Digital Photography - Tiscali Technology

Although modern digital cameras are generally very easy to use, they make use of highly sophisticated technology. Here's a guide to the components and features you'll find on most of today's cameras:

Lens - The most important part of any camera. A high quality lens will give sharper images and let you shoot in dimmer conditions. On a standard camera, look for at least a 3x optical zoom to up close. For extra flexibility, look for a longer optical zoom - 10x or more is great for wildlife and sports photography. Don't be fooled by digital zoom - it only zooms in at the expense of image quality.

LCD screen - Almost all digital cameras have colour LCDs, but some are much brighter and sharper than others. As a general rule, displays over 2 inches in size are easier to frame with and great for playing back images. Try the screen in sunny conditions - some low quality LCDs can look washed out. A very few cameras have second, smaller LCD for extra camera information, or even waist-level framing.

Flash - This is essential if you want to take pictures indoors or at night. Most cameras come with a built-in flash these days, including a red-eye reduction feature to avoid glowing eyes in portrait shots.

Sensor chip At the heart of every digital camera is an electronic chip that turns light into digital information. The more information the chip can create, the higher the camera's resolution, measured in megapixels. A 3 or 4 megapixel (3 or 4 MP) chip, found in cheaper cameras, is perfect for day-to-day snaps printed at traditional postcard sizes. A higher resolution sensor lets you print poster-sized photos at A3 sizes and above.

Creative features - You might only use a camera's Auto settings to start with, but you'll soon want to try something more creative. Burst mode lets you shoot several pictures in a row, a self-timer is great for self-portraits, spot metering helps expose tricky scenes, and a video mode is perfect for taking short movie clips. An advanced camera has further manual features so you can take control of the way the camera shoots.

Memory storage - All cameras store images on either built-in memory chips or removable memory cards, measured in megabytes (Mb). There are several different kinds of memory cards, and you should budget extra (around £50) for at least a 512Mb card to store hundreds of images. Remember, unlike film, you can use memory cards over and over again!