Digital Photography 101: The Pros and Cons of Ultracompact Camerasby Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger 04 Sep 2007 12:22 PM What photographer (amateur or otherwise) doesn't appreciate the convenience of being able to slide a camera into a pocket or purse? Can you image having a camera the size of a deck of cards at your disposal? Not having to worry about lugging a bulky camera and extra equipment on a trip to Disneyland or a waterpark? Perfect, right? You'd think so. After all, people who love to take pictures take their cameras everywhere and having a model that is ultra petite and has a high enough resolution to fulfill dozens of multimedia uses is somewhat of a dream come true. Unfortunately, no photo-taking device is perfect and ultracompact cameras have pros and cons just like any device. The good news is that ultracompact cameras are evolving at a fairly rapid pace. For example, last year two-megapixel ultracompact cameras flooded the market. These days the latest trend in ultracompact cameras is the five-megapixel model. Most are designed strictly for the snapshot crowd as they lack more advanced features, such as interchangeable lenses. On the bright side, the majority of these cameras include a few presets such as "portrait" and "landscape," a red-eye flash, and the ability to control the exposure. In addition, they can record short videos, BUT the images are so grainy and eat up so much memory that the feature is hardly worth using. A moderately stacked ultra compact digital camera will run you about $350. That price will get you a 3x optical zoom and a big LCD screen. But, the most of your money is going to pay for the size of the camera--most of which are now no bigger than a tin of breath mints. Naturally, the tiny size of these cameras does necessitate a few sacrifices. For example, people with large digits may be challenged since ultracompacts have tiny buttons (this is when long fingernails come in handy), which are often crowded together. On a positive note, ultracompacts don't skimp on photo quality. As long as you shoot with flash and turn on all the auto settings, these cameras consistently produce sharp, vivid photos. Some cameras take more time to auto-focus, which could be frustrating if you are used to taking quick candid shots. Also, ultracompacts are notorious for not producing high quality shots when the flash is turned off. The problem: ultracompact cameras don't employ the same sophisticated image-stabilizer technology found in larger cameras. Consequently, most pictures end up having blurry edges in flashless shots. You would have to have rock-like steadiness to prevent blurriness, making the ultracompacts poor choices to take to places that restrict flash photography such as dance recitals and museums. Do you own an ultracompact digital camera? Would you recommend it to others? Related Articles: Digital Photography 101: Ready, Set, Shoot Digital Photography 101: Photo Sharing Digital Photography 101: Printing Footnotes Digital Photography 101: More Printing Options Digital Photography 101: Printing Your Pictures Digital Photography 101: Picking The Perfect Camera Digital Photography 101: Getting To Know Your Camera Digital Photography 101: An Introduction Getting Digital Pictures To Friends And Family FAST!
Learn more about Michele Cheplic  Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. Relevantphotography tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags camera, digital camera, digital photography, pictures, ultracompact camera Discuss this article
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