"What You MUST Know To Get
The Right Digital Camera"

7. How Easy Is It To Get My Pictures Out Of My Camera And
    Into My Computer?
8. What Happens If I Print An 8x10 From Only 1 Megapixel?
9. What Is White Balance And How Does It Work?

7. How Easy Is It To Get My Pictures Out Of My Camera And Into My Computer?

It's really quite simple. Especially if you have a memory card reader. You just take the memory card out of your camera. Put it into your card reader. Select a setting or two and bingo, your pictures start downloading... really fast!

If you don't have a card reader, it just takes a couple more steps. You'll need to install software into your computer to get it to work. Since each camera is slightly different, you'll have to follow the directions in the manual). But once it's installed and you know the steps, it's a breeze.

8. What Happens If I Print An 8x10 From Only 1 Megapixel?

When it comes to printing megapixels, there's only so far you can go. A limited number of pixels will only look good up to a certain size. Printing beyond the recommended size means you're going to run out of original pixels. Beyond that, you have to ask either the camera, the printer, or the image editing software to add more pixels to fill a larger page.

But the camera, printer, or your software don't have human eyes, they can only guess what colors to add. That process is called interpolation, or upsampling. And the truth is, computers are not very good at guessing.

As a result, you get a picture that is "pixilated" — that means the picture looks blurry or fuzzy. And if you look close, you'll see "stair-step" square edges.

The bigger your picture gets, the more the quality degrades. So if you start with a low resolution of only 1 or 2-megapixels, there's a limit to the size you can print your picture or blow it up without losing quality.

Once again, less megapixels look fine on the web or emailed, they just don't print out well. If you want good prints, more megapixels produce better results.

9. What Is White Balance And How Does It Work?

First of all, it's important to understand that to a digital camera, white colors are NOT alike. Digital cameras pick up light like video cameras, rather than film cameras. White light has different color casts according to the light source.

The naked eye doesn't see these differences because the human brain compensates for them. White looks white to humans in sunlight, under heavy clouds or indoors — no matter if it's under incandescent or fluorescent lighting.

But it's not the same for a digital camera! The camera picks up the differences in whites produced by different sources of light. Under incandescent light (which is an ordinary light bulb), white has a yellow or reddish cast. Under fluorescent light, white has a greenish cast. Daylight has a blue cast. A sunset has a strong orange cast. Just about every different lighting situation has a different lighting cast.

Digital cameras need to be adjusted to the light source so that white appears white (not yellowish, reddish or greenish) and so that the other colors look accurate. This is called "white balance."

Most digital cameras set the white balance automatically. Many cameras also allow you to set it semi-manually by choosing from several selections. The control is usually found in the menu, but could be a button on its own.