Monday, December 5, 2011

Buying A Digital Camera

By Owen Jones


Digital cameras are here to stay, so whether you want to take professional quality photos or merely a few holiday and family snaps a couple of times a year, you will have to get used to them.

The happy news though is that the digital functions accessible are implemented in the same way on all digital cameras, so once you have learned how to use the contrast function on one camera, you will be able to use it on all digital cameras.

This is not to say that these functions are equally good on all cameras or that they will be accessed in the same manner on all cameras though. An expensive camera manufactured by a decent manufacturer will probably be better than a cheap point-and-click camera built into a mobile phone, but you would expect that anyway.

Most digital cameras have dozens and dozens of functions to control special aspects of lighting, most of which most amateur snappers have no clue about and normally they do not need to know about them either. Many of these features are accessible in photograph manipulation software, so they are only duplicated in the camera, where most people do not use them.

The first tip for buying a camera is not to judge it by its looks. Beginners are frequently impressed by how the camera looks rather than what it can do. This is usually because they do not understand the features but they like their camera to be the size of a packet of cigarettes. So before you go to purchase a digital camera, take some time to acquaint yourself with the standard capabilities of a digital camera.

The first term to be aware of is megapixels. Digital images are made up of dots like a TV picture. The more dots the higher the resolution and the better the picture. The better the image, the more expensive the camera. So, what sort of quality pictures do you need and how much can you afford to spend?

Most digital cameras are packed with features, but do you really need them all? If you intend using the photo manipulation software that comes with most cameras, then you do not truly need the features built into the camera too. If you do not require professional quality pictures to print off on paper, why pay for them? Simply buy a camera with only the features that you will use.

You can often buy a less feature-rich camera in the sales, which are intended to clear out old stock before the latest models come out. The latest models will have more functions, so you can win all round by buying last year's model at a knock-down price.

Two features that are worth having are a USB cable and connection and a memory expansion slot. The USB connection will permit you to easily upload your photos to your computer for manipulation and distribution and the external memory will allow you to take more photos than the camera's RAM would normally permit.




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