Compact cameras

What is a digital camera?

A digital camera is a camera without film and a colour screen on the back to review or delete your images. The camera stores images to a memory card or internal memory for downloading to a computer and printed or taking to a digital print center. The card can be reused again and again with no loss to image quality or need to buy anything else.

Where do i start?

Please see our 'help me choose' section for a helpful guide on selecting a digital camera.

But how much memory do i need?

See this guide for some help on choosing what size memory card to choose.

Remember this guide only helps with the stills you may want to take. If you would like to take movies on your camera then you should think about doubling your memory.

How do I take good portraits?

Here are some general guidelines for taking good portraits:

• Use longer focal lengths instead of shorter (telephoto instead of wide angle). This will make your subject's face more natural and less bulbous.
• Use a wide aperture for shallow depth of field. This will focus attention on your subject and not your background.
• Avoid distracting backgrounds.
• Try to achieve even illumination by exploiting natural light. If you can't use natural light, then use studio lights and/or multiple flashes and/or a bounce flash.
• Avoid taking pictures where part of your subject's face is in shadow unless you really know what you're doing.
• Avoid using a single flash pointing directly at the subject. This will create harsh shadows on either the subject of the area behind the subject.

My camera already has a flash built in. What's the advantage of getting an external flash?

There are several advantages to an external flash:

• External flashes are more powerful, so you can illuminate objects further away.
• An external flash will position the flash further from the lens, which will reduce red-eye.
• Most external flashes have pivoting heads, which permit you to bounce the flash off the ceiling, further reducing the chance of red-eye and giving the scene a gentler, more natural illumination.

What causes red-eye and how do I minimize it?

Red-eye is caused by light from your flash bouncing off of your subject's retina. So, how do you minimize it? There are several approaches:

1. Minimize the subject's pupil size, thus reducing the amount of light that reaches the retina to be reflected back. The so-called red-eye reduction modes in many flashes and cameras today try to do precisely this by hitting the subject with a "pre-flash" of bright light designed to make the pupils constrict. The effectiveness of these methods varies quite a bit. The method of twinkling the flash rapidly for a second or two seems to be most effective - if it doesn’t cause seizures in your subjects. Some cameras try to reduce pupil size by simply blinking a small bright light. This does not appear to be as effective as the twinkling flash method. Another less obvious tip is to avoid situations where pupils are likely to be dilated: Try to have people look into light and avoid taking pictures of drunk or otherwise impaired people.
2. Increase the angle from which the flashlight is hitting the subject. Remember physics? Angle of incidence equals angle of reflection. If your flash is very close to your lens, the full intensity of the flash light will bounce off the subject's retina and come straight back into the lens. You can increase the angle by moving closer to the subject (though see notes above about portrait photography) or using an external flash, which moves the light source further from your lens. (Note that an unfortunate consequence of all of this is that those nifty, tiny little pocket cameras are the worst performers when it comes to red-eye. Their flashes have to be close to the lens because the camera is so small and they typically don't accept external flashes.)
3. Diffuse the light hitting the subject. The typical way to do this is to use an external bounce flash and bounce the flashlight off the ceiling. This has the effect of illuminating the entire scene, rather than hitting the subject with a burst of intense light. It tends to reduce harsh shadows too. If you don't have a bounce flash, you can try attaching a diffuser to your existing flash or coming up with an ad hoc diffuser. Be careful with ad hoc diffusers: If they reflect light back into the flash, they can cause overheating and damage your flash.

How do I reduce glare off chrome, water, etc.?

Try a polarizing filter, also called a polarizer. If you have an SLR that uses phase detection for auto focus (most do), then you'll need to get a circular polarizer to avoid conflicts with your auto focus mechanism. I haven't tried it myself, but a circular polarizer probably is not necessary with non-SLR digital cameras.

How can I get more dramatic looking skies in my shots?

Try a polarizing filter, which can also be used to reduce glare.

How do I set the exposure on my camera?

