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help a tech thicko!!!

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
i want to get my bf a digital camera for his birthday, but i don't know what is the best sort or what any of the jargon is...not even sure what a pixel is??

please can someone tell me in the most dumbed down way possible what i need to look for in a good camera?

thanks!

ps- i dont want to spend a huge amount £50-£60 is all i can afford

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    pixels is the photo quality. the higher the better

    optical zoom is how much you can zoom in to detail

    digital zoom is simply enlarging the detail u already have (not giving any more detail)

    dont think theres much else u need to know...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    to get a decent pic - look for something about 3 million pixels [ a pixel is similar to what your inkjet printer does - a miniscule bit of colour that all together make a picture - ergo the greater the number of pixels - the better quality the pic]

    Also you may look for one with optical zoom - most will have a digital zoom, however this reduces the quality.

    Also one with a tft screen - most nowadays come with these.

    Most come with internal memory - usually 16mb - however a memory card can be bought cheaply to increase it

    My advice is to shop around - many different cameras with different specs and with a huge range in prices.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You're not going to get a lot for your money. But you should be able to pick up a 2 or 3 MegaPixel camera, with flash, that accepts SD memory cards, for that sort of money. Try to get one with a bit of internal memory incase he doesn't have, or can't afford (yet) memory cards.
    For the best quality, stick with the big brand names in photography, or at the very least the big electronics manufacturers. There are plenty of cheapo digiatal cameras out there, but they don't often deliver the goods as far as quality and usability go.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    To be completely honest for 50-60 quid you wont get much of quality. If you want a decent piece of kit you would be better off saving up.

    Later on then you could look at decent makes with a high number of megapixels (3 is your minimum for decent printing at 6x4), optical zoom, rechargable battery, etc. Be wary of if they describe a camera as "interpolated" because it essentially means that it makes up half the pixels itself rather than photographing a true image at whatever number of pixels.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Did you do cartesian geometry in GCSE maths?

    Pixels is just that really. It's a measure of how big your picture is going to be. A picture that is 1000 pixels on the x-axis and 1000 pixels on the y-axis has an area of 1 megapixels (mega=million).

    That's the main thing I don't like about digicam manufacturers. They only give it in terms of megapixels, and don't divide it out into x / y. For example my 4 megapixel camera divides out into approx 2200 x 1700.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    is the one argos page415 a goodish one? how will i know it will work on his pc?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It will tell you what system requirements, for exampke Windows 98 or above, 30mb disk space, usb port etc etc
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