What to wait for in Digital Cameras

It's always amazing how technology changes from year to year. You find something great, and its obsolete in a matter of a few years. Some improvements are well worth the wait and others, perhaps not. In the world of Digital Cameras, as time goes on, we get more and more resolution in the way of megapixels. Although once you have reached 6mp or more, the amateur or recreational shooter should be satisfied with all but large, enlarged pictures. 6mp is more than we need for 95% of our regular shots, but for those interested in high-detail and/or large print-outs, its best to shop for 10+ megapixels. Much of this is not news and that alone is not worthy of a blog late in 2008. I want to address features you should look out for in your next purchase. Goodies that might make your world of photography just a little better than before.

One great feature is the inclusion of WiFi. WiFi built into a camera will allow a traveler to simply find a hot-spot and upload the data to a web-based picture hosting site such as Flickr or Picasa. One such camera doing just this is the Lumix DMC-TZ50. Panasonic, which makes the Lumix line, has struck a deal with T-Mobile for use of their HotSpots for use with these camera's and it seems this is just one of those features you didn't crave, but will likely not want to be without once you've used it. Of course any WiFi connection will do.

You may also look forward to full frame sensors that actually take advantage of the entire lens and capture the same field as 35mm film, so when you look through, say, a 50mm lens, you get the same as you would on a film camera, not to mention the benefits of a larger area to fit in all those mega-pixels. The Sony camera pictured above is a new Pro level 24.6MP full-frame DSLR.

Another great technology making its way into Digital Cameras is GPS. Imagine shooting pictures anywhere in the world and your camera stores metadata in each picture (Geo-Tagging) including time, date, and exact GPS coordinates for that particular shot. There are already some high-end cameras with this technology and there is even at least one company ( Jobo ) www.jobo.com/web/Photo-GPS.221.0.html that will allow you to add it to an existing camera.

The consumer digital revolution in photography from film, is complete, but digital evolution will always be.