Digital Photography Guide: Digital Cameras     As part of the digital photography process, digital & SLR cameras form the first part of the input stage. Please see the sections on choosing a digital camera and digital camera features for information on what to look for when buying a digital camera. Current cameras range in specification from 4 megapixels to 14 megapixels. It is important to emphasize that more megapixels do not in themselves provide better quality as cramming in higher amounts of pixels in a small sensor often leads to more noise & a deterioration in quality. When choosing a digital camera or SLR as part of the digital photographic process, other factors must be taken into account including lens quality, camera build quality, shutter lag, speed of operation,

accessories, expansion options such as add on lenses & camera size if portability is important. Each individual will have different requirements when choosing a digital camera & the sections on beginner, family, enthusiast, nature, travel & sport photography will help to make a more informed decision. Most digital cameras are fully automatic for ease of use but for photographers requiring some manual control, some of the mid range and higher end digital cameras offer various levels of manual control including full manual and aperture and shutter priority modes. With the recent trend in camera manufacturers producing small compact digital slr cameras such as the Nikon D40X and the Olympus E-410, digital slr cameras may offer photographers at all levels the perfect combination of compact size, interchangeable lenses, manual control and a large sensor for higher quality images and less noise at higher ISOs. Inevitably, some smaller cameras will have some omissions i.e. Nikon D40x & D60 cannot autofocus with older Nikkor autofocus lenses.   Top 10 digital cameras 1 Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 2 Sony DSC-HX5V 3 Canon PowerShot SD1200IS 4 Canon PowerShot SD780IS 5 Nikon Coolpix L20 6 Canon PowerShot SX20IS 7 Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 8 Canon PowerShot S90IS 9 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 10 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20

The introduction of the micro four thirds system by Olympus & Panasonic presents an exciting breakthrough for anyone looking for a miniature camera which is capable of taking interchangeable lenses. Also with an adapter, a micro four thirds camera such as the newly introduced Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 can use four thirds lenses with some limitations on certain lenses. Olympus has also announced that the company will be releasing its own micro four thirds camera later in 2009 possibly with the addition of high definition movies.

Panasonic has recently announced the Lumix DMC-GH1 micro four thirds camera which can take high definition movies and will be available around mid-2009. Finally Samsung will release its own miniature camera system called the NX. This system uses an APS size sensor and will have interchangeable lenses and a new mount. It will be interesting to see if other camera makers such as Nikon and Canon will decide to release a new camera system of their own.