Tips for buying a Digital Camera

rossphotography — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 09:52:54 GMT

To anyone who is in the process of buying a new digital camera I thought that I would provide you with some advice on selecting the right type of model. I have over 6 years of experience as a photographer and have also worked in the photographic retail industry for over 2 and a half years, so I am qualified to provide you with some advice.

Resolution:
You will read a lot about the size resolution (Megapixel) of a camera, do not fall into the trap of thinking you need the biggest. What you need to think about is the REALISTIC output of the images, i.e. How big you will realistically be printing the photos out? For the average person they will never print any bigger than A3 size pictures. Listed below is a summary of what you can expect from different resolutions:
1.0 Megapixel: Perfect for up to 6"x4" prints
2.0 Megapixel: Perfect for up to 6"x8" prints
3.0 Megapixel: Perfect for up to 8"x12" prints (A4)
4.0 Megapixel: Perfect for up to 10"x15" Prints (A3)
5.0 Megapixel: Perfect for over 10"x15" Prints.
I suggest you think about the usage of your images and make your selection based on that.

Zoom:
With Digital Cameras you will hear about two types of zoom, Optical Zoom and Digital Zoom. The digital zoom is your camera digitally zooming into the picture, which is basically the camera cropping into the image. This has a negative effect on your picture quality as it is cutting into the megapixel. If you have a camera and intend on using the digital zoom, you will need to insure that you have a larger megapixel.
The Optical Zoom is the better of the two options, it is the cameras lens actually zooming into the picture. This has no negative effect on the quality of the image. There are three major sizes of optical zoom:
3x Optical Zoom (38-80mm) this has the effect of zooming in to slightly larger than the size the eye sees.
10x Optical Zoom (38-300mm) this will significantly zoom the image up larger than what you can see.
12x Optical Zoom (38-420mm) further again.
Again the choice of zoom is a person choice dependant on the type of camera you want and the intended usage. However I would make the suggestion to all people that you stay away from Digital Zoom only cameras, as this is quite restricitive.
The other thing to take not of is that the bigger the zoom the bigger the camera, so take that in mind when making your selection, obviously if you want a small camera don't select a large zoom.

Battery Power:
This is the third most important thing to consider when selecting your camera. Their are two main types of power for digital cameras:
AA Batteries & Li-Ion Batteries. Each one has their pro's and con's:
AA Batteries - are the easiest form of power available for your camera. Many cameras take them and they can be purchased anywhere. The important factor however is that you MUST use AA ALKALINE batteries, anything else will simply either not work, or will create problems. If your spending money on the camera dont skimp on the batteries, what I would suggest is purchasing a set of AA NIMH rechargeable batteries, this is the best option, many even have a 12V Car Charger. Also a number of cameras come with a NIMH charger. The downside is that the AA batteries have a limited number of shots with about 100-300 being the most out of a set.
LI-Ion Batteries: These are a specific type of battery that suits the camera and has its own charger. They typically are only a 240V charge as such don't come with Car Charger. The important thing with Li-Ion is that they are a longer life battery with a shooting cycle of up to 1200 shots in some cameras. The downside of the Li-Ion battery is that when it runs out you need to find a 240V source to repower it, this can be quite a problem if your on holidays and not near power.

Again there is no single best answer with batteries as it is very much usage dependant, personally I have been using both over the past two years and the Li-Ion hasn't skipped a beat, however I know that the batteries have a maximum life span of no more than about 12-24 months so I will have to spend the $100 to replace it soon, thats just something you need to accept.

Memory Cards:
This is the most important aspect of your camera as its the sole thing storing your images, you need to think about the selection very carefully before you make it. A typical digital image is approximately 1-4MB depending on resolution therefore you need to consider your usage to determine how much you would need. I would suggest nothing less than 128MB in order to get a good days worth of shooting (remember you will take more photos with a digital than you did with a film camera). I use a 512MB card to allow me to get 200-300 photos, that is quite a lot of photos and I know that I can shoot without having to worry too much about running out.

There are many different types of memory available but in essence they all do the same job, they really dont make any difference until you start looking at using them in high resolution pro cameras (not consumer cameras).

The most important tip I can offer with regards to your memory cards is to remember to FORMAT the cards every couple of downloads, this cleans the memory and helps to prevent any card errors. There is nothing worse than having a once-in-a-lifetime holiday and finding that your card has a read error because you didn't format it before use. Thankfully there is software that can recover a card, but as they say prevention is better than a cure, and also you don't want to pin your hopes on a piece of software because it doesn't work every time.

I hope that this imformation has helped you to make your selection of digital camera, because you can't always beleive the information given to you buy less than reputable retailers or sellers. Always trust a specialist never sacrifise price for quality information. Just because someone is offering a product at a cheaper price doesnt mean you should buy it, Price is only one part of a good purchase, you need to know that you can get good after purchase information and a friendly fae to be able to help you when it all gets too hard.

Thank you.

Ross...

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