Jeff Ryan Studio

Choosing a pocket size digicam

Many beginners or even prosumers are often overwhelmed by the choice and technicalities of digital cameras. In the competitive compact digital cameras (we’ll call “digicam” for short henceforth) market, every manufacturer you can think of is trying to woo their supporters with arrays of features and capabilities on the latest product line up.

Many friends and acquaintances have always pop the same questions to me when they asked for advice on which camera to choose or buy. I ended up repeating the answers or suggestions over and over again. Hence, I thought, why not I compile all these answers into a short write up for all who may be interested to read.

Before we begin, let take some assumptions for the article that will follow. The assumptions taken for the buyers are:

1. He/she will consider buying the best with whatever budget he/she can afford.
2. He/she is concerned with getting the best image quality with the camera.
3. Portability (pocket size/card size as benchmark) is a major concern.

The assumptions we are taking is applicable to only entry level or at most, compact or pocket size basic or prosumer digicams and exclude the class of the Digital Single lens reflex camera (DSLR). Bearing the above assumption in mind, I tidied up the choice of the digicam can be classified under the following pointers (not in order of importance):

1. Camera Resolution
2. Lens Make / Focal Length
3. RAW format
4. Size
5. Shutter Lag
6. Anti-Vibration
7. Sensor Size
8. ISO setting
9. LCD Viewfinder
10. Multi media features
11. Batteries used
12. Storage media

Let’s discuss the above points in details.

1. Camera Resolution

First, ask yourself what is your output after you have captured the image from the digicam. In general, the high the resolution (in terms of Megapixels), the better it would be for you to do bigger enlargement of the photo printout. A higher resolution image will have more colour information that you can edit on that a low-resolution image. In short, it means there is greater room for salvage if the image did not come out perfect and post processing could have improved it. Today, the entry level for a basic pocket digicam would be at least 6 megapixels. Anything lesser than 6 megapixels, I think people would rather use a mobile phone for image capture. Some manufacturers are already introducing pocket digicams that has reached the realms of over 10 megapixels.

(Some technical points: the higher the resolution on the digicam, cross interference between the surface area of the sensors diode happens and caused “noise” in the resultant images. The images transmitted back from the Explorer cam from Mission Mars testify to this point. The digicam on the explorer buggy was only 1 megapixel but the resolution beats many digicams that boost of more than 6 megapixels, simply due to the fact that it reduces greatly the noise on the image, with the diode having a larger, unhindered surface for capturing light. So, look out for digicams that have good ability to lower or reduce digital noise.)

Advice : get one that is at least 6 megapixels. At 6 megapixels it will be sufficient to print up to 8×10inch or A4 size without too much strain on image quality.

2. Lens Make / Focal Length

As an advice, the manufacturers who have long experience of making optics tended to deliver better lens in a digicam than some unknown makers. There must be a reason why Zeiss, Leica, Nikon or Canon has been the favourite among people who consider good lens on digicams. Such digicams are, more often than not, assured of decent lens quality and resulting in better image quality. As these makers put in more resources in R&D to give you better quality images, such expenditure will be reflected in their asking price of you.

On another level, many people questioned about optical and digital zoom. Today, most makers can attain at least 5x or more optical zoom on the digicams. But in reality, 3x optical zoom is probably enough. Hey, come on, you want to have a longer zoom range without compromising the slim body, that would be a big challenge to any maker. Forget about digital zoom, it does not do help at all in creating a better quality image. In reality, it is basically the processor in the camera that is running some algorithm to extrapolate the basic image information into a morphed and enlarged image. The algorithm, in most cases, may get it right, but usually the image resolution suffers after some extrapolation takes place.

For film camera users, you would appreciate that prime lenses produces sharper images than zoom lenses. The same principle applies here. Having a longer zoom make it more challenging to be able to create an optically superior lens system on the digicam. A shorter optical zoom would allow makers to beget a better lens quality on your digicams. But some makers have artfully introduced aspherical lens elements in the digicam these days. These breakthroughs have brought about many possibilities of getting superior lens quality without compromising body thickness.

Advice : get a reputed lens maker’s digicam with a minimum of 3x optical zoom.

3. RAW format

For beginners or amateurs who have not explore the power of RAW format files should take some time to understand it better. Capturing images on RAW format on the camera allowed for bigger latitude of post processing on the computer later on. RAW is a lossless document file format that stores all colour information in its Raw form (hence the name RAW), without any deterioration or compression involved. However, the ability to be able to capture RAW format on digicams are limited to mostly the more expensive models in the prosumer range of the digicam makers. But for users who valued higher image quality should seriously consider having the Raw format on their purchase digicams.

Advice : if you are concerned about the quality of the postprocessed images, get a camera that can captured in RAW file format.

4. Size

Just like cellphones, users are demanding that with each new models, the dimensions must get smaller with each new launch. These dimensions include length, width and thickness individually or altogether. Increasing more people is also putting premium on the design and innovation on the body of the digicams. Slim, sleek and chic colours are often on the wishlist of buyers. Ladies, especially wanted it to be able to slip into their handbags, just like men desire one that can slip snuggly into their pants or breast pocket, albeit less the weight.

Advice : You got to be realistic. Smaller size means more compromise on features to give you better quality images.

5. Shutter Lag

One of the biggest shortcoming of pocket digicam is shutter lag. Shutter lag refers to the time the trigger is depressed to the time the actual image is being captured into the digicam. It is reasonable to accept that pocket digicam can never beat the DSLR in term of the shutter reaction and speed. More often than not, the pocket digicam suffers a differing extent of shutter lag, which caused many people to miss the “decisive moment”, that they desired to capture when they depress the trigger button. The resultant image is an image that is a fraction of a second later than what the shooter envisaged to capture. The rule here is to look out for a digicam that has minimum shutter lag, and not to expect totally without shutter lag.

