Guidelines to choose a camera

When purchasing a digital camera, a trip down to the local camera shop will bring you a wide selection of the cameras to choose from. You are spoilt by the number of models available on the shop and you do not know what you want to get. Some common questions were be “which brand is good?”, “how does this model different from that model?”, “what are the freebie if I purchased this?” and so on. This is time consuming because you have spent so much of your time asking questions and playing around the camera. Some dishonest vendors who wanted to earn your money might give you false information about the camera specifications and will lead to think this camera is superior thus you purchased it. But what if the camera you purchased isn’t exactly what you are looking for? Then you have wasted money on something that you don’t probably need. This article aims to provide some guidelines to people who want to buy digital camera. Nowadays, digital cameras are packed with similar features that are difficult to differentiate, you may want to use this guide to zoom down on the models you are interested in and do a research on them. Look here for some terms used so as to get yourself familiarise with before heading down the camera shop.

What do I intend to get a camera for?

This is the first question that you ask yourself before proceeding. If you are one of those newbie who wish to get a camera for some basic shoot, you may wish to look for a basic camera which offer the minimum specification such as 3X zoom, slim and compact design, long battery life, etc. Likewise if you are serious shooters, then getting a high end model or DSLR that offer you complete controls on the camera functions.

What’s my Budget?
One of the questions you should ask is how much are you willing to buy a camera. Prices of the camera can range from $200 for a simple point and shoot camera to $5000 for a professional DSLR camera. In deciding the budget, you can try to determine your needs first and set aside the maximum amount that you are to buy or set aside your budget first before exploring other specifications that will fit in your need.

How much megapixels I need?
Most digital cameras nowadays come with 10 – 12megapixels.Usually most casual shooters develop pictures of size 4 X 6” for keepsake and that requires a minimum of 2 megapixels. Unless you need to print large poster, you do not need a high megapixels. There is also an advantage of getting high megapixels. You can crop away unnecessary stuff in the picture and still get a good quality picture but the downside is you will need to get a large size memory card to store them.

Design and specification

When you are looking for design, what will you look for? Most manufacturers offer a lot of series in their cameras. They have ultraportable cameras that are slim and compact to cameras packed with features like super zoom and manual settings (Shutter priority, Aperture Priority, Manual, Program and other preset shooting scene, etc) and often it will have a huge body to accommodate them. There are also different choices of colour to choose from to suit your personality as well.

Battery life is another important element that you need to know. You do not want to miss a critical and precious moment and find out later that your camera battery is flat. Always ask for the battery lifespan. It is usually given in how many shots can be taken or how long the camera lasts. Most manufacturers have included a large LCD screen. LCD screen nowadays has a lot of functions. Other than providing the users to view pictures and compose shots, it also features touchscreen design which allows user to select function thus eliminating buttons on the camera.

An example of such camera is the Sony DSC-T900/R. Such touchscreen design comes with additional cost. If you find that you don't need, then spend your money on other features.

Most compact cameras come with integrated small zoom len. I would recommend to look at the camera focal length instead of zoom as it can be quite misleading. Because different manufacturers manufacture cameras of different focal length thus to calculate zoom, the smallest focal length will be used to divide the largest focal length. For a guide, most compact cameras feature a 3X optical zoom whereas the most serious one feature 10x or more or an interchangeable len.

There are a number of models that offer different preset shooting scenes such as portrait, landscape, night, auto, etc. Look out for them as it comes in handy especially when you are learning photography. Other specifications such as exposure compensation, red eyes reduction system may also come together with the cameras.

Media used

It is important to take note what type of memory card that your camera is using. Small compact camera uses a small memory card such as SD card, xD card or memorystick (for Sony camera). Bear in mind that even within the card itself, there are a lot of variant such as SDHC, micro SD, mini SD for SD card. Large camera typically uses compact flash or memory stick (for Sony camera). So get the right type of memory card if you need more. I would not advise to get a high speed card as there is a limitation on how the camera records the image. Spend more on the size of the storage of the memory card rather than the speed of memory card.

Additional camera features

Most cameras come with a lot of additional features. Features such as face detection which allows you to take group shot with better details and clarity, blink detection which serves as a warning system to tell user that the subject’s eyes are blinking and noise reduction features which will reduce the noise level as you set to high ISO. If you are those who ventured scuba diving, you can try to get a camera with water proof protection such Olympus μ Tough series camera. It would be advisable to look for a camera that has image stabiliser capability as this is very useful when you want to take pictures at low light and also compact camera being small and light, has a high chance of handshaking. Cameras that come with high ISO are also useful as it can help to combat handshake. A HD movie is also useful when you want to take high quality video and with a video editing software, you will be able to share with your friends and relative high definition video.

Review from the Internet

Always look through a number of reviews on the camera that you are interested in. Why is there a need to read so much? Because certain reviews tend to be biased or provide incomplete picture of the camera, it is important to read through them to get more information about the camera you are interested in before purchasing. If you find that the reviews on particular camera are unavailable, try accessing the forum to see if there is any member who have purchased and tried the camera. This will give you a rough idea on the camera’ performance.

Always buy from reputable vendors

Like what I have mentioned earlier, some vendors may try to cheat your money by promoting camera that will not suit your needs or mislead you. A good camera shop will guide you on the selection process like the budget that you set aside, your needs and a proper explanation on camera specification.

Conclusion

Buying a camera can be a time consuming process. A lot of research needs to be done before deciding on the model that you want to buy. However, if you follow the guide well, you can shorten your process and you can decide quickly as to which camera you want to buy.