Pixel counts of Digital cameras

November 9, 2007

What is resolution?
The resolution of an image generally refers to the sharpness of visible objects that the image displays. In other words, it refers to how detailed the image is. Sharper, more detailed images have high resolution. To be capable of producing images of high resolution, a digital camera must have large number of pixels, the unit that measures details on an image. How come a digital camera can record and reproduce images of very high resolution? What are the pixels standards for digital cameras? How they can help the digital camera produce different picture qualities? This article provides you extensive study into this area.

How resolution affects the image quality?
First, let us know the factors that attribute to the image quality. Undoubtedly, the resolution must precede other things like colour quality, contrast etc. Low resolution pictures often lack clarity and sharpness making them unappealing to eyes. On the contrary, pictures with high resolution look clear, sharp and catching our eyes instantly. Most digital cameras come with very high resolution (millions of pixels) and high-end digital cameras can capture pictures at 12 million pixels rate.

Resolution of digital cameras
In a digital camera, the image sensor is the component that determines the resolution of the camera. The sensor or the CCD (Charge Coupled Device) records the image, processes it and changes it to digital information. This semiconductor device is made up tiny units called pixels with a colour filter over each pixel. Each pixel is made up of three numbers which denote three colours (RGB) and the combination produces complete colour.

Digital cameras come with resolution of mega pixels. As the old conventional camera has pixels below one mega pixels (1 mega = 1 million), the images are of low resolution and picture quality continuously degrades with so much grains over them, when you enlarge those images. In contrast, the latest digital cameras come with pixel counts ranging between 2 â€“ 20 mega pixels. This is due to the constant enhancement of CCD chips that make up sensors of digital cameras with every new digital camera that hits the market.

Different pixel counts of digital cameras
Digital cameras for amateur use are available with pixel counts - 1.3 mega pixels, 2.1 pixels, 3.3 mega pixels and 4 mega pixels. Digital camera of 4 mega pixels is considered ideal for everyone â€“ cost-wise as well as quality-wise. Currently, many compact digital cameras come with 8 mega pixels CCD sensors and are capable of producing excellent picture quality and help you to make enlarged prints with quality comparable to prints that you get from studios.

There are, however, cameras with higher pixel counts â€“ 11.1 mega pixels, 16 mega pixels and 20 mega pixels. These cameras are largely used for adding professional quality to the pictures/videos. A 20 mega pixel digital camera can deliver the typical picture quality of a 35 mm movie.

Some facts about pixel counts

Pixel Count Up to 2 Mega pixels
Suitable for thumbnails, online photo sharing, for use in websites. Low resolution cameras produce inferior picture quality.

Pixel Count Up to 2 Mega pixels 3 or 4 Mega pixels
Amateur use. Improved picture quality. Up to 6 x 7 size prints are fine.

Pixel Count Up to above 5 Mega pixels and up to 8 Mega Pixels
Suitable for larger print outs, enlargements. Superb over-all image quality. Expensive.

Pixel count above 8 Mega pixels. 16 or 20 Mega pixels
Suitable for professional photographers. Image quality comparable with motion picture. Very expensive.

Although higher pixel count produces better picture quality, the quality may degrade when the digital camera supports too many pixels that its lens could not handle. This results in so called noisy pictures which show poor shadow details. Overall image quality is also not up to mark as the pixel size becomes tinier and tinier which leads to holding less charged particle.

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Nikon Coolpix S200 Digital Camera

November 9, 2007

Nikon Coolpix S200

Nikon Coolpix S200 Digital Camera looks so stylish and cute and is an eye catch device. The user will be happy to have this, as it is easy to use. You can get images with high quality. Its unique dimensions are given in millimetres as (W x H x D) 19.5 x 56.5 x 18.5. It is a lightweight product which weighs just 125 grams.

Nikon’s digital camera is available with an effective pixel of 7.1 mega-pixels. The device comes with a 2.5” LCD monitor which has the ability to produce resolution of 153000 pixels. LCD screen comes with Anti-reflecting Coating. The unit is provided with CCD optical sensor. ‘CCD’ stands for Charged Couple Device. The size of the CCD type sensor is ½.5 inch. It consists of two types of zooming features such as 4x digital zoom and 3x optical zoom. This zoom feature enables the image to get enlarged.

