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Buying a Digital Camera
NOTE: Prices quoted in this section are in British Pounds, but you could replace the British Pound with Euros or US Dollars and you would probably not be too far out!
Digital cameras range in price from around £50 to over £5,000. Obviously anything at the upper end of the price range is going to be for the professional or the seriously wealthy amateur. The previous section talked about the different types of camera availale - which one you should buy depends on many factors, but here are some you should consider:
- The sort of pictures you like to take
- Specific features you might require (movie mode, good macro, long zoom etc.)
- What is it like to hold and carry - does it have a comfortable grip? Is it too heavy? You'll obviously need to go to your local camera store to try this before returning home and ordering it off the internet.
- Ease of use - you may have to rely on friends and internet / magazine reviews for this
- How creative you want to be with your photography (semi auto or fully manual? option for external flash, speed of continuous shooting mode, etc.)
- Whether it is your first digital camera, or you're upgrading
- How much money you have to spend
- Advice from friends - but beware that photographers can be excessively brand loyal.
If you've read the previous sections on the different types of cameras, you may have a good idea of what sort of camera you want.
If you consider photography a hobby, then you should forget about the point-and-shoot models and probably consider either a digital SLR or a compact system camera (CSC). The exception to this might be if the superzoom if your hobby is something like wildlife photography or birdspotting.
Here are some features to look out for on a prospective camera:
- Some form of semi-automatic / manual exposure modes (such as aperture priority, shutter priority or full manual).
- If you are likely to want to shoot in low light, then a high maximum ISO is useful (around 1600 or 3200 minimum). However don't expect images from a compact to be great at this level - serious low-light work requires a DSLR.
- The built in flash on every camera is inevitably rubbish (underpowered and inflexible) so if you intend to take a lot of indoor portraits, you may want a camera that supports an external flash (some superzooms and all CSCs and DSLRs).
- If you are confident that your interest will develop, you should be buying straight into a CSC or DSLR system. If you are familiar with a particular manufacturer from the days of film photography and if you have any existing lenses, then this may steer you towards a particular camera.
- If buying a compact camera, the optical zoom range might be important to you. 3x zoom is common but 6x and 10x are available on many cameras.
- If you are interested in landscape photography or take lots of pictures indoors, you might want to check that the lens has a decent wide-angle (a 35mm equivalent focal length of around 28mm).
- With DSLR cameras, the zoom range is not a feature of the camera but a feature of the lens you use. If you buy a standard kit lens (usually 18-55mm), this is only 3x optical zoom. You can always buy an additional lens at a later date.
- Ignore any reference made to a camera's digital zoom, in fact pretend it does not exist.
Notice the lack of any mention of megapixels and camera resolution in this section? Go back and read the previous article for an explanation of why you should not get sucked into the megapixel marketing hype.
Whatever your budget, always put some of this to one side for accessories such as:
- Memory cards (4GB miniumum) - £8 to £30 depending on type and speed.
- Lens protection filter (bridge or DSLR only), purely to protect the front of the lens. Many photographers consider this essential, others consider them the work of the devil. Bear in mind that it's cheaper to replace a filter, should it get scratched, than the whole lens/camera. Be careful that a very cheap UV filter may cause deterioration in image quality.
- A case - £10 for a compact, £20 to £100+ for a CSC / DSLR.
- Rechargeable batteries and charger (if the camera takes AAs) - £20 for charger and eight decent NiMH batteries.
- Tripod - cheap ones start at about £15 but for something sturdy and worthy of a DSLR, budget at least £50-60 (professional ones can cost £200+.
- Lens cloths, blower brushes, etc. £10.
One final rule: set your budget before you start shopping for a new camera, and never go more than 50% over this. Remember, when you come to explain to your partner why you spent £900 on the latest DSLR, it is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
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Photographs
This is a site about photography so I'm sure you are expecting to see plenty of pictures.
For now, why not take a peek at the flickr galleries belonging to the two authors of this site.
Colin's Flickr Page
Phil's Flickr Page
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase."
- Percy W. Harris
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