How to Select the Right Digital Camera For You

There are a huge number of makes and models of digital cameras these days, choosing the right one for your purposes can be a daunting task, particularly if you are not a techie type of person. If your eyes glaze over when people start talking about megapixels, optical zoom versus digital zoom, image stabilization and ISO numbers then this guide is for you.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• An internet connection and a local camera store or department store that has a camera department should be all you need to help you decide what camera is right for you.

1. 
    
   Taken with my point-and-shoot, I saw the full moon over the eagle on the gate and realized this would be a great shot, once you start thinking like a photographer you'll see opportunities everywhere.

   The first thing you have to do when choosing a camera is to ask yourself exactly what you will be using it for and roughly how much you want to spend.
   
   For the average person who isn't going to be a pro there are basically three levels of digital cameras, the compact point-and-shoot and what is called the "prosumer" camera, this term is a combination of professional and consumer, not quite a pro camera but a good cut above the point-and-shoot both in terms of price and capability. The third class of digital camera is the Digital Single Lens Reflex or DSLR, this type has interchangeable lenses and is really a semi pro to full-on pro piece of equipment and requires a separate article for itself so I shall not cover it in this article.
   
   The compact point-and-shoot can be carried almost everywhere. These cameras have two big advantages over the prosumer model, they are cheaper and you can put them in a pocket or a purse or a little pouch on your belt and take them everywhere with you. The camera that is available to hand when you see the opportunity for a great picture is going to get more great pics than the big heavy camera that you leave at home because it's too much hassle to carry it around.
   
   If you are going to take a lot of pictures of field sports (football, baseball and the like) and wildlife, birds and wild animals, then you are probably going to want a prosumer model camera, one because they have a greater optical zoom range (more than 10x these days) and better lenses, just keep in mind they get heavy and awkward after you have carried them around for a while. They are also more expensive.
   
   All the rest of my comments here are equally valid for a point-and-shoot or a prosumer camera.

2. 
    
   This pic was taken with my 2 megapixel underwater camera in a custom waterproof case, as you can see, the bubbles came out very sharp because that's what the camera focused on.

   More megapixels is not necessarily better, seriously, anything over five megapixels is just overkill for the average non-pro photographer. But just about all cameras these days have more than five megapixels so other things are what you are going to use to help make your choice.
   
   What is really important in any camera is the lens, almost always the better the lens the better the pictures. Stick with name brand cameras that have name brand lenses and you'll usually do well, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, Zeiss (Sony) and Leica (Panasonic) are generally considered the top lens makers today.

3. 
    
   OIS and a high ISO number let me catch this sunrise with crescent moon just hand holding the point-and-shoot

   Most cameras will take decent to fabulous pictures in a well lit environment such as outdoors during daylight hours, the real challenge to cameras is when it gets darker. The more sensitive the camera is to light the better pictures you'll get in places that aren't lit well, sensitivity is given as an "ISO" number, the higher the number the more sensitive the camera. All else being equal get the camera that has the highest ISO number.
   
   Something else that helps to get good pics in low light situations is image stabilization, there are two flavors "optical" (known as OIS) and "digital", of the two optical is better, some recent cameras have both.

4. Like stabilization there are two kinds of zoom, "digital" and "optical", optical zoom is by far the better, it's usually best to just ignore the digital zoom and not use it at all, a lot of cameras let you turn off the digital zoom in a menu somewhere.
   
   The more optical zoom your camera has, the more you can reach out and get the distant shot. However, where the zoom starts is important too, a lot of things people like to photograph require a wide angle, things like landscapes or cityscapes or even just getting a picture of a group without having to back way up. Look for the wider setting on the lens if you think you'll be taking lots of landscape shots or group shots.

5. When it comes to batteries, lithium ion is the way to go these days, most cameras come with a custom lithium ion battery now so there really isn't much to choose. Check and see how much a spare battery is going to cost for any camera you consider, it's really frustrating to run out of battery right in the middle of a great picture taking session.

6. There are several different memory card types being used today but the cheapest and most available ones gigabyte for gigabyte are the "SD" cards, check to see what sort of card the camera you are considering takes and how much it costs per gigabyte.

Tips & Warnings

• Zoom and telephoto on lenses are given these days in "35mm film camera equivalent" which gives people who were used to 35mm cameras an idea of how wide or telephoto the lens is, don't sweat the technical details, just keep in mind that the average point-and-shoot starts at about 32mm to 35mm which is moderately wide, a 28mm rating is better for wideness. There are even a few cameras that have a 25mm wide end rating, you wouldn't think that would make much difference but it's really quite surprising how much more you can get in one picture.
• While a high ISO rating is good to have, you generally want to shoot your pictures at as low an ISO number as it is possible to do without the pictures being blurred by motion of the camera or the subject, high ISO numbers mean more "noise" and a grainy looking picture when it's enlarged or cropped later.
• That website that's named after the largest river in the world is the best place I have found to get honest feedback on all kinds of things, including cameras. If a camera gets less than four solid stars with a lot of users rating it then it is quite possibly one to avoid.
• Most types of batteries these days don't like to sit fully discharged for long periods of time, it can damage them. If you are going to put your camera up and not use it for a while, charge the battery first, that will make it last longer.

[goodvibrations]

on 8/21/2009 Thanks, I appreciate that Zahzel, this is my first article for ehow and I sweated a bit over it.

[zahzel]

on 8/21/2009 Good article. Zahzel