Point and Shoot An Exciting Guide to Compact Digital Camera Purchasing

Called a Point and Shoot camera for its simplicity Take still or video images or both by digitally recording through an electronic image sensor Immediately display the image on the camera screen Take up to thousands of images on one memory device Transfer and store images digitally What Is a Compact Digital Camera?

I Need a Camera Yesterday (or the relevant educational purposes of this tool )

To capture special events such as awards ceremonies, concerts, plays and guest visitors to be played in slideshows To create visual labels in the library or classrooms and student labels for files, cubbies or desks To generate a visual introduction to the school for new students To take pictures of students through out the year to design a memory book or memory slideshow Examples of Digital Camera Use

To allow the students more options for creating multimedia images for presentations, I-Movies and blogging To create illustrations for student book or newsletter publishing To document cycles, changes, growth, etc in any interdisciplinary project For more ideas, see LIS724 Spring 2009LIS724 Spring 2009 Examples of Use (cont.)

What You Demand (or what you think will determine your purchase)

Equipment Demands User friendly for everyone Fast Compatible with my system As cheap as possible without crossing the line of purchasing junk

What You Need to Learn (or what is crucial info disguised cleverly as confusing tech jargon)

Megapixels Single most important feature to determine camera 1 Megapixel = 1 million pixels Determine the resolution or quality of your pictures The more megapixels, the more expensive the camera You need at minimum 3 megapixels for decent 4X6 images

Zoom Digital zoom is zoom that is cropping your picture and not actually zooming Optical zoom is actually zooming You want at least 3X optical zoom

Critical Purchase Points Set your budget What will you be photographing? Beginner photographer = automated features Storage of photos because more megapixels = more storage What kind of batteries? Are they rechargeable? How does it upload to my system?

Sony Cyber- shot DSC- T100 Ultra-compact point & shoot camera Takes great photos Above average features for its class Relatively fast performance Buttons are small

Canon Powershot SD 880 Excellent point and shoot camera Takes great pictures Has optical image stabilization Mode dial spins too easily Button positions can be awkward

The Sony-Canon Challenge $310.00$ megapixels10 megapixels 5X optical zoom4X optical zoom Lithium ion battery 31 MB storage32 MB storage 5 oz weight5.5 oz weight USB connection movie clips, self timer, auto flash, auto focus

And the Winner Is... Canon Powershot SD 880

Bibliography Carr, Michael. "Digital Camera Buyer's Guide." About.com: Digital Cameras About.com. 20 Mar CNET. "Editor in Chief" Eds. Scott Ard and Dan Farber CBS Interactive Inc. 20 Mar Kayne, R. "What Is a Megapixel?." Wise Geek Conjecture Corporation. 20 Mar Keller, Jeff. Digital Camera Resource Page Mar Keller, Jeff. "Buyer's Guide." Digital Camera Resource Page Mar Miller, Laurie. Using Digital Cameras in the Classroom. 24 Feb Wacona Elementary School. 20 Mar "Digital camera." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 19 Mar 2009, 05:19 UTC. 20 Mar