Digital cameras getting smaller, more versatile

By Jefferson Graham
USA Today

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Hints: Count pixels, check resolution Pixels are the smallest element in a digital image, and the more pixels, the more detail in the image. The most common measurement of a digital camera's quality is in millions of pixels, or megapixels. 1.3 megapixels: A 1.3-megapixel camera will deliver images for sharp prints as large as 4 by 6 inches. 4 megapixels: Four-megapixel cameras approach 35 mm film picture quality. The best deals can be found in 2-megapixel cameras, whose pictures can be enlarged to 8-by-10-inch size if the image isn't cropped. 2-megapixel: While several 2-megapixel models are available in the $200 range, they most likely won't have an optical zoom (digital zoom just crops the image in the camera and makes each pixel larger) or rechargeable batteries. The LCD screens on the camera backs are battery hogs that drain 4 AA batteries after 30 to 40 shots. It's better to buy a model with rechargeable batteries. Information: Go to digital photography Web sites such as popphoto.com and imaging-resource.com.

The Holy Grail: models that could fit in a shirt pocket, always at hand, night or day.

Now, with digital technology, they've arrived. Free from the constraints of having to contend with the 35 mm film canister size, digital camera designers are coming up with a widening variety of innovative, ultracompact designs:

Nikon's Coolpix 2500 ($349) has a unique lens mechanism that twists, saving vacationers the bother of asking strangers to take their group shots in front of monuments. Now, you just turn the viewfinder backward, frame the shot in the LCD screen and take the picture yourself. The camera is 2.3 inches high, 4.5 inches long and 1.2 inches wide. It has 2 megapixels, the main measure of image resolution.

Minolta Dimage X ($399) and Fuji FinePix 30i ($399), are smaller 2-megapixel models. Both are just smaller than 3 inches or the size of a floppy disk. But it's the width of the Minolta that wows consumers. At 0.8 inch, it's as wide as two ballpoint pens. The Fuji is 1.2 inches, while the lower-resolution and less expensive Logitech Pocket Digital Camera beats them all — just a half-inch wide and 2.25 inches high.

Digital cameras are one of the great sales success stories of the tech world, with sales of 1.23 million units between January and March, up 28 percent over the same period in 2001, according to NPDTechworld. About 9.5 million cameras are expected to be sold this year, says InfoTrends Research Group.

The smaller models are just hitting the market. "When I first saw the Minolta at their offices in Japan, I said, 'Congratulations, you're going to sell millions,' " said Herbert Keppler of Popular Photography magazine. "There are very few cameras that you can keep in your shirt pocket. You might as well be carrying a credit card."

Nikon introduced the concept of a twistable-lens chassis several years ago in an $800 camera. Technology has come to a point where Nikon can bring it to mass-market level. "The swivel allows you to make a very slim camera," Giordano said.

How small can cameras get? Researchers in Israel already have created a pill-sized, edible medical camera. "You can make a camera so small you can swallow it," said Giordano said. "But how are you going to use it?"