What should I look for when buying a good digital camera? I really want good quality crisp photos with nice and bright colours! I was recently told that higher pixels are not the only criteria I should look for and things such as the quality of the pixels are also important. Is that true? Ill list some important features that you can look for while searching for a good digital camera -
1) Optical Zoom - This is to what extent ur camera can actually magnify the object ur peering at, without digitally superimposing any pixels into the image. The greater the zoom, the clearer would be photos of far off objects.
2) Macro mode - This refers to the maximum you can zoom onto a small area, without the cam focus getting hazy. The smaller the macro mode area, the clearer u get snaps of really small things like insects, flowers, etc. This feature is called by different names in different brands.
3) Shutter speed settings - You would require a higher shutter speed to capture very fast moving objects, and vice versa. So you can have a camera that doesnt have any options to change the shutter speed, but it wont have the same picture quality for fast and slow moving objects. Generally cameras that dont have options to change the shutter speed are tuned to capture relatively slower moving objects.
4) Battery life - 1 of the most important features. You can have a camera that supports loads of memory.. but it makes no sense to have that kind of memory if the battery gets exhausted after a few clicks. One tip here - u can stretch it a bit if u switch off the LCD and use the viewfinder. :)
5) Night mode - Some older digicams.. and almost all new ones have this feature. My Panasonic DMC FX-5 does great in this segment. What happens is that once u set ur camera to night mode, the shutter or the eye of the camera remains open for a longer time than usual, so that every single bit of light available is absorbed. Add to it some photo-enhancing software and u have the most breathtaking pics ever !! I'll show u some that i've taken... mailme at navneet_nair@yahoo.com if u wanna view them. But one thing that u need to take care of is that the object should be perfectly still while the shutter remains open, else all of it looks like a ghost trailing behind the main object. Also beware of some brands that promise a good night mode, but dont work that well.
6) Memory support.
7) Ease of use - Inspite of all these features, you should be able to use the camera without referring to the manual everytime you need to use it. It should also be small enough to not be cumbersome to carry around or put into ur purse !
8) Sturdyness - Believe me, I have dropped my camera ONCE (thankfully once once), but it still is as good as it was when i bought it. :)
9) How expensive it is !
Hope this info helped.. just make a list of what u need from ur camera based on the above features and u shud get a great buy ! Just bought a Canon PowerShot A620, pretty cool, very happy with it. It cost me a lot (around $650 Australian dollars) but I think it's worth it. 7.1 Mega Pixels. Report It
Hey ! Thanks for choosing my answer as the best 1 :) And good to know that you were finally able to make a good choice .. congrats .. and happy clicking :)) Report It
zoom, big screen, built in lithium batt. and pretty much size according to what you are comftorable with. Not exactly. Although it is good to have a camera with high pixels (atleast 3 or above) you should also look at the style of the camera. One that is sleek and is pretty easy to use. I would recommend any sonya or cannon one. Although it might cost a little more, you know you are getting the best quality and a little more style :). Canon is a good camra. Look at Zoom and what people recomend. Alot good one out there. I do feel that the higher the megapixels the better, though. Other than that ease of use, value for the money, features, etc. I found that speed is really important!!!
Good luck The megapixel count is important depending on what you want to do with your images.
If your goal is to put some on the net, share with friends, make small (4x6, 5x7) album prints, then there's not really any reason to need more than a 3 megapixel camera. If you think you'd like to make big enlargements, 8x10s, 11x14, building posters, etc, then you'd probably want the biggest amount of megapixels you can afford.
(Even if you plan to mostly do 4x6s but every rare once and a while, print an 8x10 for those special images, you're still fine with a 3-megapixel)
Optical zoom is one thing to look for. Throw out any digital specifications - digital zoom is useles.. But then only if you want it. Do you want to be able to magnify the scene 12x? Would you be happy with 3x? Its sometimes preferable to walk over and physically get close to your subject instead of zooming. But if your dream in life is to take images of animals on safaris, you need as much optical zoom as possible.
Style, well, thats the least of your worries, but true that I would probably not want a camera shaped like a box. The cameras I like tend not to be compact because having tested a couple, they have never met my standards for image quality. I have yet to see otherwise. Something has to be sacrificed for putting a camera in an itty bitty space, and I think its the quality of the image.
Speed settings. Does the camera have a nice range of available apertures (can it open to F2.8), does it have a decent iso range? 100 to 800? But then if you don't want to take images in dark places without flash? Is it all that important.
Most important...for whatever you want to do...how intuitive is the camera?...how easy is the camera for you to use? Go to a store and try out your potentials. Which cameras do you need little instruction to get up and running? take the image? navigate through the menus.
And of course read reviews and ratings on the net, like dpreview, the link I provide.
In short, brands are more or less equal when it comes to the image it provides. If you spend a decent amount for a camera, chances are it has a good lens and is capable of taking pictures. Someone mentioned speed...how fast does the camera turn on and take pictures, I imagibe. Sure, thats very important in digital cameras but the most responsive cameras are the digital SLRs, and that comes at a price. You need to weight in what your priorities are for your shooting needs and must examine what you wish to do with your images in order to pick the best model. |
