Digital Camera Formats & Differences Between Film Cameras

by Bercle George

Related Articles:

Still clueless about digital cameras? For starters, they are basically the same device as the film camera which captures images and stores them in a medium. But aside from that, there are differences on how they approach the concept. We will discuss them in this article.
  1. Size : -
    digital cameras are unlike film cameras which have to take into account the large slot for the film into itsoverall design. Since there are already slim storage media for digital cameras, they have become slimmer and smaller than the film cameras of old.
  2. Image storage : -
    film cameras store their captured images in, well, films. But unlike its older counterpart, digital cameras store images in media such as compact flash cards, memory sticks, secure digital cards and the likes.
    The good thing about them is that you don't risk destroying the images if you put them out in the sun unlike films which are photosensitive which means that there will be a chemical reaction when the film is exposed to light. Also, digital storage media can store larger capacities of images unlike the typical 35mm roll of film which can hold only around 36 pictures.
  3. Time to see the image : -
    when using film in shooting pictures, one has to wait a long time before seeing the images since they still have to be processed.
However, with digital cameras, one can see the captured image immediately after it has been taken. It helps photographers a lot in weeding out bad shots from good ones in no time at all. If you are into digital photography, chances are that you have already come across the different file formats used by digital cameras. It doesn't matter if you are an amateur or a professional because you will have to deal with them when taking pictures and transferring them to your computer and eventually editing them.

But which image format is best for you? It all depends on the result that you want and how much control you want to have over editing your images. Below are the most common image formats used by digital cameras. When we consider the formats we need to be familiar with the following :-
  1. JPEG : -
    this is probably the most popular image format used not only in digital photography but also in web design. It is a good thing because you can be sure that you can open your file using any computer and without the need of special software.
    There's a downside, however, since JPEG is considered a "lossy" format, which means that a lot of details are lost due to the format's compression.
  2. TIFF : - the answer to JPEG's lossy quality is the TIFF format. It means that more details are saved which translates to a better image quality. But it comes at a price since TIFF files are notoriously huge and could eat up storage media space in no time.
  3. RAW : -
    among the three, RAW could be considered as the file that shows images at its, well, rawest. RAW images are unprocessed which gives photographers more control in editing them later on.

About the Author

For information about digital photography, questions and answers - be sure to visit :: http://www.digital-photography-mag.com/