What should I look for when buying a digital camera?

Question

What brands are best?
Memory/storage info?
Can I print pictures via computer if I so choose with any camera/printer as long as I have the right film/paper?
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I suggest this one, you can buy it for around $120 or Less!!

Canon A460 Specifications

* 5 megapixels
* Movie mode with sound
* JPEG file format
* 4x optical zoom / 4x digital zoom
* Autofocus
* Auto and manual exposure
* ISO 80-400
* 2.0-inch LCD
* Secure Digital memory (16MB card included)
* 2 AA Batteries
* One of the few cameras that still has an optical viewfinder.
* Can take photos in wide screen mode.

Answer 2

here's my advice:
if you want to take pictures of people, events, etc and you don't need all sorts of settings and stuff get a nice small point and shoot camera that's small enough to fit in you pocket. don't pay any attention to digital zoom, it just makes your pictures lower quality. optical zoom is good, but not necessary depending on what you want to do. megapixels are also something to ignore. anything above 3-5 mp is usually sufficient, again depending on what you want to do. make sure the camera has good color. there are usually displays at wal mart etc that let you see how they work. also you probably want to make sure it takes okay pictures in low light etc. make sure it's easy to use and you can take pictures easily. don't get one that doesn't take AAs unless youre going to get a nice li-ion battery.
if you're going to take pictures because you like taking pictures, you'll want a slr or a high quality p&s ('enthusiast camera'), depending on your budget. these are less handy than point and shoots but take better pictures and give you more control. also, slrs almost always have interchangeable lenses so you can expand on it later.
you can usually print a photo on just about any printer with any paper, but with mixed results. if you want high quality prints, use an online store that prints photos; they have printers that cost thousands of dollars and make photos a regular printer can't. I know wal mart does this, and theres other places too.
depending on the quality and size of photos you take, you could need anywhere between a 64 mb and 2 gb memory card, also depending on how often you transfer your photos. most cameras connect to a computer with usb so it doesn't matter what kind of card you have, unless you want to use a card reader, and most are sd.

remember, the biggest difference between a cheap camera and an expensive one is how many times you can drop it before it breaks.
I use a nikon d40 and am happy with it. for p&ses the best one I used was a polaroid. look for small shutter lag times.

Answer 3

I think you need to decide how you plan to use the camera. Is photography a hobby you'd like to pursue? What do you plan to take photos of? People? Sports? Scenics? Building interiors and/or exteriors? City skylines at night? Close-ups (macro) of flowers and insects?

Once you determine your main uses then you can choose a camera that best suits your needs. If all you plan on taking photos of are family and friends and the occasional vacation then a digicam may be all you need. If you're already into photography and wanting to expand your capabilities then a DSLR might be the better choice.

Whether you choose a digicam or a DSLR you should visit these sites: cameraarmor.com and bonicadive.com. They offer protective covers for cameras; you'll have to check to see if they have one for the camera you choose. If they do, invest in it. After reading the horror stories in here "I got my camera wet" or "I got sand in my camera" its worth spending a few extra $$$ for the protection.

Always carry your camera with a neck strap or wrist strap, preferably a neck strap. In 36 years I've yet to drop a camera although I've replaced a few neck straps. Seems almost daily someone is in here saying "I dropped my camera..."

If the lens on the camera you choose accepts filters all the better. If not, the manufacturer probably offers an adaptor. Buy it. Then buy a HAZE/UV filter or a Skylight 1A (uncoated) or 1B (coated) filter - or both. The HAZE/UV filter eliminates the haze seen in scenics. The Skylight eliminates the bluish tint seen in shaded mountains or snow or photos taken in open shade. Most importantly, either of them protects the front element of your lens. One scratch or smudge and your lens is ruined. They also offer protection from the pollution found when taking photos in the city, thus eliminating the need to clean your lens. (Think city bus belching out plumes of oily diesel smoke.) The less contact the front element of your lens has with dust, pollution, etc. the better.

Invest in a lens cleaning cloth like the ones offered by Pentax or PhotoSilk. Use a bulb-type blower brush to remove dust particles before cleaning.

You might want to add a circular polarizer if you shoot a lot of scenics. The polarizer allows you to darken a blue sky either for the visual effect or to make whitepuffy clouds really "pop". It also removes glare/reflections from water, glass, sand, snow and painted metal - but not from polished metal.

Answer 4

Here is the PERFECT camera for you!

You should get the PENTAX Optio W30. Its slim, sleek, stylish, with 7 megapixels, has lots of features like a macro setting for pictures up to half an inch away! Plus its waterproof down to 10ft for 2 hours!!

I have had the PENTAX Optio W10 for a few years and I have never had ANY problems with it at all! It is such a great camera and I LOVE it!

It has TONS of features, VERY good picture quality, its sleek & stylish. And its waterproof! You can see the camera here: http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/pr...
I have had the PENTAX Optio W10 (a slighty older version) for a few years now and I absolutely LOVE it!

(If you half press the button and hold it half way, it gets the camera ready to take a fast picture, then right when you want to take the picture, press the button fully and it takes the picture right away! The camera also turns on in about 2 seconds!)

Answer 5

I really believe buying a camera is an individual choice.
The person needs to read alot of reviews on cameras and learn as much as they can from the internet.
Go to the store and hold them and try them to see what they feel like and how they take pictures.
I can only give a suggestion of what to look for in a new digital camera.
Good Luck

my suggestion
go to yahoo shopping
digital cameras
digital camera GUIDE
be sure to check titles on the left side
the guide should answer your questions

Answer 6

There are no particular brands that stand out by themselves, most of them have specific individual models which might be the ideal one for you. I'd suggest limiting your choices to Canon, Casio, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Sony and, with certain reservations (and for different reasons, either price or overall quality), Leica, Ricoh, Kodak and Samsung. Other brands, such as BenQ, Epson, HP, Sanyo and Sigma do not necessarily make bad cameras, but some of them may be either too “niche”, too unsophisticated, or plain down unreliable.

By “memory/storage” I assume you mean the type of card memory used? The SD (Secure Digital) is largely the most used, especially in compact, point & shoot cameras, and it's cheap, reliable, and can be found in high speeds and capacities (SD-HC improves on this), so you might want to choose a camera that uses them: Canon, Casio, Leica, Kodak, Nikon, Panasonic and Pentax usually do, and Fujifilm is starting to do so as well. Sony stubbornly continues using its propietary MemoryStick format -in all its variants- and, while not bad nor underfeatured in itself, it's also usually more expensive and difficult to find. Olympus and Fujifilm tend to stick to the xD picture card format, which has pretty much the same problems as MemoryStick, but as I said, some recent Fuji cameras are starting to use SD as well. Anyway, and while the type of memory card used bears some importance, it's usually not wise to choose or discard completely a given camera depending on the card type it uses; both Sony and Fuji make cameras with many “redeeming” qualities.

And yes, you can print pictures with your computer; many printers even have their own card reader (you'll have to check which type(s)), so as to print pictures without using the computer at all.



All in all, and like TomTom said, there are many things to look for when buying a camera: optical zoom, size, price, card type used, resolution (and sensor size, avoid enormous resolutions in too tiny sensors), functions, etc. And though specifications comparison is a good way to start choosing, it usually is better to a) find enough photographic samples of the camera(s) you like, to check if the quality is good enough in most situations, and b) hold the camera in your hands, to see if you find it ergonomical, light, small and easy to use enough.

If you want more specific suggestions than that (i.e. “which one do I buy?”), you absolutely need to give us more information: price range, purposes, etc.