What factors to consider before buying a digital camera for amateur use, in the price range of US $ 350-450.?

what is the difference between a digital & an optical zoom lense. What maximum multiplier of an optical zoom lense available now.

Lens quality is the single most important issue when purchasing a camera, film or digital. The light going through the lens is basically infinite resolution, (pixels). Using an optical zoom makes the lens do the magnifying and still maintains that infinite resolution. Digital zoom enlarges the central portion of the image electronically and almost always looks like crap. I have three Kodak Easy-Share cameras and they all have GLASS lens' made in Germany. It's pretty hard to beat German Optics. The Kodak camera give me excellent photographs on almost every shot, faster and easier than my $2000 Nikon film camera.

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It's ALL about the optics. Megapixels are only one measurement. Getting a camera with a good lens will make all the difference. Canon, Nikon and Sony are known for having good lenses.

Digital zoom is definitely bad. Optical zoom means the lens is doing the work. Digital zoom means the software is just using the existing image data and expanding it. Expect a zoom of 10x or 20x for that price range.

pansonic is the the best i think look for the mini dv model with sd card capablitilys and at less a 700 digital zoom

the megapixel shud b high at least 7. The zoom should b optical not digital ....

digital zooms dont zoom actaully ... they just increase the size of the pixels therby distorting the image ..... if a camera says its 3x optical zoom then that means thats the amount of zoom that can be done without distorting the image ..

other thing u wanna take notice of is the type of battery it uses ... n its form of recharing ... i prefer the AAA version coz i can recharge it all time n dont use it often... but if u use it often then u mite wanna go for a lithium battery thats charged while the battery stays in the camera...

lastly smaller cameras use a DUO memory card which is smaller n more expensive whereas bigger ones use a SD card .. u will need a memory card for sure so budget for that as well.... with gud deals u can get 1GB for about $30-$50 if u look in the right place

stick with canon i wud say .... there r some really gud deals most of the times

i love my sony dsc t5 they have a newer version now with higher mega pixel and more correcting for shaky hands. the casio 500 model is also nice. in your price range you will get at least a 5 mega pixel and may find up to a 7. places like best buy and circuit city have them set up so you can actually turn them on and lookthrough to see the quality of the camera. many like the two i mentioned do video and stills and have adjustments for stills so it has almost the versatility of a slr. the nice thing with looking at a retailer is the amount of use they get , i found it a good indicator how they will hold up over time.