Types of Digital Camera

[StuartDH]

A new book entry has just been added to the reference section. If you are currently logged in, please feel free to click on the 'edit' button at the top of the new page to add more information or edit the content.

Alternatively, you can suggest ideas and ask questions about the topic in this forum thread.

Types of Digital Camera

Compact Digital Cameras

These cameras have an integral lens and range from pocket devices to bridge cameras (see below). The pocket device will usually have either no optical zoom lens or a small 2x/3x optical zoom. When choosing a camera you should basically ignore digital zooms, as these only inter-populate an image to make it appear zoomed in, and almost all image processing programs can do this anyway. So always look at the optical zoom magnification and ignore the digital claims.

Bridge Cameras

Compact bridge cameras sit between a small fixed lens digital camera and a digital SLR. They have 10-12x optical zoom lenses, and some even have an image stabiliser, like the Panasonic FZ30. Image stabilisation helps prevent camera shake at low shutter speeds and reduces the number of wasted photo’s in low light. Panasonic, Sony and Minolta all have image stabilised cameras in there range particularly on the large optical zoom digital cameras. Some compact bridge cameras also have a manual zoom (Panasonic FZ30, Minolta A2) the manual zoom is very useful for wildlife because you have better control over framing the subject compared to a motorised zoom.