Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Understanding Digital Camera Features
A lot of the times, the features on the digital cameras may seem overwhelming for the beginners to digital photography. They may come across some words that are not so familiar. So we’ve gathered up some definitions to help you get started.Looking to buy a digital camera but the features look a bit confusing? 
Most of these terms listed below have an affect on the price and the quality of digital cameras, and some have a direct reference to the performance and the appearance of the camera.
Buffer: Right after you take the photo, the image is hold by the buffer until it is processed to the memory card. This can be frustrating when you want to take a few shots in a row. You need to wait until buffer is clear and all the shots are processed to the memory card before you can take another shot.
Card reader: The card reader transfers images from your camera to your PC. This is much faster compared to connecting your camera directly to your computer. On the majority of computers, the card readers are external, though they are built in on some notebooks. External card reader connects to your PC through the USB or fire wire ports.
Compact flash: A well-known type of digital storage. They are quite reliable and will not delete any image unless it is deleted manually by the user.
Digital noise: This is the equivalent to film grain in film photography. It's mostly caused by shooting in low-light situations. Digital noise appears as colored spots in digital images. You can avoid having digital noise with photo editing software programs.
Digital zoom: The zoom enlarges a part of the image. On most digital cameras, if you use the zoom, you will need to sacrifice image quality to a certain extent.
DPI: The abbreviation of dots per inch. It is a measurement of print resolution that shows the maximum number of dots the printer can print in a square inch. The higher the DPI, the higher the resolution and therefore the better the image quality will be.
Dye sublimation: It is a heat transfer to bind dyes onto photographic paper. Dye sublimation is a high-quality way of creating digital prints. It is usually much more expensive than inkjet printing.
Inkjet: A process by which prints are made by droplets of ink being sprayed onto photographic paper. This is the most common type of printer in use. Inkjet printers are cheap in general and their ink cartridges are widely available.
Jump drive (also known as flash drive): A removable USB storage device that is as small as a key chain. Its sizes range from very small to a couple gigabytes. Jump drives have become a convenient way of transferring your photos to the self-service printers in retail stores.
LCD screen: The liquid crystal display screen on your camera. The LCD lets you review your digital photos right after they’ve been shot.
Megapixel: A unit equal to 1 million pixels. It is the measurement is used in the digital cameras to measure the quality of the images. The higher the megapixel, the better the image quality. As a result higher megapixel costs more.
Megabits: It is the measurement is used for measuring the amount of data you can transfer between your digital camera and your computer. USB 2.0 transfers megabits faster then USB 1.1.
Optical zoom: Enlarging an image with an adjustment of the lens on your camera without loosing any quality. Unlike digital zoom, you do not sacrifice on quality with optical zoom.
RGB (red, green, blue): These are the primary colors of light that are used by digital cameras to create the colors in digital images.
USB (Universal Serial Bus): An input/output bus capable of transferring data at up to 420 megabits. It is used for connecting peripherals to a microprocessor; such as a camera or a printer to your computer. It can connect up to 127 peripherals through a single port. USB has two standards: USB 1.1 and USB 2.0. USB 1.1 transfers data at 12 megabits per second, and USB 2.0 at 420 megabits per second.
Each month you spend a certain amount on printer cartridges.
These costs can add up to great amounts before you even realize it. How much are you actually spending on printer cartridges? If you think it's time to take action and consider saving on printer cartridges, you should start by calculating how much printing really costs you each month. Calculating the monthly cost of toner or ink cartridges is simple. We suggest you to do this calculation before you buy a new printer as well.
"Cost of ownership" per month is one of the major factors to consider when buying a printer as you will regularly need to purchase printer cartridges for your printer. This is especially the case with inkjet printers. Generally, inkjet printers' cost per page is higher than laser printers' cost per page. The reason is that ink cartridges used in inkjet printers need more frequent replacement. The cost per page will generally be lower with the more expensive laser printers as they hold bigger printer cartridges that do not require frequent replacement. So sometimes cheap printers end up costing you more because of the high costs of their ink cartridges.
Calculating the Cost Per Page
You can easily calculate the printing cost per page by dividing the toner or ink cartridge price by the yield. Yield is the number of pages that can be printed with one particular toner or ink cartridge. For example, if the price of an ink cartridge is $32.95 and its yield is 600 pages, then its cost per page will be $32.95/600=$0.054 (5.4 cents per page).
Calculating Montly Cost of Ownership
The rule here is to multiply "number of prints per month" with the "cost of the printer cartridge" and divide it by "the yield of the printer cartridge".
For example, let's assume that you print 200 black pages per month using a printer cartridge that yields 400 pages and costs $28. The monthly "cost of ownership" is:
(250 pages) x ($28)_ = $25
275 pages
If you want to have lowe cost per page, you can also consider different cartridge alternatives like compatible ink cartridges or refill kits.