Digital Camera “Gotchas”
I know that many of you, like me, have fallen in love with digital cameras. They allow you to take photos without expensive film-development costs and you're able to see the pictures immediately after you take them. Digital cameras are a lot of fun. The fun, however, can be severely hindered if you don't understand some of the workings of the digital camera. So here are a few simple things you need to know about digital cameras to help maintain your happy photo shooting.
Shutter Lag
Don't you just hate it when the kids or the pets move and you miss the shot? This is caused by a phenomenon known as shutter lag, or the pause between pressing the shutter and the onset of the actual exposure or picture taking. Many digital cameras have a noticeable shutter lag because they auto-focus after you press the shutter button. With most digital cameras you can get the picture you want without the lag by pressing the shutter button half-way down as you set up the picture. This will lock in the focus, and, when you press the shutter button down fully, the shutter lag time will be greatly lessened.
LCD Screens
The LCD screen on a camera is fun to use and is great for reviewing your shots. Yet, using the LCD screen is one of the biggest battery drains. If your digital camera has a viewfinder, as most do, you can use it instead of the LCD to frame your picture to conserve battery power. Using the viewfinder also has two other advantages — it will help reduce shutter lag, and it is easier to use in bright sunlight.
Memory Cards
There are several important things to remember about using memory cards. Don't remove the memory card while the camera is processing a photo. Also, working with a very low battery can corrupt all the pictures on your memory card, so be sure to keep those batteries charged. If you use a card reader to transfer the pictures to the computer, move or copy the pictures to the computer before you try to edit or delete them. Deleting a photo directly from a memory card can corrupt the card (I know - this happened to me!).
Digital Zoom
Digital zoom is an electronic zooming of the image. It can cause a noticeable degradation of the image. In fact, it is added to digital cameras today only because it is much cheaper than optical zoom and makes the camera sound more powerful. If you want to make sure your photos are crisp and clear when you zoom in, use only the optical zoom. If your camera has digital zoom, see the instructions that came with your camera to find out how to turn it off.
Naming Pictures
Some cameras name all of the images in sequence from the same starting point. So when you move a set of pictures to the computer the next images are given the same numerical names as the previous set of pictures. Many a user has moved the second set to the computer and inadvertently overwritten some precious memories from the first set of pictures. Be sure to learn how your camera names the pictures, and also be sure to give your photos more meaningful names once you get them onto your computer.
JPEG Format
Most cameras take pictures using a JPEG format (also shown as JPG). This is a compressed format. Each time you change and save a JPEG the photo is recompressed and you lose some of the details (clarity) of the photo. Although the degradation is not noticeable until the photo is resaved many times, it is always best to save a copy of the original photo before you start editing and changing the photo.
