Learn About Digital Zoom and Pixels

Save 40 to 80 % on Cameras!

Digital Camera Buyer's Guide and Tips!

You've found the information and tips that will help you find the best digital camera for your needs...and it's all in plain English!

On Digital Photography Review, the aim of this section of the site is to provide beginners and advanced users alike an areafor reference and a place to learn new techniques and help improve their digital photography techniques.

The key to finding the best digital camera is knowing what to look for and then understanding what to pay for it! Save some time using the information on this site to help make an informed decision. By knowing what to look for you’ll save some money too!

The fine points of digital pictures.

Pixel: The building block of all digital pictures.

Effective/Image Resolution: The number of pixels that make up a digital image (defined by pixels wide by pixels high).

Megapixel (MP): One million pixels/image (i.e. 1000 x 1000 pixels = 1 million).

Pixels Count: The more pixels you capture, the more picture detail you’ll have.

When printing pictures, a good rule of thumb is:

  • At least 1 MP for 5" x 7"
  • At least 2 MP for 8" x 10"
  • At least 3 MP for 11" x 14"
  • At least 4 MP for 20" x 30" JPEG file format: (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

This is the image file format of choice by most digital camera manufacturers. Compression: What NOT to do to your digital pictures! PRO – Able to fit more pictures on a storage card by reducing file size through compression.! CON – Compression reduces file size by averaging values of the scene, thus eliminating valuable picture information. Compress and lose.

The fine points: Get close. Get closer.

Optical zoom: Lets you get close and compose your scene while maintaining image quality. An optical zoom works the same way as a traditional zoom lens. The optics maintain image quality throughout the zoom range of the lens.

Digital zoom: Offers the flexibility to compose before taking the picture. There are no moving parts. The zooming takes place using the camera’s software. However, digital zoom may limit the overall size of the print. A 2 MP camera is capable of producing a quality 8" x 10" print without zoom. When using the digital zoom at 2X, the largest print size with good quality would be approximately 3 ˝" x 5".

Next: whatever