Buy a digital camera in the UK and print photos

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How to take or view photographs in the UK


Sections:	Introduction
	Buying a digital camera
	Printing digital images
	Photo libraries
	Links

INTRODUCTION

This page explains some of the basics about buying a digital camera in the UK.

Photo books
	England Authors: Rob Talbot, Robin Whiteman Publisher: Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated Date: April 2001	Wales Authors: Richard Keen, Ian Burgum Publisher: Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated Date: June 2001
	Romantic Scotland Authors: Charles Maclean, Fritz Von der Schulenberg Publisher: Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated Date: June 2001	Ireland from the Air Authors: Peter Somerville-Large, Jason Hawkes Publisher: Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated Date: June 1998

BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA

You can use the following links to find a digital camera (or accessories such as memory cards, tripods and rechargeable batteries). Buying online is generally cheaper than buying in a shop, but remember to include the delivery cost (if any) when comparing prices:

Buy cameras and other products for photography:

Panasonic ; Pixmania ; Digital Camera Co ; Amazon ; Jessops

Most of the photos on this website were taken using a Panasonic DMCLC20 camera (2 mega-pixels, with a Leica lens, with 3x optical zoom) or DMCLC70B (4 mega-pixels, with a Leica lens, with 3x optical zoom).

Here is an explanation of some of the important terms you need to understand when buying a digital camera:

Mega-pixels
- Digital images are made up of lots of dots of colour. Each dot is one pixel. A mega-pixel is 1 million dots.
- The ratio of the width to height of digital camera images is normally 4:3 (for example, 1600 pixels wide by 1200 pixels high)
- The largest images which can be taken are approximately as follows:

Resolution	Typical image size	Maximum print size (at 300 dpi)
2 megapixels	1600 x 1200 pixels	13.5 cm x 10.2 cm
3 megapixels	2016 x 1512 pixels	17.1 cm x 12.8 cm
4 megapixels	2304 x 1728 pixels	19.5 cm x 14.6 cm
5 megapixels	2560 x 1920 pixels	21.7 cm x 16.3 cm
6 megapixels	2816 x 2112 pixels	23.8 cm x 17.9 cm
10 megapixels	3648 x 2736 pixels	30.9 cm x 23.2 cm

- Images shown on a computer screen often use a resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch), equivalent to 28.3 pixels per cm.
- High quality printed images often use a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch), equivalent to 118 pixels per cm.
- A 1600 x 1200 image produced by a 2 mega-pixel camera is enough for a 56 x 42 cm screen image or a 13 x 10 cm printed image. Cameras with higher numbers of pixels allow you to print larger images (for example, posters), or to print small sections of an image (this may be necessary for situations such as example, if the zoom magnification is not enough, when photographing small or distant objects). If you are not interested in doing these things, then you do not need to worry too much about the maximum number of pixels for the camera.

File formats
- The most common format in which photos are stored is JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg"). The file size of the images is less, but the compression causes some loss of quality which you might notice if making very large prints.
- Some cameras allow images to be stored in TIFF format. The file sizes of images stored in this way are much bigger, but there is no loss of quality because of compression.

Lens / Zoom
- The quality of most ordinary-sized images depends mainly on the lens used by the camera
- If there is a high optical zoom, you will be able to take pictures of very small or distant objects. 3x optical zoom is enough for most amateur photographers, but higher zoom capability may be necessary for professional photographers.

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PRINTING DIGITAL IMAGES

Many people who own a digital camera do not have their own printers but would like to print some of their images to show to a friends or family. Below are step-by-step instructions for one way in which this can be done. If you want to print a lot of images this way it will be better if you have a fast internet connection (eg broadband).

Order prints of your digital photos:

myPIXmania

register

- Click on this link to go to the Truprint website: http://www.truprint.co.uk
- Sign up. Remember the e-mail address and password which you use.

