Monday, May 25, 2009

Digital Camera Buying Tricks

By Chris Campbell

To say the art of photography has gone through massive change in the past few years would be an understatement. More like cataclysmic. Perhaps that's a little dramatic. Not only has the technology changed, but the way people take pictures has changed. Viewing pictures immediately after taking them allows for instant editing. Not only in deciding what pictures to keep, but in other subtle ways with built in camera editing for things like red eye.

There is no longer need to worry about wasting film, or having to wait for pictures to be developed. You can instantly take your pictures, edit them, and distribute them around the world through websites like FaceBook and MySpace with a few simple clicks.

Don't buy a 6 Megapixel camera if you only want to take 600x400 pictures to populate your online album. So, unless you plan to print high quality posters, don't go for anything above 4 Megapixels, or you will find that you have to get a new memory card in no time, as high resolution photos eat up disk space quickly.

The catalog price for a camera will most likely not include the accessories you need to take quality shots.

If image quality, good control layout, and some manual adjusting is more your priority, then have a look a the compact class. Cameras like the Canon PowerShot A570IS would fit the bill here. They're slightly larger than an ultra compact, but come equipped with a better zoom lens, and more control over your picture taking process.

Some retailers will give discounts if you buy the accessories together with the camera, so you might want to look for such offers.

Do your homework. Read up as much as you can on the model you plan to buy. Usually you will find such testimonials on discussion forums.

If you know professional photographers you might also want to ask them for a piece of advice. Don't simply rely on the recommendations the sales person gives you: sometimes they want to get rid of old stocks or get a higher incentive for selling a certain model that doesn't necessarily suit your needs.

The above are my tips on buying a digital camera. While these are not the only recommendations one can come up with, they come from my personal experience.

Getting the perfect camera, is never an easy thing, especially with the way digital technology is constantly changing. Fortunately, there are plenty of helpful websites online, that can narrow down your search and help you find the camera with all the features important to you.

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