How to Buy a Digital Camera
Within the last decade, digital cameras have enjoyed wonderful developments. Like cell phones, digital cameras are now part of people’s ordinary life. There are always new digital camera models becoming available from various manufacturers, which, while providing great options, could create certain confusions for the consumers.
I’m not attempting to go through all the different features on a digital camera or tell you which models are best – I believe this is the matter of personal preference, however, I do think there are several questions and basic factors that consumers should keep in mind when searching for digital cameras or making the decision on which digital camera is best for you.
1. Determine what you really need a digital camera for
A fairly common mistake I see some digital camera buyers could make is they picked cameras that are beyond what they really need. I would recommend a camera buyer to ask yourself some questions even before shopping online or going to an electronic store.
What do you buy the digital camera for?
What type of photography, such as landscapes, sports, macros or portraits, are you planning to take?
Will you largely take pictures under the conditions or indoors, outdoors, low light or bright light?
Will you remain at the amateur level of photographing and mainly stay in auto mode or plan to use the camera to learn the art of photography?
What experience level do you have with digital cameras?
What features are you looking for, such as image stabilization, long zoom, large LCD display, editing function etc?
Are size and portability of the digital camera important to you?
What is your budget, or a price range?
Asking yourself these questions before hand will put yourself in a better position to make a decision when you see what’s on offer. Perhaps, sales people in store will asks you these questions anyway, so having thought about them will help them assist you to get the right digital camera.
2. Keep in mind all those extras or accessories
You should keep in mind as you look at digital cameras that the price quoted may not include everything you need in order to use a camera properly. There are a variety of other extras, or accessories, that you might want or even need, including camera case, flash memory cards, spare batteries, extra lenses for DSLR, filters, tripods or monopods, external flashes, reflectors and more.
Many stores bundle some extras with their digital cameras, or give discounts when you buy more than one item at the same time. But what they offer in bundles might not meet you actual needs. For example, it’s now fairly common to get a 256 or 512 megabyte memory card with cameras, however, you’ll probably want something like 2 gigabytes. Memory sticks are so cheap now. It doesn’t make whole lot of sense to use small sizes. Nevertheless, you don’t want to use extra large sizes, either, as it would take forever to transfer your data and you could be out of luck if a memory stick becomes defective.
3. Take advantages of any potentially compatible accessories you have already owned
If you have owned digital cameras with certain useful accessories before, you may to consider to buy a new camera that are compatible with them. That’s one way to save yourself some cash. Examples of those accessories include memory cards, batteries, lenses – please remember that many film camera lenses are actually compatible with digital SLRs from the same manufacturers, flashes, filters etc.
4. Keep in mind that megapixels are NOT everything
One of the important features that you always see in advertisements of selling digital cameras is how many megapixels a digital camera has.
When I first got into digital photography many years ago, I actually paid a great deal of attentions to the megapixel rating of cameras. But at that time, most cameras were at the lower end due to high costs. Even an one megapixel increase would make a significant difference. At the present time when most new digital cameras coming with a minimum of 5 megapixels, that spec is no longer crucial. As a matter of the fact, at the higher end of the range, using excessive megapixels to shoot pictures could actually be a disadvantage so their file sizes are going to be so large that taking up enormous amounts of storage spaces on memory cards and computers.
I think one main question you may to ask yourself is: will you printing shots regularly? And if so, how large the prints you would expect? If you are only printing images at a normal size like 6×4 or 8×6, anything over 4 or 6 megapixels will suffice. On the other hand, If you’re going to start blowing your images up, you might want to spend extra money for a digital camera featuring high megapixels.
5. Optical zooms are KING – optical zoom vs. digital zoom
Please remember not all zooms are produced equal. When looking at different models of digital cameras you may often hear their zooms termed in two ways, i.e., optical zoom vs. digital zoom.
I would highly suggest you only take “optical zoom” into consideration in making a decision about which camera to buy. Digital zooms simply enlarge the pixels in your shot to make your subject look bigger, but at the same time it also makes pictures look more pixilated or in other words, “noisier”, just like when you watch TV in a close distance. If you’re considering zoom lens, please make sure they are optical zooms. The modern cameras now have zooms of up to 32x in length although I think 8-12x zooms are sufficient for the average users. Those zooms are capable of making your subject 8-12 times as big.
6. Understand differences between DSLR and Point & Shoot
Although digital SLRs are getting more and more affordable, they are not intended for use by everyone. Keep in mind that they are usually bigger, heavier, harder to keep clean while changing lenses and can be more complicated to operate than “point and shoot” version. Of course a DSLR has some upsides too. In general, my preference in terms of quality of shots is with the DSLR, but for convenience the point and shoot certainly wins out. So, if your main purpose of using a digital camera is to shoot professional photo, you may want to consider a DSLR. Otherwise, stay with a “point and shoot” digital camera.
7. Read dated reviews on the digital cameras of your interest
Before buying a digital camera, it would be wise to take some time to do a little research. Don’t merely rely on the advice of the sales person who have assisted you. Sales persons may or may not know anything about cameras and may or may not have sales incentives for the camera they are recommending. Reading reviews in digital camera magazines or related websites could help you to narrow down the options. There are some great websites around, such bas CNET, that provide expert and user reviews on virtually every camera on the market – use those wonderful and free resources.
8. Hands On Experience
Shooting photos is an enjoyable activity. So, how you actually feel about a digital camera is important and could be critical. Once you’ve narrowed down your search to several models, I would suggest you to go to a local digital camera store to put your hands one them. There’s nothing like having the camera in your hands to work out whether it suits your needs.