So, you want to get into photography and you need a camera. I’ll hold off on Brand names for a minute and discuss function first. What should be on your equipment list? Camera, 28-105mm lens, tripod, flash, memory card.

Memory Card

This is the “new” film. You take a picture and it is stored on this removable media. The storage space of the card and image size determines how many pictures you can take before you need to swap in a new card. When I do a shoot, I may fill several cards. At the end of the day, I’ll transfer the images from the card to my computer for storage, backup and processing. Once the photos have been backed-up from the card onto my harddrive, I’ll reformat the card to be used for the next shoot.

Megapixel & Image Sizes

These terms are kinda all related but ALL effect image file size; to be measured in kbytes or megabytes. Image size refers to the dimensional parameters that are recorded for each image. Most cameras today can record a number of different resolutions from 640×480 pixels all the way up to (and beyond) 4000×3000 pixels. For reference regarding how big a pixel is, consider the screen you are reading this email on. Most monitors are configured today with 1024×768 or some other values. The number of pixels recorded for each image is the megapixel value that is so heavily marketed in today’s photography industry. What does megapixel mean? It is easy to figure out. Take the x-dimension and multiply it by the y-dimension. 3,000 x 4,000 = 12,000,000 or 12megapixels. Continue reading »