Nikon Coolpix S200 Digital Camera has the capability to capture videos. This feature is available with a video resolution of 480 pixels horizontally and 640 pixels vertically. Its storage media supports internal memory with the capacity up to 20 MB which can accept SD memory card format. This digital camera is capable to capture movie with sound.

Nikon Coolpix S200 Digital Camera has auto-focus feature to adjust the distance between the camera and object. The highest focal length of this unit is 114 millimetres. The lens aperture is 3.1 (wide)-5.9 (tele). This device comes with built-in flash feature. The focus range for macro close up mode is 10 centimetres. The unit has a built-in flash range of 0.6 to 5.4 metres. The unit comes with image stabilizer. Nikon’s digital camera supports Pict-Bridge feature.

The device consists of USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. Digital camera consists of power source to run the device and it is a Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery and if necessary AC adapter EH-62D is used. Lithium-Ion battery offers a life time up to 230 shots.

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Canon PowerShot G7 Digital Camera

November 8, 2007

Compact and stylish, the new Canon PowerShot G7 Digital Camera gives you high quality images. You can make use of Lithium -Ion battery in Canon Power-Shot G7 Digital Camera, which is a rechargeable battery. This battery has 720 milliampere power. Canon’s digital camera has additional features like audio recording, Pict-Bridge Support, direct print, USB 2.0 compatibility, etc. W 10.6 cm x d 4.3 cm x h 7.2 cm is its measurements. It is a light weight device which just weighs about 320 grams.

Screen Display:

The camera comes with an LCD display screen with TFT active matrix and is available in size of 2.5 inches.

Lens system:

Canon PowerShot G7 Digital Camera comes with auto focus feature with TTL contrast detection. The focal length of the lens is 7.4 mm to 44.4 millimetres. It has automatic and manual focus adjustments. Its lens aperture is F/2.8 to 4.8. Optical zoom of 6x and digital zoom of 4x are avail in this unique handy device. Digital and optical zoom are adjusted with the support of motorized drive.

Colour support:

You can expect images with colour display in this canon’s digital camera. Its continuous shooting speed is 2 frames per second. AVI format supports the Digital Video feature. It has an optical image stabilizer. This unique device is available with CCD type optical image sensor. Types of white balance, this unit consists are Custom, Automatic and Presets.

Flash feature:

The unit has a built-in flash feature. The effect of the flash range is 0.5 to 4 metres. Various flash mode provided in digital camera are fill-in mode, rear curtain sync, auto mode, flash off mode and red eye reduction.

Shooting Modes:

The shooting modes provided in Canon PowerShot G7 Digital Camera are like Portrait mode, foliage, beach, kids and pet, digital macro, night snapshot, snow, aquarium, firework and stitch assist.

Special Effects:

List of the special effects available in G7 Digital Camera is:

Sepia
Positive
Neutral
Custom effect
Colour Accent colour Swap
Light Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone
Vivid Green, Vivid Blue
Vivid Red
White & Black.

Flash Memory:

The unit has still image feature which is supported with JEPG format. The flash memory in digital camera is provided with 32 MB. You can store pictures up to 32 MB. Multi-Media Card, SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card are supporting flash memories in this unit. Flash memory in nothing but a memory card used in digital cameras. This can be removed or replaced when required. Digital camera comes with a built-in microphone. It has an optical type viewfinder which provides real image zoom. It also comes with self timer feature of 10 seconds.

Connectors & Power Device:

The device has USB connector and one composite video/ audio output connector. Power device used in this unit has external battery charger.

Additional feature:

This unit includes additional features like auto power save, built-in speaker, display brightness control, digital image rotation, digital tele-converter, safety zoom, focus bracketing, DPOF support, etc.

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Epson PhotoPC L-400 Digital Camera

November 7, 2007

Epson PhotoPC L 400

Epson PhotoPC L-400 Digital Camera is a standard point and shoot type camera that comes with an LCD panel. The size of LCD screen is 1.5 inches. This LCD display screen has resolution of 70,000 pixels. LCD screen provides details like date/time, shutter speed, battery condition, etc. You can enjoy with this portable digital camera, capturing pictures wherever you go. The cute dimensions of the product are measured in inches such as: 4.13 (w) x 1.3 (d) x 2.36 (h). The device weighs about 0.4 lb.

Epson PhotoPC L-400 Digital Camera has resolution of 4.09 mega-pixels. The resolution helps to give out images with high quality. The type of image sensor used in this device is CD image sensor. The device comes with optical viewfinder.

