Tread Softly And Carry A Fat Wallet: Choosing Your First Digital Camera
Feb 11 '02 (Updated May 28 '02)
The Bottom Line Do your homework. This ain't your grandfather's Kodak.
To start off this article, I’d like to note for the record that I am neither a camera/photography expert nor a great photographer. Thus, if you’re an advanced amateur or professional photographer, this article is probably going to look like the scribblings of a caveman to you. This article is aimed at the average consumer embarking on the exciting, yet confusing journey of purchasing his/her first digital camera. As I said, I’m far from an expert but I have managed to glean at least some useful information and advice for first time digital camera buyers and shoppers.
First and foremost, if you’re shopping for a digital camera that will replace your 35mm, you’d better have deep pockets. Even point & shoot digital cameras aren’t cheap. The mid to upper range, or prosumer grade digital cameras are very expensive. Don’t expect perfection. Conventional film-based cameras still have the upper hand in exposure latitude, color accuracy and sharpness. A $150 compact 35mm camera can still put a $500 digital camera to shame in the quality and durability of the final prints. That said, digital cameras are gaining ground and are quite convenient and easy to use.
If you’re ready to take the plunge into the exciting world of digital photography, you have your work cut out for you in choosing your first camera. There is a bewildering assortment of digicams out there, ranging from really cheap fixed-focus point and shoots to models that cost well into the thousands. The latter are really aimed more at professionals and you’re not likely to encounter them at your local Best Buy. However, you could easily spend a thousand dollars on a consumer grade digicam. If you’re just starting out, and you’re not sure if digital photography is for you, you’d be best advised to do some serious research before making a purchase decision. Luckily, there are web sites designed specifically for helping you understand and research digital cameras. A really fantastic and informative site can be found at the following URL. Simply copy and paste the URL to your web browser. This is not a commercial site. As far as I know, it was created and is maintained by an amateur digicam enthusiast. I stumbled onto it while doing some research on the rec.photo.digital newsgroup (another great source of information).
http://www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw/index.htm#site_index
The above mentioned web site will provide you with tons of useful information about both digital photography and digital cameras. Far more than I can. However, I will attempt to cover some of the basics in case you don’t want to go surfing to a new site.
How many pixels?- Digital cameras work by capturing an image on a light sensitive electronic chip called a CCD. CCDs are measured in Megapixels (1 Megapixel = 1 million pixels). The higher the number of pixels, the better the resolution. The highest resolution digital camera that I have personally seen was a 6 Megapixel camera made by Minolta. This is approaching film quality but it will still be a few years before digital really even comes close. Most people recommend a minimum of two Megapixels if you’re planning on making 4 x 6 prints and at least three Megapixels for anything larger. You won’t really start to get good quality 8 x 10 enlargements until you get around four Megapixels. However, other factors (Such as the quality of the camera’s lens) will determine the final quality of your prints. A high quality three Megapixel camera can easily make prints that look as good or better than a cheap four Megapixel camera. Therefore, you can’t necessarily base your purchase decision entirely on resolution.
Manual controls or Point & Shoot?- This is a big factor on your final purchase price. Cameras with high quality lenses, advanced metering systems and many manual overrides for automatic focus and exposure controls tend to be much more expensive than a point & shoot style camera. If your interest in digital imaging is confined to snapping pictures of family get togethers and holidays and you really don’t want to mess around with elaborate controls, you’re probably better off starting out with a point and shoot. Fortunately for snap-shooters, there are many affordable compact point and shoots available at almost every resolution. Kodak has a three Megapixel P&S selling for around $350 (Plus about $70 for an optional docking port for charging and transferring your photos). There are a couple of P&S cams available from Fuji for less than $300. On the other hand, if you plan on getting more involved with the intricacies of your pictures and you want to eventually control at least the exposure manually, you’ll want to look for a camera that will be easy to use in it’s P&S mode, but will also have advanced features for you to grow into. I recently purchased an Olympus Camedia which offers just that type of flexibility. At about $500, the camera was fairly affordable. You can read my review of it at
http://www.epinions.com/content_54106033796
What do you feed these things?- Digital cameras differ a bit from most electronics in that they consume a lot of power. This makes them unsuitable for use with standard Alkaline batteries. That’s right, don’t even think about sticking an Alkaline battery in a digital camera. It will go through a set of Alkaline batteries faster than you can say “OUCH!”. Your best bet is to look for a camera that does not require any type of manufacturer-specific or proprietary battery system. Many digicams are designed to work with conventional AA batteries. So, why not use conventional AAs? Because there’s a better alternative, AA NiMH rechargeables. These are high capacity batteries that will stand up to the demanding task of powering a digicam for many shots without even breaking a sweat. Plus, unlike the older NiCD rechargeables, they don’t suffer from the dreaded memory effect. You can top them off anytime you need to. They're also pretty affordable. About eight to ten Dollars for a pack of four. They can be recharged many hundreds of times. They easily pay for themselves, considering the alternative. For charging these things, I purchased the Rayovac PS4 1 hour rapid charger. This thing really charges those batteries up very quickly, often in less than an hour.
Anyway, most digicams don’t come with rechargeable batteries or a charger. Plan on adding about 50 to 60 Dollars onto your purchase price for a charger and some batteries. You’ll save yourself a lot of hassle -and money- in the long run. For the record, I have verified that Alkaline batteries die rapidly in a digital camera. I tried out a fresh set in my Olympus Camedia 3000Z. I got maybe twenty shots before the camera powered down. With the AA NiMH rechargeables, I can easily get probably eighty shots even with heavy use of the LCD (The single biggest battery hog on a digicam).
Don’t forget film!- Digital film that is. The media for digital cameras comes in four basic flavors. Compact Flash, SmartMedia, Sony’s Memory Stick and some cameras use a small CDR. Unless your camera is a Sony, you’ll probably have either Compact Flash or Smartmedia. Those are the two main types of media currently in use with most companies. SmartMedia is a bit more affordable than Compact Flash, while Compact Flash generally offers higher capacity and more durability. At any rate, most digicams come with a very skimpy memory card (Usually 4, 8 or 16 MB). These cards will get you started but you’ll quickly outgrow them when you start using the higher resolution settings. Your best bet is to find out what type of media your camera uses and purchase at least one additional card at the time you purchase your camera.
Well, there you have some of the most basic information on making an informed decision when selecting your first digital camera. I hope I’ve at least provided enough information to get you started in the right direction.
Further reading:
I strongly urge anyone who’s interested in getting the best camera for the best price to check out the following URLs. Some of these sights have a commercial interest but they don’t bombard you with ads. Additionally, they are probably the best sites on the web for gathering information about digital photography and digital cameras. I highly recommend at least the first two. These sites were tremendously helpful in the search that led me to my newest camera.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/
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Member: Brian
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