Choosing A Digital Camera - Information and Other Things to Keep In Mind

Ill start by explaining the three "classes" of digital cameras - point-and-shoot, advanced, and single lens reflex.

Point-and-shoot

These are small cameras that fit in the palm of your hand, probably the most popular type of cameras among the consumer. They have come a very long way and a lot of them take great pictures. The price range for these cameras varies greatly and completely depends on your preferences and budget limitations, but today there are perfectly good point-and-shoots at the 200-300 dollar range. These slick little cameras can pack the features and the megapixels. Please realize that the megapixels do not affect how good the image will turn out. Anything above 5 megapixels is 100% OK. I will have more for you in my upcoming "How to Choose a Point-and-shoot Camera".

Advanced Digital Cameras

These are pretty wholesome cameras, a little bit smaller than DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras but certainly pack a lot of features that enable you to do things that would cost a lot of money to ditto on a DSLR. These types of cameras are for the people who like taking pictures but want to take it to the next level, and be able to change and modify more features and settings on their camera. In other words, they want more control over the image. The price range for this type of camera can go from the equivalent of a point-and-shoot to even higher than some of the DSLR cameras. There are many advanced digital cameras out there today. Again, remember that the image quality does not necessarily increase as you jump from a point-and-shoot to an advanced digital camera; 80% of the quality of the image is determined by the person looking through the camera! For example, a person that knows what their doing can take a better picture with a 300 dollar point-and-shoot than someone who has no photographical knowledge and bought a 500 dollar advanced digital camera just because they could - thinking they were going to get better quality images.

Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras

These cameras have come a long way in the past few years. Nikon has recently come out with an affordable DSLR – the D40 with a retail of about $500. Before I go any further, it may be helpful if I explain exactly what SLR means and what really separates DSLRs from other digital cameras. A digital single reflex camera is a camera that operates virtually like a modern 35mm SLR camera, except that instead of film, a Digital uses a CCD or CMOS sensor that records the image digitally. Aside from an LCD display and other electronic features found in a digital SLR camera, a 35mm SLR and a Digital SLR are much in the same. The other huge difference between a DSLR and the other types of digital cameras is that, with a DSLR, you now have full control over every aspect of your image. I highly recommend going here to read more information about DSLRs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_single-lens_reflex_camera

The DSLR has finally and I should say arguably caught up to the 35mm SLR cameras. There are still those 35mm and Digital SLR guys out there just like there are those Ford and Chevy guys. I think Digital SLRs - that is the lower end ones that the average Joe can afford still have about a year or two to go before it would be safe to say a 35mm SLR and a digital SLR capture images of an equal caliber. Keep in mind, that when I say that I am speaking for the amateur and professional photographers that can point out flaws in images that are created with low end DSLRs and 35mm SLRs. Although, in my opinion, some semi professional and most high end DSLRs like the Nikon D200, D2x, and possibly the D70s, as well as the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark series and the Canon 30D and 5D take pictures that are good enough that it would take a very picky photographer to go through with a magnifying glass and pick out differences between a picture taken with a DSLR and a 35mm SLR. I will be writing about how to choose a DSLR camera which will include why or why not you may want to go digital, or stick with 35mm. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and Ill try to point out a few when I do write that article.

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Now that we know what our options are, we can narrow our choices down using a few points to keep in mind.

Brand Loyalty – Well, there are Nikon people, Canon people, Fuji people, Olympus people, Sony people, etc… Sometimes their brand loyalty is so strong they won’t consider any other camera brand. I want to stress that brand gets more important as you get closer to SLRs. With point-and-shoots, there are a lot more, perfectly acceptable brands to consider. With advanced digital cameras, there are still a couple, but less than there are with point-and-shoots. It mainly depends on what you need in your camera, and if you’ve had any previous experience with any other brand.

Intentions – What are you going to use your camera for, snapshots of your friends and family, or for shooting wildlife and landscapes on a safari in Africa? Are you going to print large, or are you printing 4x6’s for your photo album? Do you want to control shutter speed and aperture, or do you need the camera to automatically adjust those for you?

Past, Present, Future? – Do you already own a point-and-shoot? – are you happy continuing using a point-and-shoot or did you want something more, do you want to take your photography to the next level? Maybe you should go with an advanced digital camera this time, instead of investing in another point-and-shoot… Depending if you’re a first time buyer or just got into the hobby, you may want to go cheap and try it out, get a feel for it before spending any real money. Or, is it your passion, or your serious about photography and want professional experiences with professional results?

How often will you use your new camera? – Do you take lots of pictures, or just a few here and there whenever you have a family get together, is the amount of use you will be getting out of your camera worth the money?

Those are some broad aspects to keep in the back of your mind when choosing a digital camera. I will be writing articles on how to choose each type of camera. All of those articles should be up within about a month or so. Along with that and knowing more about each type of digital camera, you should be able to make an informed choice one which type will meet your needs the best.

Well, that’s my coverage on the three types of digital cameras and a little bit about on how to choose which type, I hope you found this information handy and useful. Thank you for reading and hope you come back to check out new articles in the future.

- The d.i.y. Photographer

Create Your Own Light Studio for Still Life Photography

I created this instructable after seeing a few still life photos and wanting to be able to shoot still life. Though, after looking around they were not that cheap and the ones that were reasonably priced were so simple that i figured you could do it with poster board. So, click here to learn the fast, easy, and very inexpensive way to create your own "custom" light studio for shooting still life photos.

Link: Light Studio Instructable

About the d.i.y Photographer

The d.i.y. Photographer

I created this website with the hope that I could share information and research that I have done using multiple sources, including magazines, online articles, reviews, books, and of course my own experience. I want to make all of this available to anyone who shares the same passion that I do - photography. I also plan to write articles involving graphic design which is another hobby of mine. I want to stress that these articles are written with information that I have verified using multiple sources, and not just one, as my goal is to give you unbiased and solid information. When reviewing and comparing products, you will find that I link to many pages so that you can see what I read to formulate my opinions.

In addition to the articles I usually try to find projects and craft type things that anyone can do to experiment with their photography such as my tabletop light studio that you can make for under 10 dollars, instead of buying one for 100 dollars. These types of projects will pop up every so often and I will also link to any projects that I find that other people have created.

I also want this site to be as useful and informational as possible to my visitors and so I will gladly take any requests via email such as “compare this camera with this camera…which is the better camera, which is the better buy?” Ask any questions you may have as well, and I will try my best to find the answer. My email is thediyphotographer@gmail.com. Of course I can’t possibly include every bit of photographical information but overtime I will have a lot of informative material on this website, for now it is still in its infancy but I am always thinking of things to write about. Again, email me if you have a suggestion for my next article.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you return soon to check out the updates.