What You Should Look for in a Digital Camera – The Basics

Digital cameras come in all shapes and sizes. With so many features and the crossover of technology into the photo world things can get confusing and frustrating. Let’s look at the basics of what you should look for when buying a digital camera.

Lens
Don’t worry too much about the digital zoom because this is a software feature and has nothing to actually do with the lens. Focus more on getting the right lens. If you are going to be taking a lot of photos in low light then you’ll want to look for a fast lens with a maximum aperture setting of F-2.8. The lower the aperture the faster the lens. On the lower end point and shoots the lenses are usually permanently attached but there are several aftermarket wide angle, fish eye, telephoto, and close up attachments that you can use as long as your lens is threaded so that’s worth watching for.

Viewfinder
The optical viewfinder is offered on most digital cameras but if the camera you are buying costs more than a few hundred, it should also offer you an LCD viewfinder. Both have their benefits and drawbacks. The optical viewfinder is great when the sun is bright and the image on the LCD is hard to see, but the LCD is nice because it’s bigger and easier for non-camera buffs to focus and click. The LCD is also nice when you are shooting video.

Sensor
The higher the sensor resolution, the higher the image resolution, and the higher the image resolution the shaper the detail of your images. 640x480 is okay if you just want to show your images on screen, but most people want to have the ability to print their photos and so you should look for cameras that offer more than 1 megapixel. If you are going to be printing images larger than 5x7 then you’ll want more than 2 megapixels. Of course, these days most cameras are 10 or 12 megapixels. 

Flash
When you are trying to take photos under poor lighting it can be a little tricky, which is why you want to have a good automatic flash. Also, look for red eye reduction, slow sync flash, forced fill flash, and illumination levels that you can adjust. This will provide you with options for the various lighting conditions you can find yourself in.

Digital cameras offer all kinds of different features as well. It’s best to set your price point and then start to compare what different cameras have to offer, but always make sure you have your basics covered first.

