Say Cheese!

Selecting the Perfect Digital Camera for your School

By: Eric Durrand

A digital camera can do wonders for your school. With it - capturing photos for the school’s website is a snap, sharing them with students and parents through E-mail is quick and simple, and putting them on school newsletters, fliers, and billboards – actually fun!

The digital image is nothing like its paper equivalent. It can be resized in a snap, shared and transferred in an instant, and even quickly fixed when you thought it was ruined. Simple software tools (often bundled with the camera) allow you to adjust the brightness, contrast, color saturation – and add cool special effects with ease. You can make, for instance, a new photo look like an old newspaper one, change between color, B/W, and sepia filters, or put a fake background behind the subject.

But selecting the right digital camera is anything but simple – and while most of them meet the basic needs within reasonable limits, there are many potential let downs if you don’t know what to look for in a digital camera.

This is where this article comes in handy. When you’re ready to buy a new camera for your school, print it out and consult these criteria:

v     Megapixels – How many megapixels do you need? That depends on how you intend to use your camera. Our advise is not to settle for anything under 3 megapixel, unless you mean to limit yourself to posting images online and never printing them. If you want prints – the bigger the prints, the higher the required resolution. You can print up to normal photo size with less than that, but for 8x10” or bigger, you better have 4 megapixel or higher. Professionals or serious amateurs usually work with 7 megapixel cameras or higher.

v     Zoom – the zoom strength of a camera goes up to X12. To have high quality photos aspire to have as much of the zoom power in the optical, rather than digital, capacity. Optical zoom maintains the quality, while digital zoom necessarily compromises it.

v     Memory Card – Different cameras store the photos on different types of memory cards, including CompactFlash, MicroDrive, SmartMedia, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, MultiMediaCards, and xD. These cards vary in reliability, storage space, and compatibility with other machines. CompactFlash is a good choice, offering many capacities and reasonable prices – and is very popular. SmartMedia is slower, and has limited capacities. Sony’s Memory stick is common across many of their products, but has not yet caught up with CompactFlash in terms of popularity or storage capacity.

v     Batteries – Batteries can be built-in and rechargeable, forcing you to have constant access to electricity for charging. They can be removable but rechargeable, allowing you to carry spares, but forcing you to buy a usually rare and expensive type. Some cameras utilize standard AA or AAA batteries, which are easier to replace anywhere, but tend to run out sooner.

v     Formats – Most cameras support the JPEG format, which is popular, standard, and compressed so as to fit more images on a given storage space. High end cameras sometimes also support the TIFF and RAW formats, which provide better professional editing – but are really only important to professional photographers and graphic designers.

v     Software – Most cameras come bundled with one or more photo editing applications, and digital photo album applications. Those tools need to be easy to use, and powerful enough to help you make the most out of your pictures: providing instant fixes, color and brightness adjustments, special filters and effects.

v     Video capabilities – Many digital cameras allow taking short video clips as well. If this is important to you, check how long you can make those clips, and what resolution they allow. Soundtrack recording is also something to consider (otherwise you might unwittingly make a silent film).

v     Image quality – While this part is unquantifiable, it is important to see the pictures taken for yourself. Different cameras have different color management algorithms, different image stabilizers, automatic white-balancing and focus algorithms, etc. The final result is in how lively, sharp, and engaging the final result is.

v     Size – Cameras come in all shapes and sizes. Are you looking for a pocket one? You might want to consider a retractable lens camera, or a dual lens camera. The high end cameras are usually bigger, sturdier, with a fixed-lens on the front, or even replaceable lens.

v     Wireless Printing – Some cameras offer the possibility of printing to any wireless printer in the area. Printers have to be set up to accept prints from wireless devices – which might cost a little extra.

v     Responsiveness – A camera’s responsiveness is crucial in catching unique and passing moments. Some cameras take up to 30 second to process an image, during which time you cannot take another one. Others are much quicker, allowing you to shoot up to 3 pictures a second.

v     Special Features – many cameras offer extra features that are not directly associated with their main functionality: playing music, recording, video conferencing, in-camera picture editing, and special images such as panoramic view, rapid succession, ultraviolet, etc.

v     Price – A digital camera can cost anywhere from a few dozens to thousands of dollars. The price depends on a few factors, including resolution (less than 3 megapixel is considerably cheaper than 4-6, and 7-8 are high end, very expensive).

Whether you’re trying to enrich the school’s online presence, to liven up the school’s corridors, or to share exciting images of school trips, events, and ceremonies – a digital camera is just what you need. You can get more out of your camera if you pick the one that best fits your needs and your budget. Say cheese!