The Compact Digital Camera

Digital cameras really exploded onto the scene a few years ago, and the industry continues to grow at an amazing pace. The many advantages offered by digital cameras, such as memory cards that hold hundreds of images, instant preview of your shot, and home editing and printing make them a very attractive product indeed. Digital compact cameras offer the ability as a "take anywhere" camera. This is very alluring, even for proffessional photographers, who in addition to their pro camera, may need a compact solution for their picture taking.

The technology being integrated into these cameras is nothing short of astounding, with HD movie modes, face detection and auto focus tracking as standard equipment on some. With intelligent "scene" recognition and exposure modes built into these cameras, even the amateur can take decent pictures. Anyone can be a photojournalist! In fact, alot of the images and video of breaking events you see on the news these days may be shot by people like you, that happened to be there at that moment to capture it. For me personally, I have a camera on me at all times. Stay tuned for compact camera previews!...

The Wide View - Wide Angle Lenses

Your having a get together to celebrate a special occasion, and everyone gathers in your living room as you reach for the camera. You move around knocking over furniture as you struggle to fit your family into the picture...not so relaxing.

Enter the wide angle lens! This is one of many situations where a camera with a wide angle lens can be of great benefit to you. For many prospective compact digital camera owners, the lens is one of the last things on their mind as they shop for a camera. Although some may have heard something about the "zoom range" or "telephoto" capabilities of a camera, many unfortunately are unaquainted to the advantages of a wide angle lens. Don't rely on the salesperson at your local electronics retailer to fill you in.

A camera with a wide angle lens can capture a much larger, broader view of a particular scene. Your camera will be able to fit much more into the frame at any given distance, much like the natural peripheral vision of our eyes. A wide angle lens opens up new possibilities and is very useful for confined space shooting, such as a living room. If you mainly use your camera for social functions, especially indoors, I highly recommend you buy a camera with a wide angle lens. Wide angle lenses are also excellent for scenery, capturing those sweeping landscapes and expansive lakes. Photographer's that shoot architecture will adore the unique and spacious perspectives a wide angle can provide.

In recent years, a steady influx of wide angle digital compacts have hit the market. Panasonic was one of the first to aggressively jump on this virtually untapped segment of the digital compact world. Now Canon, Fuji, Olympus, Sony and Pentax all have competing models in this arena. In fact, every major manufacturer has wide angle digital compacts in their model range. Luckily for the consumer, there is now a fantastic selection of them to choose from. From well specified high end models, to trendy and easy to use compacts for the beginner or budget minded consumer. There is a wide angle compact for everyone!

When you are searching for a compact digital camera with wide angle capacity, I would recommend one with a lens that starts at 28mm minimum. This focal length will satisfy most users wide angle requirements. A handful of companies, especially Panasonic offer cameras that start even wider, such as 24-25mm. While this is going a little overboard, some may appreciate the unique opportunities this can provide. Take into account that not all manufacturers can pull this off without issues, and in cheaper models there may be some "barrel distortion" in your images (straight lines become bowed) at extreme wide angles. This may not even be an issue for you unless you shoot skyscapers all day, but it's something to think about.

Another point to consider is the cameras zoom range (focal range of the lens from wide to telephoto). While some cameras may have lenses that start at 24mm at the wide end, they may only have a X3 optical zoom or less. If you are using your camera as a "party snapper" or for other social gatherings, you should be able to get away with a X3 or X4 optical zoom. For example, I own a Panasonic LX3 with a wide angle zoom (24mm-60mm). The LX3 only has a X2.5 optical zoom range, but I use it almost exclusively for wide angle street photography, for my application this very limited zoom range is acceptable.

If you are into birding, sports or travel photography it will be worthwhile looking at a camera with a longer zoom range, such X6 optical zoom and up. This will allow you to zoom in alot closer on a distant subject. Keep in mind that with a longer zoom range there may be some compromise in optical quality. Manufacturers can "optimize" a lens to perform at either wide angle or telephoto. In long zooms, manufacturers try to produce a lens that performs reasonably well at all focal lengths, this can create a small decline in optical quality. Lens technology is ever advancing though, and many new lens designs have surprisingly good optical quality across the spectrum, even in X10 or X20 optical zooms. Canon and Panasonic are two of the better companies for zoom lens quality.

The next time you think about purchasing that classy compact camera, consider experiencing "The Wide View"....