Digital Compact Camera Guide

Is it my imagination or is it getting increasingly difficult to buy a digital camera – megapixels, wide lens, SLRs, compacts, ISO, Optical v Digital Zoom – where do you even start? Most people want a digital compact – a little camera that will easily slip into a pocket or handbag, these normally range from about £50 to £300.

Let me answer the important questions for you on picking a Digital Compact.

Megapixels?

A lot of compacts will boast of 12MP resolution – which is as good as my existing D-SLR camera. In truth, usually 5MP will be perfectly good enough to get a good size print in excellent quality. The only reason to go for something larger is if you intend to use a crop tool on your images, however this puts demands on lens quality that small compact camera lenses seldom really live up to - 7MP should be ample for a compact camera.

Optical zoom v Digital zoom?

For me optical zoom is much better –Digital zoom is something best ignored, as all this does is crop a central portion of the image to give the effect of having zoomed in, and therefore reducing quality software that can leave jagged edges and fuzziness in fine detail.

Usually on a compact you can expect to have 3x zoom lens which will give you a reasonable wide lens and short telephoto.

Some of the more expensive compacts will offer you a ‘Superzoom’ which will give you 10 or 12x optical zoom – the theory being that they offer so much control, the user won’t actually need an SLR. The downside is that superzooms are bulkier than other types of ‘compact’, and ideally need a decent image-stabilisation system when shooting at the telephoto end of the zoom to prevent blurry images.

Creative compact – Do I need it?

A creative compact will allow you to change the shutter speed, aperture etc – this is only really to be used if you are interested in photography and will take the time to learn what effect each function will have on your images.

For most people a simple point and shoot setting is what is required.

Other Info

Make sure that you get a nice big view finder – approx 2.5 – 3inches

Most cameras offer an ISO range which can be as limited as 400 or as high as 10,000. Be warned that, in general, the higher the ISO setting, the noisier the image. Sensor and optical forms of image stabilisation will allow you to shoot at lower ISOs without flash or the need for higher ISO settings.

When buying a snapshot camera, opt for a major brand, and don’t spend much less than £100. My top tip is don’t be swayed by fancy but pointless features and super cool marketing campaigns!

App of the Week

I thought as a fun little Monday morning treat I would start to tell you about my app of the week. This will usually be a fun little game or gadget for you to chase away your Monday blues!

Our first ever app of the week has to be the brilliant Angry Birds.

The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs - Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs’ fortified castles.

Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 120 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.

Protect wildlife or play Angry Birds!

Okay so the concept of Angry Birds is that you get little birds which you have to sling shot at structures which have the evil green pigs inside them which you have to kill - why are they evil you ask? The answer is I’m not sure they just are so those piggy’s gotta go!!

Angry birds has been the top selling app for months now all over the world and at a bargain 59p it would be rude not to try it. Once you start this game you will not be able to put it down, a fantastic little game to play during your lunch hour to chase away the Monday slump!

Tweet us your highest score and see if you can beat the mighty Alchemist Blogger.

An eBook Fairytail

There are fewer things in the world I love more than reading a good book – I love browsing book stores (I have been known to spend well over an hour in Border books just looking – oh how I miss Borders) I enjoy rubbing my hand over the shiny new cover and the first time I crack the spine of a new book never fails to make me smile. I love reading the ‘About the Author’ at the front of the book and flicking the pages as I get ever nearer to the conclusion of the story which has me so enthralled.

Ok, I think you all now understand how I feel about reading and books now let me tell you about recent developments which have convinced me to give up books forever – and by ‘recent developments’ I mean I am running out of space for my books, actually no let me rephrased that I HAVE run out of space for my books – they are everywhere. Once I find a book that I love I hang on to it for dear life, this is this reason that I am thinking about investing in an eBook Reader.

We have one in our house already but up until this point I had always resisted the lour of this gadget. It makes me so sad to think that never again would I smell a new book by my bed and is there really any satisfaction in powering down your eBook Reader instead of closing the back page of a book after you have just finished it with a slam and satisfied sigh? My hearts says no hold on to your books – those enticing covers and delicious noise they make as I quickly flick the pages are not to be given up, but my head says that books are so inefficient and un-environmentally friendly that soon they will probably be confined to museums rather than libraries.

Both I think make a good argument for their cause but does Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Sophie Kinsella & Belinda Jones really care that you’re not reading it in physical form – no they just care that their stories are being told!

Ok guys so I have decided that an eBook Reader is now in my near future let me bring my next problem into the equation - in my house there is probably close to 800 books. Will I be able to get all of them in electronic form? Probably not, and even if I could how much is it going to cost to transfer my existing collection - probably somewhere in the region of £7000 and that is before I have even thought about buying a new title! That is quite a lump of cash for something that I already own.

The transfer from CD to download seemed so much easier & cheaper! But still I am not deterred from making the move to an eBook Reader – this is no different from converting from VHS to DVD, collections are not built up in a few weeks or even years a collection is an entire life time of choices.

Will I miss books? Absolutely! It is the end of an era but perhaps the beginning of a new one.

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