Digital Camera Buying Guide by OfficeMax.com
Take your desktop
publishing to a whole new level with Digital Camera . From point-of-sale material to
annual reports, you can now create high quality documents
in-house at a fraction of the cost of professionally
produced materials. The quality of the documents you
produce using digital images depends on a number of
contributing factors. The following list of features will
help you choose the model that best fits your small
business needs:
Resolution measures
the sharpness level of an image expressed in pixels. The
more pixels the camera can record the finer the detail of
the image produced. The industry average is 640x480
resolution. Lower resolutions are best for viewing
onscreen images such as Internet publishing. Higher
resolutions produce the best results for printed images.
Bit depth indicates
the number of colors your digital camera can reproduce. The higher the bit
depth the better the image quality. A camera with a
24-bit color capacity can process up to 16 million
colors.
Memory is used to
measure the number of pictures your digital camera can store, which usually ranges
from 16 to 40 images depending on the resolution of your
snapshots. However, most models come with additional
memory in the form of floppy disks or memory cards, which
provide unlimited temporary storage capacity because they
can be erased and reused.
Optics refers to
the type of lens used. Less expensive models typically
have fixed lenses. Higher quality models have zoom lenses
increasing the number of shot options. You can save
hundreds of dollars by choosing the optics most
compatible with your production needs.
The type of viewfinder
is another important feature to consider. Digital cameras come with an optical or LCD
viewfinder, or both. An optical viewfinder is simply a
little square window used to frame your shot. The LCD
viewfinder not only frames your shot, it also allows you
to view previously shot images stored in memory. You can
then delete unwanted images freeing up valuable disk
space.
In order to keep up with
technology trends, it is necessary to make sure that your
camera has the right connection to
go along with your computer. Many digital cameras now feature Universal Serial
Bus (USB) or IEEE-394 (FireWire) connections
instead of serial or parallel port connections. The
reason behind the switch is that USB and FireWire offer
lightning-fast speed for high-speed storage and video
capture. By the end of the year, at least 80 percent of digital cameras will be either USB or FireWire
compliant. If your computer doesn't support either of
these connections, you may need an upgrade to continue in
digital imaging.
**The descriptions,
suggestions, recommendations and other statements
provided by OfficeMax are for informational purposes
only. OfficeMax makes no representation or warranty,
express or implied, regarding any product or product
description. OfficeMax shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect or consequential damages arising from
use of or reliance upon the descriptions, suggestions,
recommendations or other statements contained on this
site.
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