Some experienced photographers can judge exposure accurately simply by looking at the scene. In fact, in the days before light meters, this was the only way to do it. Handheld light meters were the next step, allowing accurate measurements of the light levels for an entire scene or for individual subjects. The metered light level, measured in EV, could then be matched against an exposure table to find aperture and shutter speeds appropriate for the shot.

Modern cameras have light meters built in to the camera. They can automatically select both aperture and shutter speed for you, or you can pick one and let the camera pick the other. Most also offer some kind of fully manual mode, where the exposure meter can still be used to provide guidance on how the camera estimates the scene should be exposed.

How does fully automatic exposure (program mode) work?

Your camera has a built in light meter, which it uses the measure the amount of light in the scene at various places. The position of the light meter will vary from model to model. Some popular positions in SLRs are behind the (partially reflective) reflex mirror, or in the pentaprism. On some digital cameras, the main sensor may serve double duty as a light meter.

Your camera will determine the light level in the scene and then use an electronic version of an exposure table to pick the appropriate shutter speed and aperture. You may notice that there are multiple combinations that will be suitable for any EV. To the extent that it is possible, cameras will typically try to pick shutter speeds that are compatible with handheld shooting. The more advanced ones will even take the focal length of your lens into account and try to pick higher shutter speeds if needed to reduce the effects of camera movement.

One thing you should realize now is that with multiple possible combinations of shutter speed and aperture for any exposure level, a one-size-fits-all solution that always chooses one of these many possible combinations can't be right for every situation. This is why more advanced photographers tend to use aperture and shutter priority modes instead of fully automatic.

When do I use aperture priority (AV) mode and why?

Aperture priority mode is similar to fully automatic mode, except that you pick the aperture value. Metering works the same way, but with the aperture fixed there is exactly one shutter speed that will provide the correct exposure in the exposure table. This is what the camera picks for you.

There are many reasons for using aperture priority, including:

• Selecting a small aperture to maximize depth of field.
• Selecting a large aperture to minimize depth of field.
• Selecting a larger aperture to maximize shutter speed in low-light or fast-action situations.
• Choosing an aperture that maximizes the sharpness of your lens. (Every lens has an aperture at which it is sharpest.)

When do I use shutter priority (TV) mode and why?

Shutter priority mode is similar to fully automatic mode, except that you pick the shutter speed. Metering works the same way, but with the shutter speed fixed there is exactly one aperture that will provide the correct exposure in the exposure table. This is what the camera picks for you.

There are many reasons for using shutter priority, including:

• Selecting the slowest tolerable shutter speed to minimize aperture (maximizing depth of field).
• Selecting a high shutter speed to freeze action.

What is the minimum shutter speed I should use to avoid blurry photos due to camera shake?

This depends upon a number of factors including the focal length, the steadiness of your hands, and vibrations caused by the mechanical parts of your camera, e.g., mirror slap in SLRs. If your lens has a (35 mm equivalent) focal length of X mm, then a good rule of thumb is to shoot at 1/X or faster. Small movements of the camera shift the image more at long focal lengths.

Why is RAW mode better than TIFF?

• RAW mode contains the raw data from the CCD before any image processing algorithms have been applied. This means that it contains more bits per pixel than your typical JPEG or TIFF and, more importantly, no irreversible image transformations have been applied yet. Many of the things that your camera does before saving a file as JPEG or TIFF are hard or impossible to reverse. Even though TIFF is a loss less format, it is loss less after several irreversible transformations such as sharpening have been applied.
• A disadvantage of RAW is that it is a proprietary format and you will need to use a special procedure to convert RAW files into a format that most programs will understand. However, one advantage of the proprietary nature of RAW format is that manufacturers can use exotic loss less compression schemes. To ensure full compatibility, TIFF files are often saved in an uncompressed format. This means that despite the additional information contained in RAW files, they are usually much smaller than TIFF files.

What's the advantage of TIFF over JPEG?