Advice : Look out for the digicam that gives you the minimum shutter lag.

6. Anti-Vibration

Different approach has been used by digicam makers, to deliver what they called anti vibration feature on their camera. While the presence of this feature is an important consideration leading to the choice of digicam, understand how the anti vibration work on the camera is important. Many makers achieved the anti vibration by increasing the ISO setting via software embedded when the hardware could not deliver a crisp quality image. This often resulted in a noisy or blurry image. Such software engineered anti vibration capability is significantly different from a hardware induced vibration reduction where they work at source from the lens or camera body to reduce vibration that caused blurry image.

Advice : To check that the anti vibration feature is on the hardware and not achieved through software engineering.

7. Sensor Size

In DSLR, the technology has reached the stage where the full dimension of a 35mm film negative frame is possible with the image capture sensor (called full frame sensor). However, pocket digicams, in view of design, production costs & affordability, will scale down on the size of the sensors embedded in the digicam. A smaller than full frame sensor is often saddled with 2 problems : noise & resolution. With a smaller sensor area packing more light sensitive reception diodes, the possibility of more digital noise present in the image is much higher than that of the DSLR. The grain or noise is particularly prominent when you try shooting under low light condition with a pocket digicam. Also, even with a supposedly high resolution pocket digicam (eg. 10 megapixel), the resolution will still not be able to match that image output captured on 6 megapixel DSLR for reasons discussed before.

Advice : Don’t be fooled by the megapixel rating. Check to see if the sensor size is bigger than the cheaper low end or entry-level digicam.

8. ISO setting

The promise of capturing images at high ISO speed by makers is usually a scam. Even at the DSLR level, much resources had been committed to overcome or reduce the presence of noise or grains associated with high ISO setting has only got limited success. So, it is almost impossible to deliver it for the pocket digicam level. On trying, you will almost notice that few individuals are able to accept the noisy images that are captured at ISO above 400 on pocket digicam. At best, look out for digicam that has shutter release capability so that you can still get decent quality images by mounting the camera on a tripod and using a shutter release cable for image capture at low ISO.

Advice : Accept that at high ISO like above ISO400, noise in images is common. Look for digicams that have as low ISO setting as possible to assure quality with image returns.

9. LCD Viewfinder

Today, almost all pocket digicam has adopted the LCD viewfinder instead of the optical viewfinder in conventional camera. Taking away the optic finder allows the size of the camera to be reduced significantly. However, LCD screen does drain batteries pretty fast, so it is good to have an option button where you can select whether to have the LCD display on or off.
The accepted norm for the LCD screen is 3-4 inches diagonally today. Many makers have injected many innovations into their design of the body & LCD screen. Some have touch screen capability or even text or graphics input capabilities on the LCD screen. Sony and Samsung have done great job by incorporating such features on their LCD screens on their digicams and had been well received by the consumers.

Advice : Stretch your dollars by getting as big an LCD screen as possible. For people who have eyesight issues, the big screen helps a great deal.

10. Multi media features

Consumers are demanding for a multi function digicam these days to be all rolled into one body. Some of the features that have gained popularity are the presence of Bluetooth/wireless or wi-fi connectivity, ability to record as High Density video clips, capability of being used as a MP3 or multimedia viewer. The latest craze in the market is probably the tagging of images using GPS, which is becoming a norm in the near future for all cameras.

Advice : In my opinion, it’s good to have, but not essential.

11. Batteries used

Gone are the days where digicams still uses AA or AAA alkaline batteries. In their place , Lithium ion or Nickel Cadmium battery cells have taken over. They have longer lasting properties and allows for a slimmer body design as they can be made very flat and slim.

Advice : I doubt you would want one, which uses AA or AAA batteries. Li-ion or NiCad is the way to go these days.

12. Storage media

Another consideration is the recording media used on the camera bodies. The common media used in pocket digicams are SD, mini SD, xD cards, Sony memory stick or Compact flash cards. Other than CF cards, the rest of the recording media have evolved over the years to be slim & small, thereby allow the design of the camera body to be smaller, slick and thinner. Another consideration may be the price of these different storage cards. The more common media platform will have a more economic price and will be useable in other gadgets & devices other than the digicams. Proprietary storage cards like xD or Sony memory sticks tended only to be useable on their devices under their own branding. SD cards appeared to be the favourite among users as it is widely acceptable and the SD card reader is now a common feature incorporated in all laptops or computers. Newer technology in terms of read/write speed or increase in storage quantity is often introduced in SD cards first before it is propagated to the other storage media.

Advice : SD or mini SD appears to be the popular media because of its wider market acceptance among electronic gadgets.

Others

Of course there could be other considerations when you choose among the different digicams. Some of the considerations could be:

1. Presence of preset shooting modes eg. Night scenery, Sports, Portrait, macro etc.
2. Ability to do continuous or multiple shots.
3. Ability to do timer controlled capture.
4. Ability to allow direct printing to the printer.

When there are no hard & fast rules, the above serves to give you a list of considerations that you may want to know before you make your purchase. Some of the pocket digicam that are favourites of professional photographers are as follows (not in order of merit):

1. Leica D-Lux 4
2. Nikon P6000
3. Nikon S710
4. Panasonic LX-3
5. Canon G10
6. Ricoh GRD ii
7. Ricoh GX200
8. Sigma DP1
9. Sigma DP2

Do remember a simple rule, “Buy the best that your stretched budget can get and look out for as simple features as possible.” But again, if you are not quite satisfy with the image output from a pocket digicam, you are probably due for upgrade to a DLSR. :P