what are some key Things to look for when buying a Digital Camera?

[tummynavelboy]

Im gonna be asking my parents for a Digital Camera this year for christmas (it would be my first time owning one) what are some things i should wanna look for? and are there any Good Digital Camera sites out there you Guys can suggest?


Thanks 🙂

 

[TickleTheater]

I'm not too keen on digital cameras these days, but Newegg always has great prices:

http://www.newegg.com/camera/

 

[nessonite1]

Look for features that you wouldn't normally think of being important. Like the ability to turn the flash on and off (dont bother with red-eye reduction flash, it's useless), a self timer is nice, AV out is good so you can veiw your pictures on a tv.
And don't worry about cameras with the ability to shoot video. The quality is usually crap and slaughters the memory.
Make sure it has a good amount or internal memory and/or you get a big memory card. Especially with higher resolution cameras the memory get's eater quickly.
Not many cameras come without the display screen on the back but make sure yours does. The wole point of digital is being able to preview what you'd taken before cimmiting to it.
Rehcargable batteries and/or a camera docking station.
And make sure it's got a good optical zoom. Digital zoom is utterly useless.
I've got a Kodak Easyshare DX4330 which is 3.1 megapixels and a really good amateaur digital camera. Kodak receives high marks in reviews for their consumer level digitals because they come with a shit load of features and all sorts of fun buttons to press. 😛
Anyway, if you're really looking to pin down the right model go to a camera store and try looking at Popular Photography or Peterson's PhotoGraphic. I know one of them just recently put out their annual buyer's guide for both film and digital.
Ugh..I'm sorry. Don't ask me a camera question unless you want a very long reply!!

 

[Kalamos]

-> Nessonite

What about fine details? If I wanted to take pics of - say - lead models, toys or miniatures, what should I look for?


Reg's.

 

[Faramir]

get the most mega-pixels you can afford!

 

[nessonite1]

Sorry I missed your question before!
Look for something with a special "close-up" mode. The one on my camera works really well but it's touchy. Make sure your camera is stablized on a table or tripod. Then it helps to set the self timer so your finger pressing the shutter realease doesn't jar the camera. Also make sure you have good lighting so you don't need to rely on the camera's flash unit which is way too bright when photographing up close.

 

[Kalamos]

-> Nessonite

I know, that awful washed out effect you get with closeby flash.

I had some success with an old mechanic camera - but I thought a digital could turn out cheaper since there is no developement and such.

I'll think about it. 😀


Reg's!

 

[nessonite1]

It's a real trade off. There was a great article in Pop Photography this month that explained how dollar for dollar you get MUCH more quality buying film than digital.
It's a really fantastic atricle and maybe I will scan it and post it here.
But even though digital cameras are much more expensive than a film camera of the same quality you DO save an unbelievable amount of money on processing. It is normal to get one or two really good shots out of a roll of 24 pictures and even though individual prints from digital cost more you don't need to pay to print pictures that are really no good.
But then if your pictures are very important you can't replace the permanence of a strip of negatives.
It's hard decision to make and really depends on where you want to go with it. In either case if you do go digital you should never be without at least an inexpensive film camera. 😛 At least that's my opinion.

Ah ha...found it. Here is the article. Very interesting anyway.
Also here is a link to Photographic's 2003 digital buyer's guide. It's real long so don't miss the tiny link to the next page. 🙂 http://www.photographic.com/buyer'sguides/184/

Edit: Oops! Where's my scan?! I'll add it again...

 

[Kalamos]

Tnx! I'm surfing there now. 🙂

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

get the store to take a pic and print it. make sure the color is good. i got a digital cmaera once that darkened slightly every picture.