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Digital moments This was the year that a new generation of cameras came of age, writes GREG GORDON THIS year, for the first time, consumers chose digital over film to preserve their memories. Just a year ago, most digital cameras had a fairly poxy resolution of just 640x480 pixels, which was fine when high resolution was not necessary - like on web sites. Nowadays you are more likely to encounter cameras with a resolution of 1 024x768 pixels, meaning sharper and more colourful images. There are now several digital cameras on the market that, despite their high price, prove their worth in the savings on film and processing associated with traditional film. Casio's QV-5000SX has a whopping 8MB of memory which can store 17 high-resolution images. At around R5 000, it's not cheap but it's a great all-rounder. The Epson PhotoPC 700 stores 40 images on its 4MB of memory, which translate into great prints on the company's printers. If you can find one locally, the Fuji MX-700 is state of the art. For R6 000, it should be. A viewfinder plus screen pre- and post-view, built-in flash and removable memory cards make it a must for the serious hobbyist. The Kodak DC260 costs close on R9 000 and has an infra-red port for downloading images. Lots of professional features, like bracketing and a digital zoom, complete the picture. Ricoh, Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic also make digital cameras capable of producing high-resolution images. Digital cameras are popular because: There's no film involved. Images are saved on chips or disks in the camera for downloading to PC. Instead of loading film, rewinding it, having it processed and paying for prints, you simply dump your snaps onto computer, edit and crop them and print the results on a colour printer; Editing and enhancing images means you don't have to worry about mistakes. If the picture is a little dark you can lighten it with the click of a mouse button. Unlike with film, you get second chances. Most digital cameras also allow you to view pictures before you save them, so you can simply delete the ones you don't like and shoot again. Pictures can be composed after the fact by reframing them on the PC; Not only can you print pictures from a digital camera but, because they are digital, you can e-mail them too. It's ideal for families and friends spread around the country or the world. Pictures can even be cut and pasted into documents, electronically pinned up on web sites or used as screensavers; Over time, film and prints deteriorate - not digital images. In fact, the passage of time will bring new technologies that may enhance them further; Although digital cameras remain pretty pricey, the quality of images improves all the time. This year, they became capable of producing good-quality pictures without the fuzziness traditionally associated with low-end digital imaging; and There are a growing number of storage options. Some cameras have removable storage cards so you're not limited to the camera's memory. Others use stiffy drives so that transferring images to your PC is as simple as loading a disk. Avoid cameras that don't have some form of removable storage or you'll quickly find yourself with a camera full of pictures. Top of page | Home Page | News | BT Money | Survey | Companies | People | Appointments | World | Markets | Trends | Columns | News Maker | Money Guides | Labour Guides | Calculators | Search | Archive | E-Mail us |