What You Should Know Before Buying a Digital Camera

September 13, 2009

The basic principle with digital cameras is light being focused onto a semiconductor, creating a digital image. Digital cameras have become more and more popular over the years, with digital technology showing great progress and advancement. They are now a key part of the paperless age, with photos now typically being stored on computers rather than printed.

Creativity is highly personal, and it is what drives photography. When planning to get a digital camera, talk to those you know who own one. Extensive information is available on the Internet, so that you don’t make your purchase blindly.

Certain features are invaluable for different types of photography. A large zoom lens is great when taking pictures of the great outdoors. Children move fast, so when taking photos of kids in action you’ll want a fast response time. For indoor photography with people in set poses, you’ll want a model that is good in dim light.

For digital cameras, you’ve got the Point-and-Shoot and the Digital SLR. If you’re a novice stick a simple model that’s well-rounded – resist the temptation to splurge your money on a super-advanced camera, because you’ll be paying for a lot that you’ll never use. By the time you learn to use it, you’ll probably be wanting another camera with even more cool features.

Point-and-Shoot Cameras

Beginners will like the point-and-shoot. It lives up to its name as most settings are automatic, and will adjust itself for you based on the environment and lighting. Customization can still be available as many cameras offer presets for environments like sunny, outdoors, indoors, etc.

Use automatic settings when you want the light sensitivity (ISO) and focal length calculated for you. Read around to find which cameras are best at this.

The compact camera can offer solid features as well as small size, including image stabilization and blur reduction. Some even have face detection. You should also be able to find many compact cameras that offer a large, easy to use LCD screen.

Digital zoom technology crops images and then enlarges them. This can affect image quality and clarity. Optical zoom cameras can give more natural looking images, as they adjust the lens physically. Beginners don’t necessarily need optical zoom unless they take pictures of distant landscapes, or perhaps tiny things like insects and leaves.

The Single Lens Reflex (Digital SLR) Camera

Digital SLR cameras are for advanced users – those who want to manage and control what the camera does, rather than just point and shoot. SLRs can offer interchangeable lenses, and have a myriad of manual controls. Many settings can still be automatic, but an SLR is best for those who want hands-on control instead of automatic settings.

After you’ve selected the camera you want, perform a price check to make sure you get a bargain.