What You Need to Know Before Buying a Digital Camera

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What You Need to Know Before Buying a Digital Camera

19 September 2009 No Comment

The basic principle with digital cameras is light being focused onto a semiconductor, creating a digital image. Digital cameras have become more and more popular over the years, with digital technology showing great progress and advancement. They are now a key part of the paperless age, with photos now typically being stored on computers rather than printed.

Creativity is highly personal, and it is what drives photography. When planning to get a digital camera, talk to those you know who own one. Extensive information is available on the Internet, so that you don't make your purchase blindly.

There are certain features that are especially useful for certain types of photographers. Nature lovers will find a large zoom lens to come in handy when taking pictures in the outdoors. Anyone who wants to shoot photos of children should look for fast response times, because they move quickly and you don't want blurs. Models that take good pictures in dim light will be helpful when taking photos where friends and family are in set poses.

Novices should stick with a basic well-rounded model until you learn more about taking digital photos. A more advanced model will do you little good, and by the time you'll learn it well there might be tempting new technologies available. There are two primary types of digital cameras - the Point-and-Shoot, and the Digital SLR.

The Point-and-Shoot

The Point-and-Shoot is the camera for beginners. Many of the settings are automatic, and the camera can adjust to many different environments and lighting. Some cameras come with scene modes, which have predetermined settings for modes such as Outdoors, Indoors, Sunlight, and Snow.

Use automatic settings when you want the light sensitivity (ISO) and focal length calculated for you. Read around to find which cameras are best at this.

Compact cameras are slim and can be small enough to easily fit in your pocket. Most offer wide-angle and zoom lenses, as well as features like blur reduction and image stabilization. You can find cameras with large LCD displays despite the compactness of the camera.

For distant subjects, check out Optical Zoom cameras. They capture small details, and can crop a scene easily. Optical Zooms have a feature where the camera lens is physically adjusted to improve image quality, with a natural-looking image. Digital Zoom crops the image and then enlarges it to fill the frame - this affects the quality and clarity of the image. Cropping can also be done easily on your PC.

The Single Lens Reflex (Digital SLR) Camera

Digital SLR cameras are for advanced users - those who want to manage and control what the camera does, rather than just point and shoot. SLRs can offer interchangeable lenses, and have a myriad of manual controls. Many settings can still be automatic, but an SLR is best for those who want hands-on control instead of automatic settings.

The author, Daniel Henderlei, offers a digital camera price comparison site where you can get the best deals.