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How to Buy a Digital Camera Guide + Top 10 Cameras
by John Matteson
We’ll assume that you, the reader, are not a professional photographer. Because if you are, you should be on a specialized website. If you are reading this guide, you are most likely an amateur interested in a non-pro camera. But there is still a wide – and often confusing – variety of features to consider, depending on what you need the camera for. Are you looking for something small, cheap and easy to use? Are you a power user shopping for a digital SLR? something in-between? This is intended to be a short, simple, plain-English guide that will not make you an expert but will help you learn the few main considerations in a digital camera purchase decision. If you are in a rush and/or not into reading geeky stuff, just jump to recommendations.
Let’s go over some of digital camera’ jargon and features.
Size
For many, this is the most important consideration. If you want something that you can easily keep in your pocket or handbag, you look for a compact or even ultra-compact camera. Compact cameras typically measure 3.5 to 4" wide, 2 to 2.5" high and 0.7 to 1.2" deep and weigh 4 to 6 oz. If you, on the other hand, want to look like a professional walking around with a big camera hanging off your neck, you want a digital SLR camera (of course, there are much better reasons to buy SLR than looks – we’ll go into them later).
Resolution
A digital image is made up tiny dots called pixels. "Resolution" in digital cameras refers to the size of the digital image the camera produces, and is expressed in "megapixels" or how many million pixels it can record in a single image. For example, a camera that captures 2560 x 1920 pixels produces an image with a resolution of 4.92 million pixels and would be referred to as a 5 megapixel (MP) camera. With the current generation of cameras even the entry level models feature 10-12 MP resolutions, which should produce photo quality on prints up to 20X30". This is sufficient for vast majority of uses. Power users may choose to spend a bit more and go for 14 MP. One thing to remember is that the higher resolution, the larger the storage needed for the picture. Without getting into gory details of bits, storage formats and compressions, a high-resolution image taken with a 10 MP camera will take about 3-4 Mbytes (MB) of storage using typical camera compression.
Zoom
Zoom is, well, ability to zoom in on something. E.g., 3X means the ability to amplify 3 times. Camera descriptions talk about optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom uses the optical lens to "bring" the object closer. It’s the real thing. It is also somewhat expensive because you need a lens with the ability to vary its focal length. Optical zooms used to be exclusive to digital SLR (dSLR) cameras but now they are available on higher-end compact cameras as well, usually 3X, in some compacts 10X. Lenses on compact cameras are typically fixed, while with SLRs you can usually change the lens depending on the shooting needs. A typical variable focal length camera lens may be able to change from wide-angle (28mm focal length) to telephoto (135mm focal length). You can configure an SLR camera for up to 30 times magnification.
About the Author
John Matteson is President and COO of Shopping Syndicate, LLC which owns and operates Dealhack.com. He has been working in the digital media and consumer electronics related fields for more than fifteen years. Dealhack.com promotes hand-picked online coupons, deals, and specials on computers, electronics, and entertainment as well as food and wine, and various online services.
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