Buying a Digital Camera

This week I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal by Walter Mossberg, a well respected technology writer that I always enjoy reading. The article was the annual buying guide for digital cameras. And while Mossberg avoids recommending any particle camera in the article, he does point out several things you should know before buying a digital camera. Most of them I already knew, but there were a couple of surprises for me, so I thought I would mention some highlights of the article for your benefit when buying your next digital camera.

Megapixels: Not all cameras that offer the same megapixel count are the same, by any means. This has to do with the size of the image sensor...the larger the sensor, the better the pictures. For instance, my Olympus single lens reflex camera is an 8 megapixel camera. It's images are substantially better than any point-and-shoot 8 megapixel camera because SLR's have larger sensors, so more information is stored on each pixel.

In addition, some point-and-shoot cameras offer larger sensors than others. The point is, be wary. If you see one camera offering 8 megapixels in the $200-$300 price range, it probably has a very small sensor.

Zoom Lenses: Almost all digital cameras offer zoom lenses, but they are not the same. The two kinds of zooms are Optical and Digital, or a combination of both. An optical zoom is the actual lens doing the zooming, whereas a digital zoom uses a computer generated magnification, which is nowhere near as good. Pay careful attention to this specification. Always look to see what the language of the specification refers to.

For instance, you may see one camera with a 6X optical zoom, which is good...while another offers a 6X digital zoom, which might be a combination of a 3X optical zoom and a 2X digital zoom. For the best quality, I strongly recommend buying a camera that offers only an optical zoom lens.

Image Stabilization: This wonderful feature which used to appear only in very expensive cameras and lenses is now showing up more and more in point-and-shoot cameras...and for a lot less money than it used to be. Image stabilization allows you to hand-hold the camera in low light situations without having to worry about shakey-appearing images because of slow shutter speeds. It can work just marvelously, as I recently found out in testing a 300mm zoom lens.

The thing you should know is that not all image stabilization cameras work the same. Like the zoom lens features discussed above, image stabilization comes in both optical and digital form. And like the lenses, you want optical. It costs more, but the results are truer. By the way, image stabilization is a trademark issue, so it might be called something else, depending on which camera you are looking at. For instance, Canon calls it "Image Stabilization", Nikon uses the term "Vibration Reduction," and Minolta calls it "Anti-Shake."

Speed: One of the issues with point-and-shoot digital cameras is the shutter speed delay, in this case meaning how much time elapses between the time you press the shutter and when the actual picture is taken. The delay time has become less and less as each new generation of cameras comes out, but it can still be an issue, especially if you want to shoot action pictures. In this case, before you buy your camera, you should hold it in your hands and fire off several shots to see if the speed is acceptable to you. By the way, in SLR cameras, there is no delay time.

Viewing Screens: With most digital point-and-shoot cameras, you view the screne you are about to photograph on a 1.5"-3" screen on the back of the camera rather than looking through the viewfinder. The majority of cameras don't even have a viewfinder anymore. Therefore the screen is a very important item, especially when working outside in the sun.

Fortunately, screen technology has gotten better and better, but pay close attention to this detail. Newer cameras have a 2.5" screen now and many offer much brighter images than in the past.

Battery Life: The life of a battery is very important, especially if your are out shooting and you run out of juice. Carefully review the estimate battery life listed by the manufacturer (and then subtract 20%). If the camera you are thinking about uses standard AA batteries, consider getting the rechargable NiMH batteries (see my blog dated 12/16/05) as you can recharge them at home or in your hotel then also have extras on hand.

If you are seriously thinking about a new digital camera, I strongly recommend you visit the Digital Camera Review Website. There you will find in-depth reviews, or at the very least, user comments and ratings, if they haven't reviewed the camera yet. The review on my new Nikon D200 was 32 pages long, although most reviews are 10-20 pages long.

I hope you find all this information useful and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to drop me a note.