Digital Camera Buying Guide
People keep on asking us what digital camera is better to choose. And I do understand their confusion, because a digital camera market has grown tremendously lately. Almost every family has a digital camera today, and the manufacturers keep on developing thousands and thousands of new products to answer constantly increasing demands. Besides, science and technology develop so fast nowadays, that what seems impossible a year ago, today is quite commonplace. And that makes ordinary consumers even more confused.
When I was buying my first digital camera, the only thing I know about them is that the higher resolution and the larger zoom are, the better. These are really very important, but there are much more factors to consider.
- What for? My first recommendation – ask yourself what do you need a digital camera for. It will define the size and capacity of your future camera. Do you need it just for your family photos, do you travel a lot, do you want it to become the first stage of your career in the photography business?
- How much? Then you should decide how much money you are ready to invest in the purchase. The prices vary from less than $100 to $3000. Remember, the high-end camera offers the best feature set including better zoom, more megapixels, and the added features, but it also requires more knowledge and skills from you. So if you are a novice in the field, you’d better go for a less complicated tool.
- Which brand? Most first-time users don’t have any particular preferences concerning the band, but those who have some experience in digital photography, would rather go either for a camera of the same brand to their previous one or to a completely different manufacturer depending on their impressions.
- Resolution and Image quality. It goes without saying that when buying a digital camera you are to pay attention at megapixels first. But the image quality is not only about the number of megapixels, but the quality of the megapixels, shutter speed, white balance control and scene modes matter as well.
- Digital, Optical or Total zoom? Look at the optical zoom only and ignore digital. Why? Read here. Also don’t get fooled with a large number of a total zoom, which is a digital and an optical zoom multiplied.
- Compact, standard or big? In most cases the bigger the camera is the more powerful it should be. But do you really need all that features? The camera should feel comfortable and easy-to-use. Small cameras will suit better those, who travel a lot. Today they have the same resolution as big cameras do and their zoom gets larger and larger. Though they usually have small buttons, which may cause inconvenience. Big cameras on the other hand are often very complicated and bulky. So, the size is up to you.
- Which Media Type? Today there are lots of kinds of digital camera memory cards are available, and they are not cheap. So people usually choose the camera with the same media type. But if you are a first-buyer, you are to choose the card considering its capacity only. Today the cards with 8 MB to 2 GB storage capacity are available.
- Check reviews of the most authoritative and up-to-date online sources. A good review should be comprehensive first of all, include exhaustive testing and well documented results. It is even better if there is a sample gallery of photos taken by the product you’re interested in.
Also read:
25 things you must know before buying digital camera
Digital Camera Buying Guide CNET
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September 19th, 2006 at 9:03 am
[...] If you have any strong preferences for a particular manufacturer, camera type, or you are on a tight budget, you’ll find useful digital camera comparison by brand, price, camera type, or key features. If you can’t decide between several products, it is a good idea to compare digital cameras side-by-side. You don’t know what exactly you need, then go to our Digital Camera Buying Guide. [...]