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Buying Guide: Straight Shooting
10 digital compact camera newbie mistakes...and how to avoid them

by Mason Resnick


Let's start by stating the obvious: A digital camera isn't the same
as a film camera. Some of the old rules or assumptions don't apply.
Misinformation (sometimes perpetrated by camera manufacturers) have
caused many users to buy too much or inappropriate cameras. And there
are plenty of bad habits already forming by users of this relatively
young technology

http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?o...rticle=newbies

Cheers!
http://newcamz.blogspot.com

You have to love it. He spends the first two tips trying to convince people
that you don't need more mega-pixels and then turns around and contradicts
everything in Tip 4. If you don't need MP then shooting in lower resolution
isn't going to matter. Personally I think this guy needs to have his head
adjusted.

The MP's the better up to a point. We haven't gotten to that point with
consumer cameras. When we hit 15 to 20MP we will have hit that point. People
need to understand that they are shooting things that they will never be
able to shoot again especially when dealing with family and family events.
Who knows what they will want to do with the images in the future. Sure
right now 4x6 is fine, but what happens when you decide that you just love
the picture and want to make it bigger and you listened to this twit and
can't do it.

Plan for the future you never know what it will hold.

R


"newcamz.blogspot.com" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> Buying Guide: Straight Shooting
> 10 digital compact camera newbie mistakes...and how to avoid them
>
> by Mason Resnick
>
>
> Let's start by stating the obvious: A digital camera isn't the same
> as a film camera. Some of the old rules or assumptions don't apply.
> Misinformation (sometimes perpetrated by camera manufacturers) have
> caused many users to buy too much or inappropriate cameras. And there
> are plenty of bad habits already forming by users of this relatively
> young technology
>
> http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?o...rticle=newbies
>
> Cheers!
> http://newcamz.blogspot.com
>

Hebee Jeebes wrote:
> You have to love it. He spends the first two tips trying to convince people
> that you don't need more mega-pixels and then turns around and contradicts
> everything in Tip 4. If you don't need MP then shooting in lower resolution
> isn't going to matter. Personally I think this guy needs to have his head
> adjusted.

I don't think it's a contradiction. He says that you don't need to
splurge for an 8MP camera when a 4MP will do, especially since most
people print 4x6 size. But if you have a 4MP camera and you reduce the
resolution down to 1MP, then you're going to notice significant quality
differences.

Bucky wrote:
> Hebee Jeebes wrote:
> > You have to love it. He spends the first two tips trying to convince people
> > that you don't need more mega-pixels and then turns around and contradicts
> > everything in Tip 4. If you don't need MP then shooting in lower resolution
> > isn't going to matter. Personally I think this guy needs to have his head
> > adjusted.
>
> I don't think it's a contradiction. He says that you don't need to
> splurge for an 8MP camera when a 4MP will do, especially since most
> people print 4x6 size. But if you have a 4MP camera and you reduce the
> resolution down to 1MP, then you're going to notice significant quality
> differences.

I have to agree with Hebee. I suspect that 90 percent of photos
probably aren't worth enlarging--like mine--the other 10 percent are
worth the extra megapixels. Who knows? Maybe National Geographic (or
Playboy) might be interested in purchasing one of your treasures. I'm
anxiously waiting for the prices of full-size sensors to come down.
--
Bill in Lake Charles

Hebee Jeebes wrote:

>The MP's the better up to a point. We haven't gotten to that point with
>consumer cameras.

Theoretically or practically? If practically, yes we have reached that
point.

We generally don't need more than 4-6mp P&S consumer cameras. It's just
a numbers game. Most consumers don't print larger than 8x10, and a 6mp
image can still be cropped to half the size and make great 8x10 prints.

> When we hit 15 to 20MP we will have hit that point. People
>need to understand that they are shooting things that they will never be
>able to shoot again especially when dealing with family and family events.

Oh geezes...my 3mp P&S (Canon A75) makes great 8x10 prints, and I've
made 11x14 prints just fine too. I haven't tried, but I'm sure I could
do 13x19 and still get good results, maybe with a bit of tweaking.

My 8mp DSLR makes those and much larger, but it's not needed for family
shots. Most people I know are not interested in anything larger than
8x10 prints for the family, except for the odd 11x14 and the rare 13x19
to frame and hang on the wall.

>Who knows what they will want to do with the images in the future. Sure
>right now 4x6 is fine, but what happens when you decide that you just love
>the picture and want to make it bigger and you listened to this twit and
>can't do it.

If you have good quality images from 3mp or more, you can make 8x10
prints just fine.

Large 11x14 or 13x19 is too much for most people, unless they want to
hang it on the wall in the den. In that case you're going to be further
from the print, so you can still use a 3mp image to make that large
print. It won't look as good close up, but you won't have your nose on
the glass when viewing it, so it'll look just fine.

Too often people are examining photos on their computer at 100%, which
is not representative of a typical print at normal distances. When you
do that, a typical 3mp image is actually about 16x24, and a 6mp image is
24x36. That's huge, and you wouldn't be a couple of feet from the print
like you are with a monitor.

The problem isn't megapixels, it's image quality. A poor 6mp image can
look far worse than a sharp 3mp image printed to the same size.

Hebee Jeebes wrote:
> You have to love it. He spends the first two tips trying to convince people
> that you don't need more mega-pixels and then turns around and contradicts
> everything in Tip 4. If you don't need MP then shooting in lower resolution
> isn't going to matter. Personally I think this guy needs to have his head
> adjusted.
>
> The MP's the better up to a point. We haven't gotten to that point with
> consumer cameras. When we hit 15 to 20MP we will have hit that point. People
> need to understand that they are shooting things that they will never be
> able to shoot again especially when dealing with family and family events.
> Who knows what they will want to do with the images in the future. Sure
> right now 4x6 is fine, but what happens when you decide that you just love
> the picture and want to make it bigger and you listened to this twit and
> can't do it.
>
> Plan for the future you never know what it will hold.
>
> R
>
>
> "newcamz.blogspot.com" <> wrote in message
> news: oups.com...
>> Buying Guide: Straight Shooting
>> 10 digital compact camera newbie mistakes...and how to avoid them
>>
>> by Mason Resnick
>>
>>
>> Let's start by stating the obvious: A digital camera isn't the same
>> as a film camera. Some of the old rules or assumptions don't apply.
>> Misinformation (sometimes perpetrated by camera manufacturers) have
>> caused many users to buy too much or inappropriate cameras. And there
>> are plenty of bad habits already forming by users of this relatively
>> young technology
>>
>> http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?o...rticle=newbies
>>
>> Cheers!
>> http://newcamz.blogspot.com
>>
>
>
The advice is relevant, and correct. Once you have settled on the best
number of pixels for your needs, then reducing them to save memory card
space doesn't make much sense.

As for numbers of pixels over 5mp, for a 4x6 print, it is worthless.
Worse, there is a limit with current technology as to what noise levels
one can expect with more pixels. The more pixels in a given space, the
less signal to noise ratio. Perhaps compact cameras with 20mp will come
along someday, but that is NOT today, which is where/when we live. I
don't think I want to wait.

The advice given is good, and of use to novice digital camera users. I
applaud the effort made.