The quality of the lens built into the camera will have a direct and critical impact on the quality and sharpness of the pictures you take.

While other factors, such as the degree of compression can affect image sharpness, they can only do so adversely. They cannot improve the clarity of the image beyond what the lens delivers.

Some of the digital camera manufacturers use lenses made by companies famous for their quality such as Zeiss. Other digital camera producers, particularly those with a long history of making quality film cameras such as Nikon and Canon, use their own quality lenses. You really can't go wrong in either of these two cases. The overall price of the camera will be your best guide to lens quality. Generally you can expect that cameras costing above $300.00 will have a better lens, capable of producing sharper images.

You can find the better quality digital cameras among the Prosumer Digital SLR lines, and professional lines (though these cost in the tens of thousands of dollars).

Interchangeable Lenses are an attractive feature for the Advanced Photographer, and if you already have a certain brand of SLR camera and extra lenses, it could save you a lot of money to buy a digital camera that is compatible with your existing collection of lenses. Most all Prosumer cameras look and work like traditional Single Lens Reflex (SLR) film cameras, where lenses are easily interchangeable.

Fixed focal length lenses have no zoom capability and are typically found on less expensive cameras. They tend to provider wider angle shots and offer lesser image quality.

If you already own an SLR and have invested in different lenses, you may find that a digital SLR by the same manufacturer will accept your existing lenses. Obviously, this can be a great cost saver, as you won't need to purchase a second wide angle, telephoto, zoom or portrait lens.

Zoom Lenses

Product descriptions for digital cameras typically list both optical and digital zoom.

Optical Zoom is accomplished by movement of elements within the lens and camera. When you use optical zoom to get closer to your subject you will see more detail and the picture will remain just as sharp. You will not experience any loss if clarity. Optical zoom is an important feature to consider when selecting a digital camera, and is the traditional way the word zoom lens is used.

Zoom lenses typically are longer than fixed focus lenses because they need the space to adjust internal lens elements to zoom in to an image. Most digital cameras have retractable zoom lenses that fold into the body when the camera is shut down. Non-retractable zoom lenses are often longer and typically offer greater zoom capabilities. Removeable zoom lenses can be taken off the camera body, and usually offer the best zoom and optical capabilities and the most flexibility with using filters; they are also found on the more expensive cameras.

Most of the recommended digital cameras have an optical zoom of 3X. Because optical zoom is accomplished with the lens, cameras with greater optical zoom, such as 10X will have a longer and heavier lens. A Traveler will need to weigh the advantages of zoom capability with the greater overall size of the camera.

Digital Zoom is controlled by a computer chip and results in blurry and unfocused images because the zoom is accomplished through the manipulation of pixels and not lens elements. You might as well ignore this feature when choosing and using your digital camera.

Macro Lenses

A Macro Lens is designed specifically to focus on very close-up subjects of generally smaller items, such as flowers or insects, for example. The lens optics are designed to perform best at close distance and generally can fill the entire frame with your close-up photo subject.

It allows the photographer to get as close as 3" or so to the subject. Typically a true macro lense allows you to get very close to the subject, and focuses to life size (at a ratio of 1:1), which means that your subject is reproduced at its actual size in the picture. Kodak defines a macro lens as "a lens that provides continuous focusing from infinity to extreme close-ups, often to a reproduction ratio of 1:2 (half life-size) or 1:1 (life-size)."

Many consumer zoom lenses may claim to have macro capability, but in fact may not be a true macro and only focus down to 1/4 actual size.

Choosing a Digital Camera

To help you make the right digital camera choice, check digital camera recommendations, which you can browse based on User Type.