Paul Le Chien

Before buying a digital camera, consider for what purpose you will use it. If you need to illustrate your page on the Internet, it will be enough the camera with low resolution. But if you're going to make prints from obtained images, to receive high-quality photos, you will need a camera with high resolution. Four main factors have a crucial impact on your digital camera:

- Resolution
- Method of operation of CCD
- An optical device of the camera
- Software that "works" with the image.

Resolution is determined by the number of light-sensitive diodes on the surface of the CCD. For instance, if the instruction says that it has a resolution of 1600X1200 pixels, this means that the CCD has about 2 million diodes on its surface. Each of three varied diodes on the surface of the matrix can write data about one of the principle colors. In order to receive data about the color of every pixel, it is necessary to know information about the illumination of at least three diodes. This reduces the actual number of pixels to three times. Instead it the software is used which gives you an opportunity to put an equal sign between the number of pixels and the number of diodes.

Though the statement "the more pixels, the higher the resolution, the better the shot" basically is true, however, other factors have a significant influence on the quality of the image. So, the quality of the production of the CCDs is very important. The more qualitative made the matrix, the less it will have broken diodes (the size of one diode is about 7.5 microns) that will directly affect the quality of shots.

Unfortunately, the quality of the CCD cannot be described by any numbers or categories, so only a careful comparison of different models guarantees the purchase of the best camera. Focus on the field, clarity of the visible image. If you are satisfied with the quality of the image, then test the camera under different lighting conditions. Ask also, if possible, to print the captured image; it will give you more information about the CCD.