TestFreaks Guide to Digital Cameras
As always, your first thought should not be what camera, but how – and to what – you are going to...
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As always, your first thought should not be what camera, but how – and to what – you are going to use your new camera. Buying a camera used to be all about mega pixels but today almost every camera, perhaps except the cheapest ones, have enough unless you are going to print large posters – in that case you should go for maximum mega pixels.
More important though are nowadays lens quality and size of the CCD. Lens quality is difficult to judge or compare through brochures and technical data - comparing pictures from different cameras is the only way. Regarding CCDs, a basic rule is that the larger CCD per pixel the better. Battery time is also a factor to consider, both the stamina of the battery i.e. how many pictures per charge and how long time it takes to charge the battery or batteries. Do you shoot a lot of photos in the dark? Then you also need to consider whether you want external or built-in flash.
Finally you need different features and functions depending of what you are going to shoot. For example, if your main use of the camera is to shoot portraits you need other cameras than if you mainly shoot sports activities where manual shutter speed is important. If you just want nice pictures from the vacation, choose a no-fuzz camera that allows you to leave the job to the camera.
Digital cameras today could be divided into three main segments:
• The simple point and shoot to take pictures at a party, on vacation or other similar occasions. These cameras are of course smaller and more automated, they do not have that many features as the larger ones but still produce high quality photos. Usually they just have optical zoom between 3-5X and a digital zoom and a few manual settings. Some times the more advanced cell-phone cameras can be as good as the simpler cameras.
• The Compact Super Zoomers. This is the camera for you if you are willing to trade size for features and functions that meet your needs. Here you can expect optical zoom up 12-14 times, lots of manual settings as well as easy-to-use features. These cameras often deliver high picture quality at a good price and lets you either use the automated fire-and-forget mode or allow you to make many settings manually to create interesting photo effects.
• The system camera (SLR) for people with very specific needs and almost always also the very highest demand regarding picture quality. The system contains a camera house and separate lenses for different situations. Choose this segment if you are a skilled photographer – or aim to be one – as you here have all possibilities to make all settings manually and you can choose between a wide variety of different lenses.
So when you have decided how and to what you are going to use your camera, look at some tests of the interesting models and example or test pictures – because after all it is the result and not the machinery that matters. And hey, don’t spend all your money on the camera, be sure to save some for memory cards and software to organize and improve your pictures.
TIP:
It is important to make backups of you picture files. Use backup software and copy to either a CD/DVD or hard drive or even an external hard drive, to be sure that you have saved your pictures, in case anything goes wrong with your camera or memory card.