The digital camera has become one of the most popular and versatile electronic gadgets available in the market place today. Not only are they easy to use, but they also give you amazing control over the appearance of the final image. You can transfer the pictures directly to your computer, where you are able to adjust the color and the contrast, remove red eye, crop and resize the image, add textures and a variety of other special effects. You can make your own prints at home on a relatively inexpensive color inkjet printer. If you don’t have your own printer, you can easily upload your images to an online photofinisher or you can just drop off the memory card at one of a growing number of photo finishers. The final resulting pictures can be emailed, made into cards or placed on T-shirts. They can be uploaded to any one of a number of photo-sharing web sites for storage, viewing, and sharing with others.
Depending on the specific size of the finished photo you are looking for, there is a wide variety of features available to you. If you want to make 4x6 snapshots, a camera with 4- or 5-megapixel resolution should be fine. You will also be able to make an 8x10 print of the same image that won't look much different than one taken by a camera model with 6- or 8-megapixel resolution. To enlarge the image beyond an 8x10 print, or enlarge only part of it, you will want a camera with a resolution of 6-megapixels or greater. Cameras meant for automatic point and shoot photos, with a 3x zoom lens, will serve casual shooters as well as hobbyists much of the time. The full featured cameras in the advanced compact and super zoom categories offer capabilities that more dedicated photographers will want to have. One of the more important capabilities is to have a zoom range of 5x to 10x or more, which lets you bring distant outdoor subjects close and also lets you shoot candid portraits without getting right in your subject's face. Another requirement is to have a full complement of manual controls that let you not only determine the shutter speed, but also the size of the lens opening.
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