Knowledge is power and researching a product before you buy it is important.

On eBay you can find digital cameras/camcorders that are 3 to 4 times cheaper then the ones available in electronic stores.

Choosing the type of camera for you depends on your needs. Are you looking for a cost effective camera with lots of functions or are you looking for a camera that produces studio quality images with advanced patented technology?

As a rule of thumb, this rule is not 100%, but if your looking for high quality choose a branded camera, if your looking for a great price with comparable functions a non-branded camera may be an option.

Non-Branded Cameras on eBay

There are some important things to consider when purchasing a digital camera or camcorder on eBay.

Interpolation

In a device such as a digital camera it is very important to understand the very basic aspects of the device so as to properly operate it and give it the due respect it deserves. Such a topic is interpolation! These are accessories that help the digital camera to perform the technologically advanced features that it is capable of. In extreme explanatory and simple terms it can be summed up as that interpolation refers to software programs that can effectively enlarge image resolution beyond the actual resolution by adding extra pixels using complex mathematic calculations. Now, this is a feature that can be absolutely useful in providing a good success to a user.

Looking into the technical aspects it can be stated that interpolation is a technique where the spatial resolution of an image is increased from its original size to a higher or larger resolution. The spatial resolution of an image is simply its horizontal x vertical pixel count. For example 1600 x 1200. Again getting into further intricate details it can be stated that there are two techniques of interpolation commonly used, they are software and hardware. Again software interpolation can be performed on a digital image using a one of a number of image editing programs such as PhotoShop. This is often termed as resizing and is done with a computer, performed on an image file from a digital camera that already exists in a file format such as JPG. Hardware interpolation involves the resizing of an image, but it differs from software interpolation in that the image is resized algorithmically inside the camera during the image processing sequence and before the image has been saved as a JPG image file.

It is important to note that although interpolation increases the Mega Pixel rating, the quality is not equal to that of non-interpolated camera. They are comparable however you need to make the call on the image quality your are looking for.

Digital Zoom

Digital zoom is a method of zooming on a digital camera either by increasing the size of the pixels in the image or by interpolating between them. The image doesn't physically get any closer and no extra information is collected, as the optics on the camera stay in place.

The process on some cameras is equivalent to cropping the image: Only data from the centre of the available image is stored, meaning the resolution or mega pixel rating of the photograph is reduced, with a corresponding decrease in file size. The resulting image is identical to a photograph taken with no zoom, except that the unwanted edges of the image are discarded.

Digital zoom works in a similar way to the resize tool in software such as Adobe Photoshop. It can reduce the quality of images significantly, and as such, is not recommended if the picture is destined to be printed out. Many digital cameras on the market today carry this feature and some rely entirely on this zooming technique, lacking any optical zoom capabilities.

It is important to note that although digital zoom is not equal to that of optical zoom (example, Carl Zeiss Lens). They are comparable however you need to make the call on the quality of zoom your looking for.

Important:

You need to make sure you have all the information on the camera/camcorder before purchasing it on eBay.

Some sellers sell interpolated cameras however do not mention this on their listing.

The same goes for zoom; they may not list the specific type, optical or digital.

In Short

In short branded cameras such as Sony, Canon and HP offer high quality images with optical zoom and high quality image sensors that result in the highest mega pixel ratings.

Non-branded cameras offer comparable functions and in many cases more functions such as mp3/mp4 with a much lower cost. However the quality is not equal to that of a branded camera.

For more information please contact, CaldwellProjects eBay Store