Have you been looking to purchase a new digital camera. You walk into the store and before you know it your brain is having melt down from all the terminology. So what is it that you really need to know? This is some of the common digital camera jargon that everyone should know before you purchase a camera.

1. Megapixels

Pixels are the tiny dots that make up a digital image. The more dots the bigger the picture or the high the quality. Megapixels are millions of pixels so a 2 megapixel camera has 2 million pixels while an 8 megapixel has 8 million pixels and on it goes. For some time the race was on but now some manufactures such as Canon and Nikon have actually reduced the megapixels in some camera lines because after a certain point more megapixels offers little additional picture value but it does introduce noise into images.

So when the salesperson starts telling you bigger is better when it comes to megapixels just keep in mind that the more megapixels the more you are going to spend and so it may be better for the salesperson's commission but not necessarily for you.

If you want to print 8x10 inch images then a 3 MP camera will be good enough for you, but of course the sales people at the store might tell you different, they have commisions to make. If you want o print posters 7 megapixels is all you need. 10 megapixels is more than you'll ever use. So why am I telling you all this? Well don't be sold on the MP of a camera, it's just a number and for the average person many of us don't need the 14 MP cameras, so make sure you consider other features with equal importance. Know what your needs actually are.

2. Compact Flash Memory Card

One popular type of memory card used in digital cameras is the compact flash or CF memory card. The amount of memory on a card varies from 256mb to 8GB. The larger your memory card the more images you can store on it. Compact flash is the popular choice in the larger digital cameras and in professional cameras.

3. Focal Length

ISO dates back to film days. It is simply a measurement for how much any one lens can magnify its subject. So what is it that you need to know about focal length. Both wide angle and telephoto are two words that describe the view of the lens in the camera. so if your camera gives you a wide angle this just means that you have a larger angle to view from the camera. focal length of around 150mm will allow you to zoom in on your loved ones or subject. Just so you know the focal length of the human eye is around 50mm.

So what is it you need to know? Well most day to day photography is actually taken with a medium to wide focal length, so 20mm to 50mm, including indoor photos, pets, groups, portraits, etc. Yet when it comes to compact cameras it's actually easier for the manufactures to produce a telephoto lens over a wide angle. When shopping around watch for a camera that has the most common focal length.

4. Digital Zoom Vs. Optical Zoom

Allot of confusion around the Digital zoom and Optical. The best advice one can give you is to tell you to forget about digital zoom. And allot of people recommend disabling it on your camera. With optical zoom your camera lens zooms in and out to magnify the image. With digital zoom the image is electronically enlarged and that which surrounds the image disappears. It's the equivalent to cropping an image on your computer to enlarge it. Worse, it degrades the quality of your image significantly. Regardless of what the salesperson tells you it's the optical zoom that you need to be focusing on. That's where your value is.

There you have it. You are ready to start shopping for a new digital camera.