Beating the Buying a Digital Camera Blues

A digital camera is no longer a newfangled toy for the rich. Digital photography has rapidly grown beyond its infancy from a vague notion among photography enthusiasts to an everyday tool on family picnics and vacations. You no longer have to purchase film (praying it's the right speed) and wait forever to find out if any of your pictures will look the way they're supposed to-not blurry prints of UFOs and a figure that could either be your Aunt Marcy or a paisley-clad sea lion. Thanks to advances in digital technology, digital cameras come in a myriad of price ranges and give you more options than ever before: the option to view how all of your shots will look when printed, and the ability to choose which photos to keep and which to toss (which these days is as easy as hitting "delete".) With all of these new options and advances, choosing a digital camera can quickly overwhelm the unsuspecting new camera buyer, but the key to finding the right camera for you lies in what kind of pictures you want to take and how much you want to spend.

Like many big purchases, setting a budget before you start shopping for a digital camera is both helpful and advisable; a budget will immediately narrow down your choices to a price range you can afford. To determine a budget, figure out what you'll be using the camera for. Do you just need a camera for a few pictures during the major holidays, or do you like to diligently document every annual even your family celebrates? If you find yourself in the former category, taking only a handful of pictures every year, you can possibly get away with a lower-end digital camera, in the fifty to seventy-five dollar range. On the other hand, if you use a camera regularly and can always find a use for it, you might be better off with a camera made for regular use between the $150-$300 range. It's more expensive, but in the case mentioned above it's worth the extra cost.

Now that you have a price range in mind, think about what kind of pictures you want to take. Portability becomes a major factor in your decision if you find yourself taking photos everywhere versus taking staged shots in set locations. Are you known as the family photographer, or do you prefer to shoot scenic nature photos? Nature shots will benefit greatly from a panoramic feature, while family shots would do better with a zoom lens and flash. Memory's also a consideration: do you tend to take pictures of everything you see? You'll probably need a camera with a larger memory capacity than others. Those who are more reserved and wait for that "perfect moment" to snap a picture could probably get away with a much lower memory capacity. In the same vein, battery power will determine how long your camera will last on an outing and how many pictures you'll be able to take.

Now that you've taken price, size, memory capacity and batteries into account, it's time to turn your attention towards just how you normally use the photos. The larger your photos will be when you print them, the more megapixels you're going to need and, consequently, the more expensive your camera will be. If you purchase a camera based on this fact alone, however, you may find yourself sacrificing in the other areas unnecessarily, so megapixel rate should be one of your last considerations after the more important issues. This isn't a concern if you plan to print more regular-sized photos (i.e. 4x6 prints) for your photo album, since you don't need a high level of megapixels for a good quality album-sized picture. You need to determine if megapixels are going to be an issue you need to think about before going out to buy your camera.

Buying a digital camera can be a good experience so long as you know what qualities you're looking for ahead of time. This list should help you narrow down the possibilities and find the camera that's just right for you.