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Digital cameras come in all shapes and sizes nowadays with so many bells and whistles that it can make your head dizzy. When buying your first camera, all the options out there can be a bit confusing to say the least. But not all is lost yet – in this article we’ll give you a few pointers of what to consider and what matters when buying a digital camera. But at first let’s talk a little bit about the difference between traditional and digital camera.

Unlike the conventional camera, the digital camera does not rely on mechanical and chemical processes. It records the images in an electronic form. Just like conventional cameras, a digital camera is furnished with a series of lenses that focus the light and creates the image that you want to capture. The difference here is then: a conventional camera focuses its light on a film while a digital camera focuses the light into a semiconductor device that electronically records the light.

Digital camera has a sensor that converts light into electrical charges. A charge coupled device or CCD is an image sensor that is found in a digital camera. While other low-end digital cameras use complementary metal oxide semiconductor or CMOS as an image device, it can still become better and more famous in the future but most engineers do not believe that it can replace the CCD for higher-end digital cameras.

CCD is a collection of tiny diodes that gathers electrons when they are struck by photons or the light particles. Each diode or photosite is sensitive to light, meaning that the brighter the light, the larger the number of the electrons gathering.

The price of a digital camera nowadays have been depreciating, one of the main reasons of this is because of the introduction of CMOS image sensors, this is because CMOS sensors are less expensive and are easier to manufacture than CCD sensors. A CCD and CMOS sensor works the same way at first, by converting the light electrical charges into photosites.

Point And Shoot Versus Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras.

For most people in the market to buy digital cameras, the question of whether to buy a point and shoot camera versus a single lens reflex camera (digital SLR) is rather easy. Digital SLR’s are for the serious hobbyist and professional photographer who want total control over each picture. With the digital SLR’s, you can turn off the automatic features and focus the shots yourself. You can also change the lens and even connect the camera to telescopes and microscopes as well.

With point and shoot digital cameras, you do not have to worry about focusing as everything is done automatically including adjusting the color or lighting as point and shoot digital cameras will use flash as needed. In addition, point and shoot digitals hook up easily to the computer, even without software in most cases, although the cameras do come with it. Basically, the point and shoots are just easy to use and there is not too much you have to think about – just point and click.

When buying digital camera, first ask youself these questions:

- What kind of pictures do you want to take with your digital camera? How you use it can determine which camera you get. You have to look for features that can support the zooming you need, the resolution, etc.

- How much is your budget? This is a very important question for any person who intends to buy digital camera should ask. Because no matter what your needs and wants are for the device, your financial resource will play a huge part in dictating the type of digital camera you will buy.

- What are you resources? When you buy digital camera, sometimes the spending does not end there. You also have to consider the capacity and the power of the computer and the printer you will be hooking your camera with for your editing and printing needs. Some limited editing software is already included when you buy digital camera but other devices aren’t. Aside from a printer, ink and paper for printing, you might also need additional memory cards for your camera and a more powerful computer to support image editing and image storage and retrieval.

After answering these 3 questions, the second set of information you need to know before you buy digital camera are the features that you need in the device. These are:

- Resolution. Before you buy digital camera, check first its capacity to produce high quality photo images. The number of pixels indicated determines image size. The higher number of pixels, the higher the resolution which can make photos to be enlarged without losing image quality. Higher resolution, however, also means bigger image file sizes, which means it takes more memory. If you compare megapixels (MP) to computer screens, then resolution of 1024×768 is 0.8 (MP). 2MP is enough for printing 4×6″ (10x15cm) photos and 5MP for printing 6×9″ (15×22.5cm) photos. Nowadays many cameras come with resolution higher than 5MP, which is more than enough for average photo.

- Memory. Digital cameras need memory cards for picture storage. Always make sure that your memory card is the right one for your digital camera. There are different types of memory card like the xD, SD, Flash card and the likes. Memory cards also have different data writing speeds, however this is not really that important for regular users. Faster cards are normally needed by proffessional photographers.

- Battery life. Consider if the camera’s batteries are rechargeable, because digital cameras use up batteries fast. Battery capacity is measured in mAh – the higher the number, the longer it lasts. SLR cameras normally come with battery included, with point and shoot cameras they need to be purchased separately. You can take also into consideration an AC adapter when you buy digital camera. You can attach this to the camera when you are viewing your pictures or uploading them.

- Zoom. There are two kinds of zoom – optical and digital. Important one is optical zoom. A higher optical zoom is always better than a higher digital zoom. Digital cameras are usually furnished with optical zoom starting from about 3x and going up to 20x or even higher. The better the optical zoom, the higher it climbs up to the best digital camera category. Any optical zoom is always better than digital. If the camera has higher zoom it’s always good if it also has image stabilizer (IS), which prevents from pictures getting blurry and also helps when taking photos in the dim light.

- LCD size. The best digital camera will always have a large LCD to help you frame your subject without having to squint to the viewfinder. This is also helpful when reviewing your images, some cameras enable touch up and editing features with its LCD. A 1.5-inch display is average, a 2-inch LCD display is good, but the best LCD size would be 2.5 inches or higher. However, bigger LCD also uses more power.

- Physical. Consider where you want to go with the camera and how. Where can you carry it around. It basically comes down to the size and weight of camera, how big or small do you want it to be. SLR cameras can be many times heavier than small point and shoot cameras.

Examples

Point and shoot

These two are small compact digital cameras, that you can even carry around in your pocket. But don’t be fooled by their size, because they can take good quality photos and have both high resolution and big zoom.

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Following two point and shoot cameras are more complex and bigger in size, have very long optical zoom and quality of image is higher because they have bigger lens.

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SLR cameras

These two are good examples to start with if you are more serious about photography and want to enter the world of digital single lens reflex cameras.

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