FREE ESSAY ON DIGITAL CAMERAS

DIGITAL CAMERAS

Digital cameras allow computer users to take pictures and store the photographed images 
digitally instead of on traditional film. With some digital cameras, a user downloads the
stored 
pictures from the digital camera to a computer using special software included with the
camera. 
With others, the camera stores the pictures directly on a floppy disk or on a PC Card. A
user then 
copies the pictures to a computer by inserting the floppy disk into a disk drive or a PC
Card into 
a PC Card slot (Chambers and Norton 134). Once stored on a computer, the pictures can be

edited with photo-editing software, printed, faxed, sent via electronic mail, included in
another 
document, or posted to a Web site for everyone to see.
Three basic types of digital cameras are studio cameras, field cameras, and point-and-
shoot cameras (Shelly Cashman Series Microsoft Word 2000 Project 2). The most expensive 
and highest quality of the three, a studio camera, is a stationary camera used for
professional 
studio work. Photojournalists frequently use field cameras because they are portable and
have a 
variety of lenses and other attachments. As with the studio camera, a field camera can be
quite 
expensive.
Reliable and lightweight, the point-and-shoot camera provides acceptable quality 
photographic images for the home or small business user. A point-and-shoot camera enables

these users to add pictures to personalized greeting cards, a computerized photo album, a
family
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Newsletter, certificates, awards, or a personal Web site. Because of its functionality,
it is an ideal 
camera for mobile users such as real estate agents, insurance agents, and general
contractors.
The image quality produced by a digital camera is measured by the number of bits it 
stores in a dot and the resolution, or number of dots per inch. The higher each number,
the better 
the quality, but the more expensive the camera. Most of today's point-and-shoot digital
cameras 
are at least 24-bit with a resolution ranging from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 960 (Walker 57-89)
Home 
and small business users can find an affordable camera with a resolution in this range
that 
delivers excellent detail for less than $400.