Email

Bookmark

Print

Choosing a Digital Camera

Shopping for a digital camera?

Here are some ideas and things to keep in mind.

1. Hold it in your hand. If at all possible, go to Best Buy, CompUSA or your local electronics store and try out the cameras. Hold them like you would to take a picture; check out the viewfinder; try zooming. The way the camera feels in your hand, how the viewfinder looks, how the controls operate is going to be a lot more important in the long run than just about any spec. If you can, get a model with batteries so you can turn it on and see the screen displays, etc. You don't need a salesperson to walk you through all the features - you'll forget them anyway. Just get the feel of it. If it feels awkward or difficult to you, no feature list is going to make up for that.
2. Learn a little lingo. The most important term you'll need to know is megapixel, which refers to how high-resolution a picture the camera can take. The higher the resolution, the bigger you can blow up prints of your pictures, and the more detail each shot can capture. The average consumer-level digital camera these days has about two megapixels of resolution - that means two million little dots of red, green and blue make up that photo of Fluffy with the new cat toy.
3. Don't buy more than you need. For snapshot-level photography, two megapixels (or even 1.3) is plenty. The three megapixel cameras like the Canon G1 are great, but they cost hundreds more than the next step down and they have a lot of features you may never use. It's better to get into digital photography at a price you can afford right now than to save up for a camera that's more than you need.
4. Check the software. If you're not technically savvy, Kodak probably has the best bundled software to make it easier to correct, print and save your digital pictures. Kodak also has models that fit into a cradle like a Palm Pilot, which makes transferring your pictures to your computer easier than ever. This isn't a commercial for Kodak - there are a lot of good camera brands (I'm partial to Canon). But if ease-of-use is most important to you, it's something to think about.
5. Consider storage. The most widely-used storage medium for digital cameras is called Compact Flash, which are little cards that look like large thick postage stamps. Smart Media, used mainly in Olympus cameras, is probably second, followed by Sony's Memory Stick. I personally would stay away from cameras that use oddball storage media like floppy disks and those little CDs - who needs more mechanical parts to break? And the Sony cameras that use floppies can only take lower-resolution pictures, or they wouldn't fit on the floppy. And get the largest storage card you can afford - that means fewer trips to the computer to download.
6. Will you be printing? If you just want to e-mail photos or use them on the web, that eliminates a lot of headaches, and you don't need high resolution in the camera, which could save you money. But many people want to have physical prints, like the ones you get from the drugstore. Here you have two main choices - print them yourself on a computer printer, or use an online photo printing service like Ofoto. Choosing a photo printer is beyond the scope of this article. But they've plummeted in price, and most will give excellent prints. For just occasional prints, uploading to a service like Ofoto may be the easiest course of action.
7. Beware of digital zoom. Some cameras will try to impress you with what appear to be giant zoom lenses. But if it's a digital zoom, that just means the camera throws away all but the center of the image and blows up the rest. You don't get any more detail from that. What you want to look for is the "optical zoom" range. And zoom is overrated in photography anyway - just get closer!
8. Think about the size. If you want to take your camera with you wherever you go, there are some great miniature digital cameras, like the Canon S100. They are small and light enough to have at all times. But in general, just consider the size and weight of the camera - is it so big and heavy that you won't want to take it along on that trip? Then choose a smaller camera.
9. Use resources. Two of the best on the web are Epinions.com and Digital Photography Review. At Epinions you'll get tons of real people's reactions, and at DPR you'll get all the specs and technical reviews you could ever want. And we all know how non-helpful those electronics superstore people can be, don't we? So the web can be invaluable.
10. Don't agonize. Digital camera shopping seems to send people into a frenzy of comparison shopping and lingo spouting. You're not picking out a nuclear reactor - it's just a camera. And it's more important to pick out something that's comfortably within your budget than to spend months wondering if this is the perfect camera. Buy one and really use it. That will be the most important research you do for your next one - if there is a next one.
11. It's not for everyone. If you're happy and familiar with that old point-and-shoot film camera, and especially if you're uncomfortable with computers, there's no reason at all you have to rush out and get a digital camera just because it's all the rage now. They're a lot easier to use than they used to be, but they're still a lot more complicated than dropping that cartridge off at Walgreens.

Used with permission from Adam Blast - http://www.lucky8ball.com