Five Considerations for Choosing a Digital Camera

Have you been experiencing vertiginous displays of confusion at all of the buzzwords and jargon associated with digital photography? Are you wavering on whether to go with a "point and shoot" camera, or upgrade to a usually much more expensive DSLR? The first thing you need to do is understand the five fundamental differences between the two different types of cameras.

There are five key differences between these types of cameras that you need to consider:

1) Point-and-shoot (PAS) cameras are fine for taking snapshots of your family, your friends and most events - if there is good lighting. The ISO exposure setting is usually fixed at 400.

(ISO stands for International Organization for Standards, and the ISO standards were establish for film cameras and the speed at which the film would be exposed.)

Lighting becomes much less of an issue with a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex). A DSLR has greater flexibility in adjusting for lighting problems and a change of lenses (see below). With a DSLR you can change the ISO setting so that even in poor lighting you can get a good shot without a flash.

2) Digital PAS cameras can take good pictures in the range of 10 to 25 feet (3 to 8 meters) away from the subject. Outside of that range, you could have trouble bringing the image into focus even with the zoom feature.

You can change the range on a DSLR with a quick change in the lens. Clean crisp pictures can be achieved from as close as 1 foot (1/3^rd meter), and as far away as the moon.

3) PAS cameras use a viewfinder to frame the picture. This can cause the actual picture you take to be offset either to the side or above what you thought you were getting, since the viewfinder is never perfectly aligned with the lens. The true image that will be captured can only be seen by using the LCD display on the back, which will seriously curtail battery life.

DSLR cameras use TTL (through the lens) framing, meaning what you see is what you get once you open the shutter.

4) The flash on a PAS camera is in a fixed location and directed straight at the subject. This is what causes infamous red-eye effects, as well as causing colors to washi out the color in the final picture.

DSLR's also come with a built-in flash. The built-in flash has the same inherent problems as the flash in a PAS model; however, they also come with hot-shoe attachments so a flexible flash unit can be added. This permits you to aim the light from the flash so it hits your subject indirectly, removing the issues of a fixed flash unit.

5) Picture clarity in a PAS camera is fine, but only for small prints. It is nearly impossible to achieve a good print bigger than 5" x 7". This is caused by a combination of the small lens aperture, the short focal length of the lens, and the ISO setting. A point and shoot camera has a lens aperture slightly larger than the head of a pin, the focal length is limited usually to a maximum of 50mm, and the ISO setting is fixed creating lighting issues.

If you want to shoot and print larger images, a DSLR is the only way to go. Because of the flexibility of lenses and ISO settings, a clean crisp image can be printed as large as the available printer can produce.

Do not let the price alone be your guide in which type of digital camera you buy. While a point and shoot may be adequate for your needs, to achieve high quality images purchasing a DSLR is the obvious route to take.