| Brief Guide to buying a digital camera |
| Going digital? |
| Thinking of buying a digital camera? Then, there are a few things that you might consider in making your choice from the hundreds of cameras out there on the high street or on the world wide web. |
| How does it feel? |
| One of the most important things is that the camera feels right for you. Most of the cameras available have many sophisticated features and are technological wonders. However, it is important that the camera you buy is the one that suits you best. So, it is a generally a good idea to at least hold and feel a camera before buying it. In making some of the cameras small, the controls on some have become rather 'fiddly' to use. A trip to one of the high street specialist stores might be a good starting place to get the feel of some different makes and models of cameras. |
| What will I use it for? |
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Are you using it for snaps of friends and family or do you have some other uses in mind, perhaps connected to work, such as creating a web site. Do you want to print your 'snaps' or images? If so, how big do you want them to be? You need to look to see what size of images the camera produces. One way of checking on this is to see how many mega pixels the camera has. Generally speaking, the more mega pixels (MP) the better and the higher the quality of the image that you can produce / print from the camera. But pixels cost pennies.
Nearly all the cameras available nowadays are three mega pixels or more, which mean that if you select high resolution images from the menu, then you will be able to print decent 'normal sized' photos from your camera. A camera with 3 to 5 MP will serve for most purposes, including producing photos for newsletters and similar publications. If you want a high quality image for a magazine or for publicity purposes, then you might wish to invest in a few more pixels! If you want to use your camera for taking close up photographs of things like coins, stamps or flowers then you should look to see if it has a macro facility. This means you will be able to use to take pictures very close indeed, normal lenses will focus to within 10 or twelve inches but if you want to get closer than that you will need the macro facility.. |
| What type of batteries should I choose? |
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Digital cameras are brilliant in many ways; however, they are powered by batteries. Some cameras seem to 'eat' batteries: so it is a good idea to look to see what sort of batteries are used and how long they last when the camera is being used under 'normal conditions'. Many cameras work with normal AA batteries or their rechargeable equivalents. If the camera works on this type of battery, it is probably a good idea to buy a spare set of rechargeable batteries and a kit for recharging them. This way, you can have one set in the camera and another set being recharged ready for use.
Other cameras come with what are called lithium ion batteries and a charging kit. These have the advantage that they tend to last longer than AA batteries, but you lose the flexibility of being able to buy them anywhere (should your camera suddenly run out of energy!). If the camera comes with this type of battery, it might be worth considering buying a spare (on the same principle as above; one in the camera, one recharging). Whatever type of battery your camera uses, you can 'prolong' its life by reducing the time that you use the LCD (liquid crystal display) screen. This is the screen at the back of the camera that you can use to frame photos before you take them and also view them after shooting. If however, you use the viewfinder on the camera to frame your shot and only use the LCD to check on the photo that you have just taken, then in general your battery life will be considerably longer. |
| What is meant by start up time and shutter lag? |
| Digital cameras are complex electronic packages. When switched on, some of them take a finite and noticeable period of time before they are ready to 'point and shoot'. This can be important if you are likely to be using the camera to try to capture 'unplanned' snaps of children or animals. Similarly, there is something called shutter lag. This is the delay between pressing the shutter and the picture actually being taken. Again, this can be very important if you are trying to capture something on camera; certainly if something is moving very fast (like a car or a runner) then you may find that your camera has missed the very thing you wished to capture! There are a number of very useful web sites which give information on shutter lag etc but again it is a good idea to try the camera for yourself in a store, as using a camera is very much a matter of personal preference. |
| What type of zoom does the camera have? |
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A zoom lens is one which moves in and out so that the camera can move from taking a broad landscape type picture to a 'head and shoulder' portrait (without you moving an inch). There are two types of zoom to be found on digital cameras, optical zoom and digital zoom. Generally speaking, optical zoom offers quality by changing the focal length of the lens in the camera - the lens actually moves position. Most camera offer 3X optical zoom, though some offer 5 or more!
Digital zoom on the other hand is achieved by computer software processes within the camera. Basically, it takes a part of the image and enlarges it. This does not add to quality of the image, rather the opposite. However, it can be a useful feature on occasions when you need a little extra bit of telephoto! |
| Can you change 'film speed'? |
| In an 'old type' of camera, you could change the film according to the weather or type of picture that you wanted to take. Thus, some films were described as slow, others fast etc. With a digital camera, you can achieve the same result (in most cases) by changing a setting on the menu - the ISO sensitivity. ISO values on a digital camera generally range from about 50 to 400. An ISO setting of 50 is often selected when the light is good and an image rich in detail is required. A higher setting is used when you are trying to take an action shot (with a high shutter speed) or when the light is not so good. Some digital cameras offer ISO settings from 50 to 1600. So, if you are keen on photographing amateur dramatic without using flash, then you might want to look for a camera that offers a high ISO setting. |
| What type of film or rather memory? |
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Just as cameras used to capture and store their images of film, so digital cameras store their images to a memory card. Most cameras come with a memory card (often one with 16 MB or 32 MB of memory). However, once you start clicking, you will be surprised how quickly the card fills up so it is a good idea to have a 'bigger' card which allows you to stored some 50 or 100 high quality images; something with 128 or 256 MB of memory would do. One thing that you can check out is whether or not your computer has a slot for a memory card, and if so, which type of memory card does it take. To a degree it would make sense to get a camera which uses the same type of card that your computer can handle. The advantage of this is that you do not then need to connect the camera to the computer, but merely swap the memory card between the two.
There are a number of different types of card and it is important to know which type of card your camera (and computer) takes and if there is a limit to the amount of memory that it can handle. Some of the most common types of card are compact flash, secure digital, memory sticks and xD picture cards. They sell for different amounts depending on the speed they can handle the information that the camera sends to them. With cameras using compact flash cards, you should know that there are two forms of card :- Type 1 and Type 2. Type 2 cards (which are fatter than Type1) can hold more information, but these cards will not fit all cameras that use compact flash as the card slot is not big enough. |
| Other questions |
| Other facilities that you might wish to look for on your camera might include whether or not you can use it to take to short movies (most can nowadays) and whether or not you can connect it to the television to show off your pictures. |
| Why buy a camera when my phone can take pictures? |
| A mobile phone will take a digital photo, but most are fairly low quality (low resolution) as you will find if you print them. The advantage of a digital camera is that you can take lots of pictures in many different situations. |
| Comments, copyright and linking |
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