Choosing your first Digital Camera
Before you buy your first digital camera you really need to do some research so that you understand things like megapixels or what the best storage is for you before you walk into the store. The salesperson will offer you a lot of options, and you don’t want to get confused, it could end up with you buying something you do not really need. Being prepared will stop you feeling intimidated. If you do a little bit of research before you go to buy a camera, you will be able to save some time and help yourself out a lot.
When most people begin looking for a digital camera, picture quality is the requirement at the top of their list. On digital cameras picture quality is measured in megapixels; the higher the better. Megapixels are simply the little dots that make up the picture. This is easy to understand if you own a personal computer; think about what something looks like when it has been “pixilated” The fewer the pixels, the grainier your pictures will be, so you will probably want a camera betweenf 2 or 3 megapixels. A rating much above that, you won’t see much difference unless you are taking professional photographs that are either going to be blown up or need them to be of impeccable quality.
Another aspect of the camera that the salesman could try to confuse you with is the different shutter speeds available. If you have previously used film cameras, you probably understand shutter speed, but for beginners, this may be something new. When it comes to the array of speeds that they mention, you will notice that they speak in fractions of a second. Therefore if they say that the shutter speed is 600, they mean that it is 1/600 second. Faster shutter speeds are better for taking motion shots; however, most photographers will never need anything higher than 2000. The minimum shutter speed that is mentioned is measured in full seconds. This is useful to consider if you plan a llot of night photography. If you are only going to use your camera for regular run-of-the-mill photography, then the variety of shutter speed is probably not very important to you, but having these options available is great if you want to photograph sports or cities at night time.
Storage options, meaning the amount of pictures you can store on your camera at any one time, will confuse many people. Most digital cameras currently on the market allow you to change the quality of your photographs, and the lower the quality the more you can store on the camera. You will probably need a memory card for your camera if you plan to take more than a few pictures at a time, as the cameras storage capabilities is minimal, so it is important for you to purchase extra memory for the camera. The salesperson will probably try to convince you into the buying a memory card that holds far more photographs than you need and are more expensive than the more suitable cards, but remember that you only to store the photographs until you can transfer them to your computer or get them developed. And don’t forget, with a digital camera you can delete any photographs you do not want from the camera, thereby making room for all those that you want to keep.
