Digital cameras

[lovelolamom]

Does anybody have suggestions on a digital camera with a zoom lens for taking pictures to post on my site. The pictures I'm putting on there now keep coming out blurry and I don't know if it's the camera or something else. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks, B.C.

[fpw]

I looked at your site and the file sizes of your pics are fairly large, yet grainy as you mention. What kind of camera are you using now? How many megapixels? Though "all megapixels" are not created the same, generally the more there are, the sharper the picture will come out. Are you uploading the pics to your site "as is", or are you using software to resize? If so, what software?. Are you converting to .gif along the way?

Some rules of thumb:

1) Set your resolution to the highest setting
It doesn't matter how many megapixels your camera has, if the resolution settings are too low. Check to see what format (.jpg, etc.) it's saving to. (See you camera's manual)

The resolution will dictate how large you can go with the pic, without getting "grainy" or "pixelated". The trade-off is the higher the resolution, the more space they take up on the chip. But since you can always save the files to your computer, it's a good idea to shoot at high resolution, even if you have to "resize" them down for posting on the internet. You'll want to have a "high resolution" version of that great shot you get so you can print an enlargement. Besides, the cost of chips (memory cards) has come down so much, there's no reason to cut corners.

2) Easy with the zoom. This can cause a loss of sharpness.

3) More megapixels mean sharper pics -- generally speaking, anyway.
Nowadays, 3.0-5.0 megapixel cameras are becoming more common and less expensive, but even 2.0 megapixel cameras can produce sharp digital pics if you hold steady and don't enlarge them too much.

4) Check the lighting. Digital cameras do not fare that well at night or in low light situations. Use flash to fill in shadows or low light, even when it appears to be daylight out. A couple of pics that you posted appear to have been taken late in the day, tough for digitals.

JF/FPW