Digital Camera Guide
This digital camera guide contains articles about how digital cameras work. You gain intuition from understanding, and this intuition means you don't have to stop and think as much!
Digital Camera Lenses
Digital camera lenses focus light onto the sensor. A good quality lens will last decades and take high quality photos.
"Cheap and cheerful" lenses do the same job but can introduce imperfections into the photo. The lens is the wisest item on which to spend money.
Just try to avoid "lens envy"!
Main Digital Camera Lens Features
- Zoom ring - rotate this to adjust the focal length of the lens (i.e. the zoom)
- Focus ring - rotate this to fine tune the focus of the image, so it's sharp.
- Auto focus - switch this on so the camera focuses the image for you.
- Image stablisation (IS) - on more expensive lenses, but often found in the body itself; compensates for camera shake.
Digital Camera Body
"Mummy, the camera is naked!". Nope! The photo shows the camera body only, with the lens removed.
One of the wonders of digital slr photography is that the lenses are interchangeable. You can get new lenses without worry.
Usually, you can also get a new body and use your old lenses.
Main Digital Camera Body Features
- Controls - to adjust the various settings like shutter speed, aperture size, ISO and white balance.
- Viewfinder - to compose the image: remember that you see what the camera "sees".
- Flash - To fill in shadows: not for lighting up the subject!
Digital Camera Sensor
The sensor builds an image made of dots called pixels, where the size of the sensor is related to the number of pixels the image will contain.
The number of pixels in a given area is known as the resolution of the sensor or image. A resolution is usually measured in "pixels per inch" (PPI).
There are two different kinds of digital sensor: the charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor and the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor.
The difference between these really doesn't matter, both provide excellent images. For reference, CCD is the older and established technology while CMOS is a newer version.
Memory Cards
The sensor detects the light that hits it, but this information has to be stored. That's where memory cards come in.
Memory cards come in a variety of types, but mostly they use flash memory to store the digital information which makes up your photos. This allows you to playback your stored photos on the camera screen or on the computer.