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Guide for buying digital cameras Just a couple of years back when the digital cameras had made their presence felt there were not many options and the price was very high. Now there are more players and the good old film cameras are slowly giving way to the affordable feature packed digital cameras. With the new models being launched, prices of digital cameras have drastically fallen, digital camera is now becoming a craze among the Indians.So let us see here what one should look for before buying a Digital Camera:
Effective Megapixels or Sensor Size:
First thing one will look at while buying a digital camera is the megapixels. It indicates the resolution of picture and is calculated by multiplying the horizontal and vertical resolution. For e.g. 2560 x 1920 would indicate 5 megapixels.
However, the megapixels that the companies advertise most often misguide the customers. One has to check the size of the effective megapixels. You may see a clear picture on your LCD screen but the picture that is ultimately captured and stored will be poor in quality with high noise. So what one has to look is the size of the CCD(Charged Coupled Device). CCD is the light sensitive chip that captures the image. Larger the size better will be the image quality with low noise.
Digital Zoom/Optical Zoom:
There is a difference between the Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom. Digital Zoom is a software function to enlarge a picture. It will not actually Zoom in or Zoom out the subject. On the other hand Optical Zoom is for zooming in and zooming out the subject for a tele or a wide-angled photo. This is useful for taking close-ups and also long distance shots.
SLR
Normally LCD screen acts as view finder in digital cameras. Some cameras have a separate view finder apart from the LCD screen. The one with SLR (Single Lens Reflection) function is very useful as you can see the subject the way the camera lens sees it.
Scene Options
Many digital cameras come with preset modes for selectable scene options. Scenes may vary from Cloudy sky, sunlight outdoor, are you want to take a snap in the candle light or you want a pic of fireworks. The camera is automatically configured for a particular scene settings and all that is required is a press of a button for the particular scene. So look for a wide range of scenes.
White Balance
This ensures that the color of the picture look correct irrespective of the lighting conditions. Most good cameras offer white balance settings are offered to adjust for daylight, cloudy, fluorescent, tungsten lighting conditions.
Memory
Normally good branded cameras come with two memory options, built-in and expandable memory card. Built-in memory(Flash memory) is usually not very high. Where it is high the price will also be high. Many companies offer memory card among the accessories. Check out on this. These cards are typically known as SD/MMC and Memory Stick
TFT(Thin Film Transistor)/LCD(Liquid Crystal Display)
One of the other important features is LCD size. Smaller LCD screen size means details will be small and you have to strain your eyes for a correct picture. Go for a camera which has a reasonably good LCD screen size say 2.5 or 3″. The size is measured diagonally from corner to corner.
Video
Though digital cameras are meant for taking still photos, most of the cameras are provisioned with video photography. However, the video quality will not be great with maximum VGA resolution of 640 x 480.
Power/Batteries
Check whether the camera works on Lithium Ion batteries. Ordinary batteries have shorter shell life and will not provide enough power to use the full functions of the camera. So go for cameras that support rechargeable batteries.
Ergonomics
Last but not the least, some attention should be paid to the ergonomics. It is better to ask for a demo to see how the software responds and whether the interface and menus are user friendly. Also check whether the operating buttons are comfortably placed for convenient access by your fingers.
