Digital Cameras - Steps to Buying a Digital Camera

HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO SPEND ON A DIGITAL CAMERA?

Notice I didn't ask what you could afford. That's a similar yet different question. Don't be afraid to go low here if you just want to test the waters of this whole digital thing. Go ahead, satisfy your curiosity. Go to Newegg, Wal-Mart, Circuit City or Best Buy and check that out. Don't worry, we'll be here when you get back. Back? Bet you feel better, don't you? I bet that while you were there you also noticed you can spend thousands of dollars. Don't go back, you can trust me on that. Pick a budget number you
can be comfortable with. Let's move on.

HOW DO YOU PLAN ON USING YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA?

How have you used cameras in the past? Are you a casual snap-shooter who takes out the camera on special occasions? Do you want to carry your digital camera with you at all times? You'll find that the very smallest (ultra-compact or mini) and to a much greater degree, the very largest (dSLRs) are the most expensive. Fortunately for most of us the broad sweet spot is right in the middle, the compact point & shoot camera, as small or smaller than that old Kodak Instamatic you used to have but larger than a Zippo lighter.

HOW MUCH IMAGE QUALITY DO YOU NEED?

The quick, automatic answer of course is "very high!" But again, knowing yourself will help us make a smarter choice. In the past, when you developed your photos, did you have many enlarged? How large? (5"x7", 8"x10", larger?). Do you plan on enlarging the photos you take with your new digital camera? Or, do you think you'll just be emailing them to friends or maintaining an on-line photo collection?

See, image quality has a lot to do with just how many megapixels your camera has. Think of a pixel as a pinpoint of color and a megapixel as 1 million pinpoints. If the image you are ultimately producing is say, 1"x1", then a million pinpoints will give you a pretty high quality image. But if you wanted to make a 4"x6", the pinpoints would spread out a bit and the image quality would suffer. That makes sense doesn't it? For the average snap-shooter producing 4"x6" prints with an occasional 5"x7" or even an 8"x10" print, a camera of roughly 3 megapixels (3MP) will do nicely. If this is you, rejoice. A good camera of this sort is common and inexpensive. Cameras in the 3MP - 5MP range can be purchased for around $100.

If you plan on large prints, or just would like to have the potential, a digital camera of 6MP - 8MP, probably makes more sense and will still not break the bank.

HOW MUCH ZOOM DO YOU NEED?

Keep in mind, until fairly recently most general purpose cameras came with no zoom. What you saw in the viewfinder is pretty much what would result on the print. Most point and shoot cameras today pretty much throw in 3x - 4x optical zoom. This means you'll have the ability to shoot from a slight wide-angle to a roughly portrait type telephoto. I recently purchased this type of camera for my daughter's 11th birthday, a Fujifilm. About as small as my Moto Razr, it has a 3X zoom, 7.2MP and big bright LCD.

My newest digital camera is a Panasonic, a point and shoot compact that although small enough to fit in my pocket sports a 10X zoom that gives me everything from a true wide-angle to a long telephoto lens.

WHAT DO YOU TEND TO TAKE PICTURES OF AND WHERE?

This is often an overlooked consideration. Do you take a lot of indoor shots? Do you prefer to take pictures of people? How about sporting events? Many popular priced digital cameras today offer features such as Face Recognition and Image Stabilization. Both of these features will help you produce sharp images in low light and fast action situations. The good news is they don't add much significant cost to the camera, but could make a big difference with you satisfaction with your purchase.

STORAGE MEDIA

While most cameras give you an insignificant amount of internal memory to store your images, you're going to need a memory card. This is your "film", so to speak. In the dawn of digital photography you generally had two options, Compact Flash or SmartMedia. Compact Flash is still around. But now you have more options. Sony features Memory Sticks, Olympus features xD cards, there are MMC (Multi-Media Cards and finally SD (Secure Digital) Cards. All are perfectly fine in most situations, but my recommendation is the SD Card. It is the most widely used storage medium, the most versatile and generally the least costly. Since the greatest number of cameras use SD, should you change cameras in the future, the likelihood of being able to use the same cards will reduce your expenses. By the way, even an 8 gigabyte (huge) SD card is about the size of a postage stamp.

THE SAFE BET

While you'll find a wide range of high quality digital cameras from each of a number of manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic and Olympus, if I had to select a single manufacturer that consistently scores in virtually every category of camera, from entry level through professional grade, that manufacturer would have to be Canon. Buying a Canon digital camera is a safe bet. Across the board it is hard to find fault with their offerings. Check out Canon's digital camera line-up:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

I love reading about new cameras. I love reading expert digital camera reviews and digital camera ratings as well as consumer reviews. For me the be all, end all place to do research specifically on Digital Cameras is Digital Camera Review. At this one site you'll find a vast database of cameras available, have access to virtually all professional reviews (from all sources) and finally, real world consumer reviews. As much as I enjoy professional reviews, I often get more out of reading reviews from the people who have purchased cameras and use them regularly.

And while we're talking about consumer reviews, don't forget to check with consumer review sites. It never hurts to see what real people are saying in the real world. Don't you agree?

Finally, when all else fails, you can get in touch with me, Rudi Xeno.

Enjoy yourself out there.