How To Choose a Digital Camera

The first thing to do is to determine how much you are willing to spend on your camera. You will more than likely find what you are looking for within almost any budget minus certain features, of course.

The hardest decision to make is that of the resolution to choose. A digital photograph is made up of thousands of pixels (little squares); the more pixels per inch, the better quality the photograph. A megapixel is the term used for a million pixels - and the more megapixels an imaging sensor has, the higher the camera's potential resolution. Your budget will be a consideration when choosing the resolution of your camera. Generally, the more you spend the higher resolution camera you can buy.

After considering cost and resolution, exposure control is the next big decision when purchasing a digital camera. Exposure values (and meter modes) may seem a little intimidating, but you can pretty much assume you'll have the basic assortment of meter modes. Most extended zoom cameras offer full exposure controls, so you can customize settings to fit your preferences. These modes help the camera determine the correct exposure (or best compromise) for tricky compositions, such as a backlit subject.

The next item to consider is the type of media card your camera will use. Media Cards are (in most cameras) the storage or memory card that holds the images until they are loaded onto your computer. Those that use proprietary card formats are often more expensive and less available than more standard card types such as Compact Flash or SD/MMD cards. If your digital camcorder and PDA all use the Secure Digital memory card, this may be a major deciding factor when purchasing a digital camera. Why buy a digital camera with a different format when you can switch the card with electronics you already own? When considering memory cards, you should buy the largest capacity you can afford: the higher capacity cards, while expensive, are cheaper than buying two cards of the next-lower capacity.

If you are a frequent shooter and your camera takes AAA batteries, you will blow through them. Digital cameras use a lot of power, so get rechargeable batteries. Finally, you'll definitely want to buy a battery charger and a couple of sets of batteries to go with it.

The basics of choosing a digital camera are to know your budget, know what type of pictures you want to take and how you intend to use the pictures. Consider the type of memory card your new camera will use and the type of battery. If you follow these simple rules you should have a much more pleasant buying experience.

Just like with normal film cameras, there are different types of digital cameras which you can buy. What exactly you buy though depends entirely on your preference. Finding the best rated digital camera will involve some degree of knowledge about digital photography, as well as an understanding of what it is that you plan on doing with your camera. A simple digital camera buyers guide may not provide you with the whole picture, no pun intended.

If you're only a family-holiday kind of photographer you might want to stay away from the more expensive professional cameras. Whereas if you're a budding photographer who has only now seen the light through the lens, so to speak, you might want to go in for something that's not top of the line in terms of equipment, but something that will instead help you in your endeavors.

If you're a professional photographer then you probably don't need my input into which type of cameras you should get. On the other hand, the budding, novice photographer might find it interesting to know that when they get to a stage where they feel comfortable enough with their photography skills, they can then move on to the top of the range professional cameras.

What I tried to do here though is to give you some insight into the different types of cameras available. It's up to you to take it from there and do more research into the various different makes of cameras and their pros and their cons.

Before you wonder why I'm not giving you any detailed specifications on any of the existing cameras, it's for the very simple reason that by the time you're reading this, the cameras I'm talking to you about might not be the best on the market. Technology is a forever changing thing and what's new today, will almost definitely be old hat three days from now.

Compact

I still remember the first compact camera I had. My dad gave it to me for my fourteenth birthday, and I have to say that it was the pride and joy of my life - for exactly five months. After that I have no idea what happened to it, and frankly I have to say at that time I wasn't really all that bothered about it either.

The joys of photography still hadn't caught my attention and there were more interesting things for me to do at the time. However, it must also be said that when I finally did gain more than an average interest in photography, the first camera that I went out and bought was a compact.

And a more worthwhile purchase I have never made. Since for all intents and purposes I was very much an amateur in the photography field (my first camera at age fourteen notwithstanding), I was able to experiment and fiddle around as much as I wanted to.

And since at that time I wasn't yet into the expenses of positive films, and since negative film rolls were generally inexpensive, I was able to pretty much do what I wanted. The only restriction that I had, if at all, was the cost of developing the film, which I solved by creating my own darkroom and developing the negatives myself.

However that may be, you'll be glad to know that the compact camera is probably the best camera for when you're starting out.

And since nowadays you're more likely to go for the compact digital camera, your life just got considerably easier, and your photography just became considerably more enhanced. You know that you don't have the expenses of processing to contend with, and with the ease of digital, if you're still very much a novice then you can learn your way quickly and easily through photography 101.

SLR - Single Lens Reflex

These are the cameras that professionals go for, but don't limit yourself thinking that only professionals can use these properly. There's no such thing; anyone can use them as long as they can point and shoot.

Things get slightly more complicated as you go further in depth into photography, but don't let that stop you. If you're interested in photography at all and are considering taking it up seriously as a hobby or a profession, then I would suggest that you shop around and find the right digital SLR for you.

Start as you mean to go on and you should be fine. Admittedly you might be stuck on the auto meter button for a while, but you will eventually get over that problem and will find yourself using the many functions offered to you by the digital SLR, with ease.