DIGITAL CAMERAS In photography, the digital camera is the 'new kid on the block', although the medium has been around for some time. It was mainly used by media photographers and it is only since the increase in popularity of the home computer that the digital camera has become more accessible and affordable. These cameras are now produced with either fixed or interchangeable lenses as compacts or SLRs with some models having the capability to use the standard SLR lenses. What's the Difference? The main difference between digital and conventional photography is that the digital camera 'captures' an image in a pixel format as opposed to film, square pixels being likened to a film's round grain. They do this by means of a specially manufactured computer chip built of 'picture elements' or 'pixels'. There are currently two types of chips in use, the CCD (Charged Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semi-Conductor). With the CCD, when light hits these pixels, an electrical charge is created across the chip and an analogue-to-digital converter then turns each pixel's 'analogue value' into a 'digital value' of colour and light, the captured image being stored on an MB (memory) card in the same way as photographs on film. The CMOS chips, however, are active - that is each pixel has several transistors that amplify and move the charge across the pixels by means of traditional wires. In either case, the greater number of pixels per square inch used, the higher the photo resolution and picture quality. At the start of the Millenium, manufacturers were working towards 6 million pixel models and some three years on we are seeing consumer SLR's with 3-4 million pixels and professional cameras with 10 plus million pixels! How Does the Camera Operate? There are 4 basic image quality shooting mode levels on a digital camera - one being a raw, uncompressed TIFF (lossless) compression and the remaining three as JPEG compressions in 'good, best and better' settings. Reducing the number of pixels used in this way optimises the memory card space but will also reduce image quality. The camera's sensitivity can also be altered for mode and lighting conditions which would be the equivalent of adjusting the ISO rating of film. Finally there are controls for sharpness, white balance, flash and, of course, an LCD monitor. This allows instant viewing of the image before committing it to the memory card, which in turn is 'downloaded' onto a 'compact flashcard' for storage or transferring to computer or TV. There is no scanning process involved and pictures can be printed with or without the need for a computer. In addition, the smartcard can be sent to a professional lab to be transferred to a CD Rom for you. (see the Printer section) A digital camera will come supplied with a designated battery and a mains charger (a useful tip - always carry a spare battery as these cameras can be power hungry!). For & Against: There are distinct advantages of digital over conventional photography - mainly that images can be viewed instantly, meaning no wastage of time or materials. The disadvantages are (at the time of writing) that shutter speeds, exposure and colour control are not as flexible as with a traditional camera and picture quality is not as good, although technology in the digital field is advancing almost daily and the quality difference between the two is closing rapidly! If you have chosen to explore digital photography you will need to be able to transfer your images into a viewable format, either by printer or computer, both of which are covered in this Digital section.