Before You Buy a Digital Camera

 Before you buy a digital camera there are a few things that you need to consider. In today’s market there are many choices and price ranges available. The one you choose should be determined by what the camera is going to be used for and who is going to be using it.

Many models are loaded with features and settings that may confuse, overwhelm and frustrate someone who really just wants to snap a quick shot of a birthday cake. Keep in mind that most people over 40 grew up with a Kodak Instamatic in their pocket. It was the forerunner of today’s point and shoot digital camera.

 So if you are purchasing it as a gift you may need to ask yourself just how many features that person is really going to need or want.

If you are going to buy a digital camera is just to take some quick shots to post on Facebook then most any point and shoot on the market today will handle the job easily. However if the purpose is to make nice big prints or if you fancy yourself a bit of an artist then you will have to think a little harder about the equipment that is right for you.

One of the biggest things people forget about when they buy a digital camera is battery life. With built in automatic flashes and large LCD screens batteries can be drained very quickly. The power supply of many is just a few standard double or triple A batteries. In this case rechargeable batteries and a good charger will be a wise additional investment.

One of the easiest ways to extend battery life is to limit the usage of the LCD screen when taking pictures. This can be done by using the viewfinder instead of the LCD screen when composing your shot. When you buy a digital camera it would be wise to choose one with a good workable viewfinder because using it can more than double your battery life.

One of the things that most people are influenced by when they buy a digital camera is the number of megapixels the camera has. The camera industry has taken a lesson from the computer industry in this marketing technique. They have us all believing that more is better. And, if you are going to be printing out poster size images to hang on your wall then you may need all the megapixels that are offered today, but the fact is most people really do not.

The information contained on this site will help you make the best choice and help you to buy a digital camera.

Buy a Digital Camera based on Megapixels??? Why???

The problem faced by the camera companies is that they need keep selling new cameras in order to stay in business. To do this they have had to come up with a plan to make the consumer believe that they need the new cameras. So the Megapixel has become the chosen base for their sales promotions.

Now before you buy a digital camera lets take a look at what a megapixel really is and how it relates to the quality of a photograph. First a pixel is a small square of color in your photograph. A megapixel is 1 million of these small squares of color that are put together in a mosaic to create a part of your picture.

The resolution of the picture is determined by how many of these small squares of color are packed together in a small space.

If the picture is going to be used on the Internet or sent in a email a much lower resolution is required then a picture that is going to be printed.

In truth a high quality 5×7 print only requires a 4 megapixel camera. If shooting for a high quality 8×10 print then 6 megapixls are required. If shooting for high quality 13×17 or larger prints a 10 megapixel or higher camera will be needed.

One thing that must be considered when you buy a digital camera is that even though the capability to print a high quality 20×30 print with a 14 or 15 megapixel camera is available. The printing equipment to do so is pretty expensive. Right around a thousand dollars just for a printer.

Keep in mind that there are times when it is nice to have extra megapixels to work with. When cropping a picture for instance, having more pixels per square inch allows for more aggressive cropping without losing much picture quality. However, it must also be kept in mind that higher megapixels make larger files. Storage capacity may become an issue when shooting in higher resolutions.

Most cameras offer different storage options for the same resolution. This means that they can store more or less photos in memory. What this really does is adjust the number of pixels to a certain file size. More less quality pictures can be stored than high quality pictures on a memory card. When selecting the type of storage the decision is either to keep or throw away pixels to fit a file size. Once the pixels are thrown away they cannot be restored. In order to keep the best quality photos additional memory cards should always be kept on hand.

Remember when you buy a digital camera that more megapixels isn’t necessarily better. More megapixels means that each photo will have a larger file. This uses up more space on memory cards and computer hard drives. It does however offer better quality and flexibility when it comes to editing and allows for larger quality prints.

Buy a Digital Camera With Some Zoom Power

When a person goes out to buy a digital camera these days it is good to know the difference between optical and digital zoom. Back in the good old days of film cameras there was only one type of zoom which of course was optical. Many argue today that optical is still the only real type of zoom.

What’s the big difference? Optical zoom uses the lens of the camera to bring the object closer. This is done by adjusting movable glass elements inside the lens to project rays of light onto the digital cameras sensor. The distance from the adjusted glass element to the sensor is called the focal length. By increasing or decreasing the focal length the subject will appear larger or smaller. When “zooming” both the view distance and the field of view change. With an optical zoom the pixel count remains the same as the subject is magnified. An optical zoom will always produce a superior image to a digital zoom.

This is true because what a digital zoom does is just enlarge a portion of the image. This is done by cropping the image then enlarging it back to the same size. The problem is that when it is enlarged back to the same size there has to be a bunch of pixels added to the image in order to make the now cropped picture larger. These pixels are filled in according to the colors in the pixels around them. This results in a loss of image quality.

The same results can be accomplished with image editing software. Which is a better choice than using digital zoom because the original image and all of its pixels can be saved. If you use digital zoom when taking the picture the image quality is irreversibly gone forever when the image is saved as a digitally zoomed image.

When preparing to buy a digital camera as far as zoom is concerned there is only one consideration and that is the amount of optical zoom the camera has. Beware of camera propaganda that tries to advertise total zoom. Some companies advertise what they call total zoom by multiplying the optical zoom power by the digital zoom power. A camera with only 2x optical zoom and 15x digital zoom is advertised as a camera with 30x total zoom. Buyer Beware!!!

When you buy a digital camera keep in mind what the camera is going to be used for. If it will be used mostly for taking family photos then zoom is not all that important. If fact in that case a camera with wide angle lens capabilities would be a better choice than a camera with large zoom power. If the camera is going to be used for vacation photos of scenery then the zoom power becomes more important. There are some cameras available today that bring the best of both worlds by using a combination wide angle/zoom lens.