upload photos

- Click on upload photos. Enter an album title (up to 30 characters) and click on upload to this album.
The first time you do this an upload tool will be loaded; click on Yes when it asks if you want to install and run this (if you don't want to install this, you can choose one-by-one upload to load pictures one at a time).
- Click on select photos. Choose the directory where your photos are stored. Either tick each photo you want, or choose select all at the bottom if you want all of the photos in the file directory (this won't include any photos in sub-directories). Don't choose too many high resolution photos if you have a slow internet connection. You are recommended to choose just one photo at first so that you know how long it takes. Click on upload selected photos. The photos you have chosen will be copied to the album.
[ If you get a message like this: "Enter your user name and password to login to the web proxy server", click on cancel to continue]
- The estimated time remaining is shown. While your photos are being copied, you can click on remove to delete a photo from the list, or you can click on select more photos to add other pictures to the list.
[ If you lose your internet connection you will need to start again to load photos which have not already been copied ]
[ If you click on cancel the process of copying the photos will stop (there may be a delay before this happens) ]
- Once the process has finished you will see the message photos uploaded successfully and you will see a tick and the word completed under the pictures.
[ If you want to add more photos to the album, click on select more photos ]
Click on view entire album to see all of the pictures which you have uploaded.
If you click on play you can see a slideshow of your pictures, or you can click on next to see the next photo.

order prints

- Click on order prints. Choose the album containing photos you want to order, and click on open this album.
- Click on select all if you want to print all of the photos in the album. You can select or remove an individual photo by clicking on the box under that photo. Click on choose these photos

your cart

If you want the same number of prints and the same size for each photo, use the Quick order. Use the drop-down box to choose the number of copies you want for each of the available sizes (eg for one set of 4x6 prints, choose: 4x6 1 5x7 0 8x10 0)
[ If you want to make different selections for each photo, choose the Qty (quantity: the number of copies you want) and Size (4x6 or 5x7 or 8x10 or wallet set) for each one ]
[ a wallet set is a set of four 2x3 photos - each picture is a quarter of the size of a 4x6 photo ]
Check the order total (the total cost of your order).
[ If you make changes to any of the numbers on the screen, click on update total to see the new cost ]
[ Click on pre-pay to save up to 20% on the cost of your photos. You can pay in advance for 100, 200 or 400 prints sized 4x6, or 50, 100 or 200 prints sized 5x7. Click on order now to buy these ]
When you are ready, choose check out.

In December 2004 the costs for each photo were as follows:

Size:	*4x5.3 () or 4x6**	5x7	8x10	Wallet 4 @ 2x3	Poster 10x15	Poster 12x18	Poster 20x30
Cost (each):	£0.15	£0.25	£1.20	£0.99	£3.99	£5.99	£16.99
Pre-paid: (number in brackets)	£0.14 (100) £0.13 (250) £0.12 (400)	£0.24 (50) £0.22 (100) £0.20 (200)	-	-	-	-	-
Postage:	£0.90 per order				£1.50 per order

If you are a new customers you receive credits which allow you to order some 4 x 6 photos free - only the shipping charge needs to be paid for these prints.
Prices can change at any time, so check the current costs when you order.

store

- Go to the store if you want to order photo gifts such as mugs, mouse mats, T-shirts, sweat-shirts, coasters, placemats and photo cards.

billing and shipping

[ There may be some special offers shown - for example you may be able to obtain a discount for an extra set of prints ]
Enter your credit card info (Visa, MasterCard, Switch or Solo). For Switch or Solo cards you need to enter either the issue # (issue number) or start date.
[ Select ship to a different address if you want the photos to be sent to a different address from your billing address ]
[ coupons: if you have a coupon or gift certificate, enter the number in the box ]
Click on continue
[ If your photos were taken with a digital camera, if you click on change my order you can replace 4x6 prints with 4x5.3 prints (the cost is the same). This size will print the whole of your images, without cutting some of it out (called trueDigital prints). If you want to keep the 4x6 print size, click on no thanks ]

review and place order

Check your order details.
[ To change the details, choose edit billing & shipping info or edit prints order ]
[ If you don't want to order the photos, click on cancel ]
If you are happy with these, click on buy now.
A receipt will be shown and will be sent to your e-mail address.
The photos will be sent by first class post to the shipping address.

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PHOTO LIBRARIES

If you want a photo from the UK, perhaps as a print or as a poster, you may want to search some of these photo libraries:
Britain On View: http://www.gallery.britainonview.com
The Press Association: http://www.empics.com

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LINKS

Photos of British events: Ideas/Album
Photos from tours in Britain: Travel/Tours
Photos of the British countryside: Britain/Photos/Landscapes
Photos of British animals: Britain/Photos/Animals
Photos of British gardens: Britain/Photos/Gardens

* Search this website (www.ukstudentlife.com) or the web: