Choosing the Right Camera

Guide to Choosing the Right Digital Camera for the Amateur and Professional-Amateur Photographer

- Introduction

I have been asked by people on several occasions for help in choosing a digital camera. I've been into photography for longer than I've had a camera, which still isn't terribly long, but I feel like I have a lot to say on the subject. I've written this guide for anyone who is looking to buy a basic digital camera for everyday use, or for taking more artistic pictures on a novice-professional level. I've divided the guide into sections so you may skip parts that don't interest you or that you may already know. With any luck, by the time you're done reading, you'll have a good idea of what you want and how to get it at the best price.

- Table of Contents

• Megapixels
• Zoom
• Shutter Speed/Aperture/ISO
• Video
• Settings
• Extra Features
• File Types
• Camera Size
• Brand Names
• Price
• How to Choose
• Where to Buy
• Conclusion

- Megapixels

This is almost always the first number you'll see when examining a camera. The megapixels of a camera is the number of pixels the camera records, in millions. The lowest you're going to find these days is about 3 megapixels. However, with modern technology, the only reason you should consider buying a 3 megapixel camera is if money is an extremely tight issue. If you at least have the luxury of shopping around and considering more expensive models, the range for non professional cameras is about 3-7 megapixels. If you consider yourself an average camera user, then aiming for the middle at 5 megapixels is a good bet. To get an idea of what megapixels equal when printing, a standard 5x6 inch picture is equivalent to 3.3 megapixels. A 5 megapixel camera can print at 8.5x6.5 inches, and a 7 megapixel camera can print at 7.5x10.25 inches. You might think that you will never need to print a picture that large, but consider that if you want to get rid of drunk uncle mike who stumbled into the right side of your picture, you can crop it smaller and still get a good size and quality print. If you don't think you're going to be printing pictures very often, or if you want to use your pictures for digital editing to be displayed on the computer, you'll most likely be able to get away just fine with 4 or 5 megapixels, but there is nothing wrong with having room to spare.

- Zoom

I think I first should mention that when I talk about zoom, I am only talking about optical zoom. Digital zoom is merely the camera enlarging the image and it greatly reduces the quality. I would recommend never using it, or turning it off completely if possible. That being said, a good zoom can go a long way. There are times when you just can't get close enough to your subject to get a good picture. Take, for example, the Bengal tiger exhibit at your local zoo. The lowest zoom you're gonna find is probably 3x, and the average is about 4x. For the majority of your shooting, 4x will do you just fine, but if you're looking for a little better camera, you might want to shoot for a 6x or even a 12x zoom! Whereas a 4x zoom might do fine, you might find that you'll use that 12x zoom more than you'd realize.

- Shutter Speed/Aperture/ISO

For the amateur photographer who is going to keep their camera on the auto setting pretty much the entire time, these features shouldn't affect your purchase nearly at all. However, if you think you might be using the manual setting, then this is definitely something you should pay attention to. First off, if you don't know what an ISO is, it is the speed in which light is recorded. A lower ISO records light slower than a higher ISO. However, a higher ISO creates more grain on your image. A good camera will have ISO options: 50/100/200/400. For higher quality images you want to shoot at lower ISOs (for the most part), and 50 is about as low as you're going to find. If you're shooting motion scenes in low-light conditions you're going to want an ISO setting of 400 or maybe even 800. But if the choice were between a camera with ISO settings 50/100/200 and one with 200/400/800, I would definitely choose the prior. The aperture refers to the size of the lens opening, otherwise known as F-stop. The higher the number, the smaller the opening. Again, a good camera will have F-stops 1.4-8. A lower F-stop will allow more light into the camera and will decrease the depth of field, while obviously a higher F-stop will do the opposite. you'll notice there isn't much variety between cameras in the range on this setting, but if you notice a camera with a very small range of aperture settings, maybe consider looking a little more. Finally, a camera's shutter speed obviously doesn't need to be explained. For a cheaper camera, the shutter speed will probably be in the range of 4 seconds - 1/2000th of a second. For a more expensive camera, you might get as high a range as 15 or 20 seconds - 1/10,000th of a second. You may also notice a "B" option, this stands for "bulb" and means that you have the option of keeping your shutter open for as long as you keep your finger pressed down. For regular photography you're gonna be able to get along fine with even the cheapest camera's range of shutter speeds, but if you're looking to take a picture of a beautiful starry sky, or to capture the motion of a hummingbird's wings, then having a wider range will certainly help. I've personally used both 15 seconds and 1/10,000th of a second on my camera when taking pictures in very dark or extremely bright (e.g. looking into the sun) scenes. It's up to you to judge how much flexibility you're most likely going to need to be happy.

- Video

This is a feature that you may never use or you may use quite often. Depending on when and where you intend to use your camera, the movie capabilities can be a blessing or a disappointment. If you're intending to tote your camera to parties and social gatherings, then look for a camera with higher quality video. There are really only 2 sizes you're gonna find, 640x480 and 320x240. The frame rate will vary from as low as 10 to as high as 30 frames per second (fps). You'll notice a choppy video with anything lower than 24 fps. There is also the disadvantage that some cameras can only record for 30 seconds and/or do not record with sound. It is important to read the fine print if you think video is something you might use at least every once in awhile. If you intend to use your camera primarily for photographic purposes and either have a second (often times smaller) camera to take with you in public, or simply don't think you'll care to record video, then you might be able to find a good camera that tried to save money by shortchanging the video features.

- Settings

There are tons and tons of setting options out there to look at. Nearly all cameras will have preset modes for landscapes, portraits, sports, and night. These can be handy for the amateur photographer and if you don't intend on using the manual setting then you might look for a camera that has more, such as snow, fireworks, beach, foliage, indoors, and others. Most cameras will also have a manual setting and some of the better cameras will have other options such as aperture and shutter priority. The aperture and shutter priority settings are sort of "half-manual" in that you can manually set one and the camera will automatically set the other to get the right exposure. There won't be much difference between cameras here, so decided if you care about having a lot of pre-set auto settings or if you intend to do it manually and then choose your camera accordingly.

- Extra Features

There are tons of features on cameras today that make your life a little easier (or a little cooler, depending). For the most part, every camera is gonna have the same basic set of features, i.e. B&W, sepia, flash settings such as red-eye reduction and slow-sync, white balance options, burst mode, self timers, and probably a couple others. But some cameras go a little bit further than just the bare minimum. A little more pieces of flare, if you will. The most basic feature is an auto-rotate feature. If you tilt the camera on its side and take a picture, the camera will automatically rotate the picture for you, saving you the hassle of having to do it on the computer. Depending on the software you use, this could be a God send or barely matter to you at all. Another feature found on some cameras is a panoramic mode, which lets you take more than one picture and piece them together automatically. Usually, you’ll take a snapshot in this mode and it will show you half the picture and you align the camera so that the next snapshot fits in with the previous one for a smooth overlapping edge. It’s a pretty cool feature, and if you love landscape photography, maybe keep an eye out for it. Another feature that is less common, but still as cool a party trick, is the multi-exposure mode. In this setting, you can take a picture, and then take another picture on top of the previous one. You can do this as many times as your heart desires. Besides just making people laugh by making it look like your two best friends are melding into each other, this feature can give some pretty cool effects. There are undoubtedly more unique features that I am forgetting to mention, these are just some to keep an eye out for that you might like to have (though I wouldn’t put too much pressure into requiring your camera to have them, they aren’t all terribly common).

- File Types

Most users won't pay much attention to this detail of a camera and be totally fine with that fact, but a camera's file types do make a slight difference. The majority of cameras out there compress their images into standard JPEG formats. This compression provides good memory size reduction and still keeps good quality of your images. However, there is another compression type that is less common, but uses what is called "lossless" compression. Lossless compression reduces the memory size of your images without any reduction in quality, unlike JPEG which slightly reduces the quality (though not by much). This format is called TIFF. The last format I should mention that some of the higher quality cameras have is RAW. A RAW image type is a completely uncompressed image with a huge memory size per image. I'm only mentioning it for your information, but unless you are extremely picky about the quality of your images and have an enormous size memory card, it would do you know harm to disregard the RAW file type. There are also different file types used for video, and they are QuickTime MOV, AVI, and MPEG. However I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the video compression formats. You won't be able to notice any visible difference in quality. The difference will be primarily in the file size, which will undoubtedly be small regardless.