• First you need to understand JPEG. JPEG is a lossy compression method, which means that some image quality is sacrificed to make the image file smaller. The amount of this sacrifice can be varied, though there is no agreed upon scale. Your camera probably has different jpeg modes, which correspond to different tradeoffs between quality and size.
• TIFF is actually a family of compression methods. The standard is fairly complicated and not all programs handle all types of TIFF files. Most programs, however, can handle a simple TIFF format in which no compression of any kind is applied. This requires 8 bits of resolution for each of the red, green and blue channels, or 3 bytes per pixel. Thus, the total file size will be 3xHxV bytes, where H is the horizontal resolution and V is the vertical resolution of the image.
• The advantage of TIFF is that no sacrifices in image quality are made to reduce the space requirements of the image. How significant is this? It depends on a number of factors, including the basis of comparison that you are using. Some cameras use much more compression in JPEG than others. Some owners of cameras with the option of very low JPEG compression swear that they can't tell the difference between low-compression JPEG and TIFF.

What setting should I use for in-camera sharpening?

Many new digital cameras offer several different settings for applying sharpening to images in-camera. Which one should you use? If you have a sophisticated image-editing program, you should use the lowest possible sharpening setting. Why? The correct amount of sharpening to apply will depend upon the display method used for the image (printing, LCD, CRT, etc.) as well as the final size of the image and the content of the image itself. Sharpening makes many irreversible changes to an image, so you can paint yourself into a corner by committing to a particular amount of sharpening before the image ever leaves the camera. You're much better off using as little sharpening as possible in-camera and then applying the appropriate amount of sharpening after you have loaded the image into your PC.

What can I do to improve LCD visibility in bright sunlight?

Check the manual to see if your camera has the ability to adjust the brightness and contrast of the LCD display. If this doesn't work for you, there are several manufacturers of hoods that cover the LCD partly, blocking out sunlight: Hoodman.

Why this long lag or delay between when I press the shutter and when the camera takes the picture (Shutter Lag)?

Most of today’s digital cameras are slower focusing than today's film cameras. Moreover, it takes some time for the electronics inside your camera to do their thing. You can find detailed timing information in the reviews at http://www.imaging-resource.com and look for the 'picky details' in the review of the camera your are looking for.

How can I minimize shutter lag?

• Some cameras have the ability to focus continuously and snap a picture as soon as you press the shutter. This reduces the time spent focusing. Check your manual to see if your camera has this feature. Most cameras will also let you pre-focus by pressing the shutter half way to get a focus lock and then waiting to press it all of the way until you are ready.
• If your camera does not have these features, but has manual focus, you can use manual focus to focus on the scene and then snap the picture when you are ready, reducing lag from focus time. You should probably use the smallest aperture that will yield acceptable shutter speeds to help compensate for any inaccuracies in manual focus.
• If your camera has some kind of burst mode or continuous shooting mode, you might also consider using this as a way to capture rapidly moving objects. You'll wind up discarding a lot of shots this way, but you'll probably catch a few good ones too.

How does digital compare with film?

In theory, film can capture much, much more detail than today's (12/01) digital cameras. In practice, you may not be able to achieve this greater detail using consumer lenses, film, and developing. This is especially true for prints up to 8x10 in size. If you start making enlargements using good equipment and high quality film, you will see the difference.

I want to extend my zoom will my camera accept lenses?

Some cameras have the ability to accept add on lenses, if it’s a compact camera then if your manual tells you there is a lens adapter for it then you should be able to add on a lens. If your camera is a current model please check our site for information about any lenses that may be available.

I travel allot does this make a difference which model i select?

It is our recommendation that if you travel a lot and need a pocket camera as a companion then a camera with a lens that stays inside the camera may be a good choice. These are the slimmer cameras with internal zoom lenses that do not protrude from the cameras body. This means the camera is ready quicker to take a photo but more importantly there is less of a likelihood of dust or grit finding its way into the lens mechanism. This is not normally a problem but when traveling we know that it not always possible to have you camera in its case all the time and cameras often get dropped into pockets unprotected.

I need an intrinsically safe camera do they exist?

No, no manufacturer to date that we know off have made this claim.