In the days of yore, if you wanted to take a picture, you needed to dig out the old Kodak Instamatic and fire off a couple of frames. When you finally used up the roll of film (kids, ask your folks what film was), you would drop it off at the local drugstore for developing. After a few days, you’d go back and pick up your prints and play the guessing game “What Holiday Was That?” because the film had been in there for a least a year.
Today, with digital cameras, it seems we all have some way to take a picture: Whether it is with your cell phone, a simple point and shoot or an expensive digital single lens reflex (DSLR). But just what is difference between these, and what do we do with the images once we have them?
Built-In Cell Phone Cameras
Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up the digital food chain. The most rudimentary digital cameras (although they are advancing quickly) are cell phone cameras. I don’t think I have seen a cell phone in the past few months that doesn’t have a built-in camera. Go to any event and you will see many people holding up their phones (most of time in your field of view) for that one-time shot. This is not to say that some of the phones don’t have some pretty good cameras. Plus, once you have that image, you can email or send it out right away. I have even used it when I travel – very handy for documenting any little scratch or dent on a rental car. Many attorneys also recommend that if you are in an accident, use your phone to take a ton of photos for both the police and any claims later. The main problem with camera phones is that many phones make it very hard to get the photos out of the phone and onto paper. Many times you end up emailing them to yourself or having to buy special software. The other drawback is most of these images are very low resolution, so making a print can be challenge.
Point-and-Shoot Cameras
Your next choice is one of the many point-and-shoot cameras that go from $70 to $300. These are not a bad choice for busy people, as they offer higher resolution images in a handy size for purses and pockets. Many will even offer some digital video recording capability so you can leave your video camera at home. When you are ready to make prints or send them in emails, just pull the camera card out and put it either into a card reader like many found on today’s computers and laptops or take directly to a major store with an in-house lab. You can even upload them directly to labs on the internet for high quality prints or a location near loved ones for them to pick up. Wal-Mart, Target, and other stores offer this service. There is one thing to keep in mind, however. Due to the popularity of cell phone cameras, many of the low-end point and shoots cameras are being taken off the market. This leads us to the last type of digital cameras: DSLRs.
Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) Cameras
The Digital Single Lens Reflex, or DSLR, cameras look like the 35mm cameras from days of yore. Some look like what were called “Range Finder Cameras,” with a fixed lens. Others look just like the 33mm film cameras, where you could use many different types of lenses – like a wide angle for landscape photography and telephotos, or long lenses, for objects or people far away. Most of these cameras offer high-resolution images that make wonderful prints. Of course, this means that the price goes up for these models. I have seen prices starting at $600 and going up to $21,000 (yes that is not a misprint, $21,000 for a camera and that is without a lens). These cameras also offer many different camera modes for everything from fast moving sports, artful portraits and close-ups of flowers and insects. You also have more control over the camera, so that inner artist can get the just the right type of image for the local camera contest or a large print for the living room.
Now if all of this seems a little much for just taking a picture, or if you think you will just wait for next “latest and greatest” improvement in digital imaging, all I can say is this. Think about the last time you were somewhere really breathtaking, or at a once-in-a-lifetime event. Don’t you wish you had a camera to capture those moments? As I always say: The best image is the one that you can share, and the best camera is the one that you have with you.
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