Digital cameras can cost anything from less than £100 to over £1000 so, if you are in the market for a new camera, there is a great saving to be made by choosing very carefully.
The first thing to consider is what type of photographer you are. Do you only take a few snapshots, or do you consider yourself a “serious” photographer? These two people will find that very different cameras offer the best value.
To start with, why are some cameras so much more expensive than others? There are several reasons:
Number of pixels (megapixels)
Image quality
Versatility
Construction quality
Special features
Megapixels
Most new digital cameras have at least 4 megapixels but, if you want more, it costs more. A higher pixel count simply means a larger digital image, which means you can make a bigger print at the same quality. However, a 6x4 inch print at full resolution actually needs less than 3 megapixels. Printing that size from anything larger will not visibly improve the quality.
The point is that if you never intend making large, high quality prints, you don’t need the pixels so you can save your money. That will work for the snapshotter but the serious photographer will probably want as many pixels as possible because it allows more scope in the editing process.
Image quality
Unfortunately, more pixels do not always mean more quality, it just means bigger. The actual quality of a digital image is also affected by the lens and the processing that takes place in the camera. In practical terms there is only one way to judge the image quality of any camera and that is to look at it.
Fortunately, it is possible to do this. On digital camera review sites you can find sample images from pretty much every camera on the market. If image quality is a major concern for you, this is the only way to judge it.
For the snapshot photographer, image quality is unlikely to be an issue. This is mostly because small digital cameras are much more sophisticated than their older film cousins. Features like auto exposure and auto focus are standard on nearly all of the cheapest cameras. Gone are the dark or fuzzy shots that you got sometimes with film snapshot cameras.
Camera types
There are 4 types of digital camera. The very cheapest are simple webcams that can
store a few pictures and transfer them to a PC. The produce lo-
Small digital cameras are ideal for snapshots and, as most are fully automatic, they
should do a better job than film snapshot cameras. Top-
SLR type cameras offer more versatility and some manual control. Because you can’t change the lens that becomes their most important feature when choosing one of these cameras.
D-
Save money on cameras