| Home | Camera History | Digital Versus Film | Choosing the Right Camera | Links |
choosing right camera film tips reviews
Camera users normally fall into one of three main categories: amateurs, hobbyists, and professionals. Knowing where you fit can help you identify what features might be important, and what type of camera is best for your needs. Are you looking to just take a few pictures of family and friends? Will you capture memories from vacations? Or would you produce shots of nature and landscapes to build a portfolio? Also think about how much quality you are willing to trade away for portability. Cameras can range from large and bulky professional quality SLR cameras (Single Lens Reflex) to small ultra-portable cameras (some of which may not even have a flash.)
Camera Groups
Cameras are broken down into groups: ultra-compact, compact, prosumer or hobbyist, and digital SLR. Most manufacturers build units in many categories to capture more of the market. The ultra-compacts are designed to be the most portable, often fitting into pockets easily. The digital SLR cameras are professional quality tools that have the widest range of options such as external flashes, lenses & tripods (but are also often the largest and most cumbersome to carry). Most cameras fall into the middle two categories. Compacts have a good range of quality, resolution, and options while the prosumer range includes higher quality and greater control over manual options and accessories.
Megapixel Rating
Buying by only the megapixel rating will mean you will miss out on the other important features of the camera but it is one of the most important considerations. Cameras with less than 3 megapixels are suitable for basic snapshots. The camera will be small and good enough to take basic 'I was there' shots, but the images won't be as clear if you want anything larger than standard 4x6 prints. Between 3 and 5 megapixels, you'll find the best range of everyday use and vacation cameras. You can fill your photo albums with shots from cameras in this range or use them as desktop images. You will generally find the images are good enough that you won't need any more. And you'll be able to make good quality prints at a variety of sizes. From 5 to 7 megapixels, you'll find serious cameras for hobbyists that want to explore photography as an art or those that are looking to stay ahead of the curve. These images will take up more hard drive space but will be perfect for manipulation and printing out in larger sizes. Choose a camera of 7 megapixels or more if you're a professional and expect to be paid for the work you produce, as these cameras are extreme overkill for casual everyday use, but ideal for professionals who need more flexible cropping options & the highest resolution possible for larger prints.
Zoom Ability
'Zoom' is another important consideration with digital cameras. The two types of zoom are optical and digital. An optical zoom factor is one that relies on the lens itself magnifying the incoming light, so that what is distant appears larger and closer in the resulting image. A digital zoom factor is one that takes the resulting image and magnifies it afterwards. But an optical zoom factor is much more important than a digital zoom factor (and provides better quality results).
Media Storage
The way the images themselves are stored can be a prime factor in your decision to choose a camera. Reason being that some camera makers have proprietary storage systems that are incompatible with cameras of other makes. A few common formats are Compact Flash (a common format for both compact and professional cameras), Sony Memory Stick (unique to Sony cameras, but also supported by Sony computers, televisions, and other devices), and SmartMedia. Storage sizes range from the smallest 64K card/stick (about 36 3-megapixel images) to the larger 1G cards & sticks (able to hold more than 500 3-megapixel images.) Prices have dropped on most memory cards/sticks making them much more affordable than in previous years. Choose the largest size you are comfortable with & select a second smaller stick as a backup. A combination of a 256K with a 64K card/stick is good if you move all your images onto your computer's hard drive on a regular basis.
Commonly mispelled words on this page alsot, aslo adn, anbd anohter anytying awya beng betwen, bewteen inbetween, vetween bu catagories claer, clera confortable controll decison, descision desgined, dessigned desktiop exerternal fidn firends fomr, frome generaly ahev, ahve, haev, hvae, hvea halp heigher, higer higest indentify importamt incompatable, incomptable inot jstu larg largst amke, mkae, mkea makse, mkaes amking, mkaing mena moreso, mroe, omre ened nto, onot ofen oftenly lonly, onyl nother, otehr possable, possibile previvous proffesional propietary, proprietory regluar sieze sose smoe, soem spoace tkae tkaes tahn, thna taht, tath, thast, thgat, thta, thyat hten, tghe, ther, thge, tjhe themselfs, themslves theese htikn, htink, thikn, thiunk, tihkn htis, thsi, tihs ethose, thsoe threee twpo uise variey, varity, vreity, vriety wanna, watn, whant, wnat wass, weas, ws waht, whta hwihc, whcih, whic, whihc, whlch, wich hwile iwll, wille, wiull owrk, wokr, wrok owudl, woudl eyars, eyasr, yeasr, yeras, yersa