fact that all pixels are square, 
 
and that even non-square shapes in an image need to be 
 
created with square components.

The solution to aliasing is not surprisingly called ¡°anti-
 
aliasing.¡± Through software, the edges generally affected 
 
by aliasing are blended and the jagged appearance can 
 
be made much smoother. Video game enthusiasts may be 
 
familiar with anti-aliasing and the impact the varying levels 
 
of it can have on the overall performance of game play. 
 
Although the technology is similar, the personal 
 
importance of having the best digital images possible 
 
makes applying anti-aliasing just about a no-brainer.

Aspect Ratio

Aspect ratio describes the shape of a digital image, or any 
 
image for that matter, where the first number represents 
 
the width of the image and the second number represents 
 
the height. People may be familiar with the term as applied 
 
to televisions (as 16:9 wide screen televisions are now all 
 
the rage to replace traditional 4:3 units), and the concept is 
 
the same here.

Standard film cameras generally use an aspect ratio of 3:2, 
 
but most digital cameras have adopted a 4:3 aspect ratio 
 
so that images better fit on a standard computer monitor. 
 
Monitors with typical resolutions of 800x600, 1024x768, or 
 
1280x960, for example, all have an aspect ratio of 4:3, so it 
 
only makes sense to produce images that will fit well on 
 
these screens. Although images can be manipulated to 
 
print on any size paper, special photo-quality paper is 
 
available to allow for high-quality prints to be made at the 
 
correct aspect ratio.

Connectivity

The pictures taken by a digital camera have to be extracted 
 
by some means in order to get them onto a computer, or 
 
perhaps directly onto a printer. In general, cameras 
 
provide a cable to connect to a computer either via serial, 
 
USB, USB 2.0, or Firewire.

Serial ports are just about extinct at this point due to their 
 
slow connection speeds and lack of plug-and-play support, 
 
but some older or lower-end models may still offer serial 
 
connectivity.

USB may be the most common form of connectivity, and if 
 
speed is important to you, look specifically for USB 2.0 
 
support, as it is up to 40 times faster.

Some specialized cameras may take advantage of the 
 
high speed Firewire protocol for connecting to a computer. 
 
Just about all modern computers come with at least a pair 
 
of USB ports, but not all computers include Firewire. 
 
Firewire capabilities can be added to any computer with an 
 
available PCI slot by using an expansion card such as this 
 
one.

Some cameras don¡¯t require any cables at all, as they can 
 
transmit the images to a PC wirelessly. The Concord EyeQ 
 
is such a camera that utilizes Bluetooth technology in lieu 
 
of wires.

Even with all the modes of transmitting images listed so 
 
far, one other method may serve as a universal 
 
replacement for all of them. Many people find flash 
 
memory card readers to be a quick and convenient 
 
alternative to using the camera¡¯s native means of 
 
connecting. You simply remove the memory from the slot 
 
on the camera and pop it into the appropriate slot on the 
 
reader, and then the computer system can access the card 
 
like a local disk drive.

Final Words

Every high-tech field has its own set of specific buzz words, 
 
and digital photography is no different. Although by no 
 
means an exhaustive resource of digital photography 
 
terminology, this Tech Tip provides insight to a few key 
 
terms worth knowing in order to make shopping for a 
 
digital camera just a bit easier.

Author Bio:

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