The product is provided with a lens. The unit is available with two types of zooming feature namely optically and digitally. Lens also comes with 3x digital zoom to enlarge the image. The lens focus the distance automatically as it’s an auto-focus unit. The maximum focal length of the lens is 6 millimetre to 16.8 millimetre. Lens is provided with aperture. Aperture is a tiny opening which allows light to enter. The range of the aperture is f4.9 to f2.8.

This digital camera can capture videos too. It supports AVI video format. This video format has the maximum movie length for 300 seconds. The shutter speed while capturing the picture is 2-1/2000 seconds.

Epson PhotoPC L-400 Digital Camera has white balance feature which helps to take shots at any weather conditions with its efficiency to white balance the picture image. You can set the following presets like daylight, sunny, cloudy, fluorescent and incandescent with the help of auto and presets white balance.

This device has SD Card type memory which can store a lot of pictures. The compression modes of this digital camera are Fine and Normal. The unit has JPEG type compression. 1MB file size can store 128 images on 128 MB card. 0.06 MB size file can store about 2,133 images on 128 MB card.

The unit has built-in flash with functions such as:

Flash off
Auto flash
Fill-in flash
Red eye reduction

Digital camera has interfaces such as USB interface and video interface for video out. The unit has built-in microphone. The battery used in the product is AA type. It needs 4 batteries to supply power to the device. The user can capture images up to 500 using these 4 batteries. If the device is connected to a PC make sure it supports OS requirements. The PC has the ability to support the following operating systems such as:

Apple Mac OS X
Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows ME

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Digital Camera basics - Part 1

November 6, 2007

What is digitizing of an image? Conventional cameras use film to record images and chemicals to take prints of the images. Digital cameras which do not require films capture and process the images electronically and store the visual & audio data in digital format. Digitizing information is not new as we have already seen it penetrating all electronic storages like compact discs, DVDs and MP3s. This technology has enabled us to compress vast information or data and store it on a small disk or magnetic tape. It is also much more convenient to handle digital information than analog. You can use a PC or some software to work with digital information. As the images captured by digital cameras are in digital format, they are PC compatible and you can transfer them to your PC or upload them to internet. Conventional cameras still produce good results in terms of resolution and colour quality, however, digital cameras have become one of the most popular gadgets as they have following advantages over conventional cameras: Digital photography does not require films or developing thus becoming one of cheapest hobbies. Only cost you have to bear is the cost of a digital camera and its accessories. Digital cameras can store limitless stills and many video clips in their storage devices – tapes or disks. Images and video clips captured by digital cameras can be directly directed to your PC and you can enhance the picture quality using software like Adobe Photoshop. Most modern digital cameras produce superior picture quality and high resolution images. This is one of the reasons why they have become so popular nowadays. Digital cameras are capable of storing audio which a conventional camera can not do. Digital cameras are constantly improving with time and digital technology adds new features to the high-end cameras that hit the market. How a digital camera converts image into digital information? A conventional camera uses a film (or light-sensitive paper) to record the image. Processing of film and printing the images are purely chemical with a conventional camera. However, a digital camera has an electronic device inside it to record the images in digital format, i.e. in 1s and 0s and each combination of these two digits represent the colours that make up the image. This digital data is actually coded and decoded by the digital camera with the help of an in-built computer. What are the differences between a conventional camera and a digital camera? 1. A conventional camera needs a film to record images whereas digital camera does not require it as it is an electronic device. 2. Images captured by a conventional camera are in analog format as they are result of chemical reaction of film to different intensities of light. Whereas, the digital camera captures the image using its electronic components and converts the images into digital format, in other words, in strings of 1s and 2s. 3. Since you do not need films, digital cameras are ideal for taking numerous still images or video clips. With a conventional camera, there is always a problem of running out of film. However, there are no such problems with digital cameras. 4. Images captured using digital cameras do not require chemical processing and you can review the pictures instantly. It also saves money. 5. You can transfer the images from your digital camera to your PC or send them to anybody via internet. In case of conventional camera, the prints of the images need to be scanned before you send them via internet. However, there are certain similarities between digital cameras and conventional cameras: 1. Both require a different set of lenses to focus the light on the specified area ( photographic film or a semiconductor component) 2. High-end conventional cameras produce excellent results like their counterparts – high resolution and superior colour quality. 3. Images from both cameras can be printed on papers specially made for that purpose.