Digital Camera KnowHow

Get some cash for Christmas and want to jump into the digital camera market? Good choice. Just keep in mind a few things.

The cost can be under a hundred or even up to ten thousand if you are a professional photographer, so figure out what you need, want, and then don’t buy more features than necessary. Resolution is the first stop in determining which camera is for you. Printing acceptable color photos at the usual 4 by 6 or 5 by 7 inch proportion, a 2 megapixel camera will be fine. If you move up to 8 by 10 inch photos, move up and beyond the 3 megapixel range. Go even higher if you are finicky.

And while we are talking finicky about quality, look for an option that will allow saving pictures in the no compression CCD raw mode. When shopping pick up the camera, hold it and make sure you are comfortable with it. How do you view your subjects? Look for a viewfinder with a LCD or liquid crystal display of a size you can easily see.

Some cameras include video recording and if you want to catch a quick video of this or that fine. For quality video you really need a digital video camera. Compare cameras, and choose the one that fits your future usage.