Three Categories Of Digital Camera

Today’s digital cameras fall into three categories:

Point-and-shoot (pocket) cameras are small and usually cost around $200 to $400. Read more

Digital Compact or Digital SLR?

Summary: Digital SLR is bulky, heavy and take sometime to master, but you can change your lenses with variety focal length.

To answer this very basic question often faced by photography enthusiast, one could simply return back the question, what is your priority? and what is your real concern? Here are some basic things you can consider:

When…?

As far as when is your real concern, remember that “Tomorrow’s digital camera would never capture today’s precious moment.” So there is no point of waiting the next model launching, because better model will continue to come out forever.

What…?

Remember that the best camera in te world in the hand of lousy photographer would never produce the best photo, but the best photographer in the world would most likely make a wonderful picture with virtually any camera.

Balance.

When you are on a safari trip in Africa, your small pocket digital camera you used for occasional snapshot would obviously be inadequate to capture a nice bird. But when you just want to print a 4R picture on regular basis or you just use your picture on your website, a 14 megapixels digital SLR camera would be an overkill. So, depending on what you intend to with your images, make a careful compromise between time, money and your convenience when selecting the your gear. Even when you can afford to buy the most expensive SLR and their lenses, these gears would be less convenient to carry around.

Which One Is Best Suited Your Need?

Key Differences	Compact (point & shoot)	SLR (Single Lens Reflex)
Size & Weight	Smaller and lighter	Larger and heavier
Cost	Lower and cheaper	Higher and expensive
Shutter lag	Long	Short
Speed (frame per second)	Usually several seconds per frame, longer in RAW mode	In reverse: several frames per second
RAW Mode	Yes, in high end model. But it will slow down your speed	Yes, nearly in all models and not slowing down your speed
Noise	Higher but can be corrected (separate processing)	Lower
ISO Sensitivity	Lower (for good quality up to 800) and noisier above 200.	Higher, up to 12,000 in high end models
Dynamic Range	Lower but can be increased, especially in RAW mode	Higher

After reading all those concern and evaluate the comparison table and you still find it difficult to resist your internal temptation, our best advice is, “Do what most photographers do, buy them both..!”

Before Buying A Camera

Either you want to take a photograph for your family trips, make photography your hobby or want to dedicate yourself to be a professional photographer, the first and single most important thing to do is buy yourself a digital camera. Digital camera offer instant preview, take pictures as many as you want to and, people say, fun!

With more than dozen camera makers launch their products nearly every month you will have too many options, sometime this condition will put you in a difficult positions (though actually it is an advantage for us, customers). It can be difficult to buy a digital camera, especially if this is the first time you’ve purchased digital. These little steps will ease you to pick the right camera for your photographic purpose, at the right type and the right price:

Know Your Own Style

Understand your own style and characteristics in photography:

• In which situation you are going to use your camera most often (indoor, outdoor, travel, studio, sports, close-up, portrait )?
• How much money you allocate to buy the camera?
• How immediate is your need for the camera?
• How long will you expect to master the camera (since digital camera could be tricky)?

Pick The Features You Want From A Camera

• Price
• Pixel size (resolution), also you need to know the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom
• Ease of Use ( think about button, handle and interface)
• Manual mode (for you who wants to advance yourself in photography, this is somewhat important)
• Weight
• Size
• Color
• Accessories availability (additional battery, memory card, bag/shack)
• ISO capability
• Service and warranty
• For SLR you may also think about:
  • Lens and flash type, and are they easily available in the market?

Prioritize The Features

Prioritize all those features you have listed in this way:

• Must Have: List the features you think the camera must have
• Should Have: Put the features you consider the camera should have, but least important that the first priority
• Nice to Have: These features are the last thing you want to but it would be nice if the camera posses them

Read Some Reliable Reviews, here are some reliable resources to digg deeper:

• www.dpreview.com
• www.dcviews.com
• www.steves-digicams.com
• reviews.cnet.com
• www.digitalcamerareview.com
• www.fredmiranda.com
• www.dcresource.com

Some important advices:

• Don’t let yourself being too flexible regarding the money you have budgeted before. Those camera makers are really smart, that when you make little addition to your budget you will get richer features, just remind yourself to your priority above.
• Don’t forget to prepare yourself to buy some additional accessories as listed
• If you really want to learn photography, find a camera where manual mode is available (especially when you interested to buy a pocket camera)
• Your style is your style. Do not be a follower, find your own style and find the camera best suited to that.
• When you already in the store, try the camera yourself. Feel the grip and its level of comfort, take some pictures and review the result. You may compare different brand with similar feature and price.
• When you already buy the camera, keep on going! It is much more fun to take picture rather than look back. Photographer is the master of the camera, not in reverse order.