- Camera Size

Traditionally, the fancier the camera gets, the bigger it gets as well. This isn't always true, but you might notice that if the camera's fancy and small, the extra padding went into the price tag! When purchasing a camera, consider where it will be used. Do you want a camera that can easily fit in your purse or pocket? Small cameras are easy to whip out in a hurry and are unobtrusive, while larger cameras are often easier to manually operate and have more features. The problem is that unless your wallet is fat, if you want a fully featured camera, finding one that is small will be difficult. If you are willing to deal with toting your camera around with a shoulder strap, then you may find that a larger camera will work very well for you, however if you're adamant about being portable, then you might need to decide if you want to fork over a little more dough, or bend on some of the features you want in a camera.

- Brand Names

I feel I should mention this simply because there are several people I know that have brand loyalty. Personally, the most common brand loyalty I've found has been towards Nikon and Canon, but I would like to stress that although these may be popular manufacturers, they are not the only options, and you would be wise to at least consider cameras from a wide range of brand names to find the one that's best for you.

- Price

Non-professional cameras these days range from around $250-$700 or so. There might be some more or less expensive, but this is about 95% of the cameras out there. I find it helpful to set a limit on the amount you're willing to pay before you start shopping for a new camera. If something is well over that mark, don't let yourself get caught up. There will always be a better camera out there than the one you bought, so it is important to get the best with what you are willing to spend.

- How to Choose

This is the beef of the matter. How do you sort through everything I’ve just told you? Well, for starters, figure out what is important to you and what you could live without. Think about or write down priorities you have for settings and features (as well as anything and everything else). And more importantly, set a price. Before you even start looking, know how much you’re willing to spend. It’s up to you how flexible you’ll want to be with that, but it’ll help narrow your search before you even start. Once you’ve done that start looking online at a lot of different places and marking down cameras that have sparked your interest. A good place to start look is dpreview.com. They have reviews and statistics from many brand names on a wide variety of cameras. Once you’ve found a few that you like, take a look at the company’s website about the product to learn more. dpreview doesn’t always list every feature of a camera, so there might be more there than you think. Feel free to branch out your search too. Look for reviews for your top choices. See what consumers say or rate them. Hopefully with all that information you’ll be able to decide on the camera that’s best for you.

- Where to Buy

This is arguably the most important part of this entire guide. Let me take the opportunity to dissuade you from buying a camera from a franchised electronics store such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and all the rest. The cheapest place to get a new camera is most often times going to be an online retailer. However, proceed with caution. Not all cameras for sale online should be trusted. It is important to look out for what are called "gray market" (sometimes known as "direct import") cameras. A grey market camera is one that was not imported into the country by the manufacturer. The most important concern is that some manufacturers will not honor the warranty for a camera intend for sale in another country. Nikon, for example will not. Canon on the other hand does. Other concerns include non-English menus and manuals, manufacturer-provided software support, and invalid rebate offers. The easiest way to detect a grey market camera will be its too-good-to-be-true price, but you can also look for the absent certified seal from the manufacturer on the retailer's website. Now, with that out of the way, here is my suggestion on how to find the lowest price on the camera you want to buy. It may seem silly, but type "compare prices" and then the camera name into a google search and look at the first 10 hits or so. You'll most likely get returns such as pricescan.com, cnet.com, shopping.com, pricegrabber.com, and other similar sites. Click a bunch of the links and see the lists of prices available. Often times, if there is a rebate available for that camera, it will show at the top near the description. Pay close attention to the taxes and shipping costs to your area, they vary from store to store and depending on the shipping locations. Plus some websites might offer deals on accessories, so pay attention for that if you’re interested. Once you’ve found the cheapest price (from an online store that has your confidence), feel free either to buy it, or perhaps if you like to cause a fuss, print out the sale info and bring it to your local “we’ll match any price” store and buy the camera there for the same price. Though I think most stores have wised up to this tactic by now.

- Conclusion

I hope that this guide has been helpful to you in some way. If you’ve noticed any mistakes or would like me to discuss something in more detail, or if you feel I have left something out, please let me know and I will gladly update this guide accordingly. Good luck finding a camera that will make you very happy, and at a price that will make you even happier.

Stefan Parker