Buyers Guide and Overview |
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 Unsure about hanging up your old film camera and going digital? Don’t be. The technology has become truly mainstream, early design flaws have been ironed out and prices have come down to earth. |
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The key advantage with a digital camera is that you can see what you’ve taken as soon as you’ve shot it – if it’s not right, just delete it and have another go. Never again need you return home from holiday only to find that all that film you shot was either out of focus or over-exposed. And once you have a digital camera and memory card, your photography is practically free – bar charging or changing batteries and printing photos.
Digital images are also very versatile. They can be stored on anything from a computer disk to a website and printed on anything from paper to canvas. Showing them on TV, transferring them to video or e-mailing them to friends is also easy. Digital images can also be touched-up using image editing software (often supplied with the camera) before you use them – unsightly blemishes, red-eye and even unwanted elements (or people) can simply be erased from the frame. Most digital cameras will even shoot TV quality videos with sound, so you can take home moving images too.
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Take Your Pick |
| What sort of digital camera is best? There are three basic categories: compact, super-zoom and digital single-lens reflex. |
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| Compacts |
 As the name suggests, compacts are small. They are also cheap-ish, simple to use and great for everyday snaps. They range from simple point-and-shoots to much more versatile models with a wide range of manual controls and creative settings and are ideal for families with children or those wanting plenty of fun from their photography.
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| Super-zooms |
 Often called “bridge” cameras because they bridge the gap between compacts and D-SLRs (digital single-lens reflex cameras), super-zooms are bulkier than compacts but offer much greater "reach" through powerful telephoto lenses. They also have many more advanced settings and are ideal for those wanting a bit more from their photography or anyone after good travel, nature and sports pictures. |
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| Digital single-lens reflex - D-SLRs |
 These shoot magazine-quality images and offer a full range of manual controls plus easy-to-use shooting options. You also have the choice of swapping lenses whenever you choose, so the range of subjects you can shoot is almost limitless – with the right lenses. The down side is that they are bigger, more complex than either compacts or super-zooms and more expensive.
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Key Variables |
| Cameras in each category will vary in their attributes; knowing what to look for will help you choose the one that's right for you. Here are the key points to consider: |
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| Resolution |
| The quality of a digital image - and the size to which it can be enlarged - is determined in part by a camera’s resolution. This is measured in megapixels (MP). For ordinary 6x4in prints 3MP is fine, but to give yourself room to go substantially bigger, or to crop tightly, buy a camera with 5MP or more. The lens is the other key factor, but in each case the better the lens or higher the resolution, the more you’re likely to pay. The adage “you get what you pay for” is never truer than with digital cameras. |
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Tip: Always keep your camera set to the highest resolution setting it allows. That way, if you take an award-winning picture, you will be able to make a poster of it.
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Speed |
| Some digital cameras respond slowly either at start up or to push-button commands, which can be very irritating. Look for models with fast “start-up” times and a short “shutter delay” of less than a second. The best digital cameras react almost instantaneously. |
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Tip: Cameras with a rapid-fire or continuous capture mode are best for capturing action shots, ideal then for snapping the kids too.
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| Viewing Screens |
 Digital cameras allow you to see and edit images on a colour liquid crystal display (LCD) at the back. With smaller cameras, you use this screen to frame images rather than an optical viewfinder; many digital cameras now do not even have an optical viewfinder so it’s important to have a good bright screen. |
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Tip: Cameras with hinged screens are good for taking pictures at awkward angles, say above your head in a crowd. And look for models with an optical viewfinder as back up if you prefer them.
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| Battery life |
| Digital cameras eat up electricity fast and need to have the batteries regularly replaced or recharged. The best will shoot 400 pictures or more on a single charge, the worst no more than 50. If visiting areas of the world with scarce electricity, you will need a camera that accepts off-the-shelf batteries rather than rechargeables, though some can accept both types of battery. |
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Tip: Switch off the viewing screen on the back of the camera when taking pictures and use the viewfinder (if your camera has one) instead – the screen uses the most power.
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| Anti-shake |
| Many cameras now offer a device to reduce the effect of camera shake. It’s especially useful for taking pictures without a tripod in low-light conditions or with telephoto zooms or lenses. |
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Tip: If you suffer at all from hand tremor, go for anti-shake.
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| Zoom |
 If you want to be able to take pictures of wildlife and children without them noticing go for a camera with a powerful zoom lens. Longer focal lengths (denoted on the camera in millimetres such as “35mm to 114mm” for example) are often denoted using a 3x (three times) or 5x (five times) magnification factor. The higher that number the more “zoom” you have to play with. Some cameras now have zooms of over 10x capability such as 28mm to 280mm. (28 x 10 = 280mm). |
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| Tip: Any camera with a lens focal length above 200mm will give you a good focal length reach. |
Memory |
| Most digital cameras come with a woefully inadequate memory card or internal storage (typically around 16MB) to save pictures on, so budget for a couple of bigger cards. |
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Tip: To make sure you can store 100 or more high-quality images, buy an additional memory card of at least a 256MB capacity at the outset.
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| Price |
| Bear in mind that you will often be quoted the manufacturer's recommended retail price, but many cameras are available new for up to a third less if you shop around. |
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Tip: Check out on-line retailers for the keenest prices
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| For an explanation of technical photographic terms click here |
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