So you think you are ready to buy that beginner digital camera you have always wanted? Want to preserve those special moments for eternity? Whether you want to snap the photos of your family or give a free rein to your creative urge, shoot the perfect portrait or frame an abstract masterpiece, you have to decide on the beginner digital camera you want to start out with. Unfortunately, many a beginner digital camera these days cater to the jewellery market rather than sticking to the basic features that are an absolute must-have to the budding photography enthusiast. Here are some useful tips that will come in handy as you find your way through the maze of beginner digital cameras in the market. Here is how you can cut through the jargon and grasp the basics in a flash.

1. How Much Would You Like to Spend? Digital Camera for Beginner

Whether you have big money to spend or would prefer not to splurge, you need to decide on a budget before you enter a camera store, and try to keep your purchase within it. You can get a good beginner digital camera for all of $100; if you spend more you could have a camera with additional features but not necessarily one that will let you shoot better pictures.

2. Why Are You Buying It?

Even the humble beginner digital camera can have an astonishing array of features, and it can be utterly confusing to choose one from those available unless you are clear in your mind about what use you want to put it to.

It could be for snapping those vacation photos, for capturing those precious family portraits without fuss, something you want to gift your kids, or may be just the first step towards some more serious photography. If you are sure about the purpose of buying, it will help you pick just the right beginner digital camera that will work best for you.

A beginner digital camera can belong to any of these three categories, depending on the expected use:

Basic Beginner Digital Camera: Cheapest Digital Camera

These are reasonably priced at around $100. While they come without frills, they do perform the basic task of taking good photographs quite well – that’s what cameras are for, aren’t they? A good example of this kind of camera is the Canon A470, whether as a gift for kids or for a budget conscious beginner.

Intermediate Beginner Digital Camera:

Priced a bit higher, these cameras generally come packed with more features and the designs are often quite soothing for the eyes. Ideal for everyday use, they can provide you with years of high quality and hassle free photographic experience. Fox’s famous food photographs are shot with a camera of this category. A recent model in this class is the SD1100 Digital ELPH from Canon.

Luxury Beginner Digital Camera: Best Digital Camera for Beginner

A camera in this category will be compact and significantly costlier, but is suitable for all sorts of photographic situations. You could shoot anything from your kid’s snapshot to close-ups of butterflies with these versatile little powerhouses. The Coolpix P80 from Nikon is an example of this class.

3. Choosing the Camera Type:

There are digital cameras of all shapes and sizes, and usually the smaller ones are better for the beginner. The reasons are that they are less expensive, easier to use and can fit easily into your pocket. The larger cameras – whether SLRs or compacts – are unwieldy to carry around and a beginner is more likely to leave it at home!  You should try out different models for size and choose the beginner digital camera that feels like an extension of your hand.

4. The Lens Matters:

Beginner digital cameras today invariably sport a zoom lens with a switch on the camera to zoom in (get close) or zoom out (get back). Zooms are measured as a multiplication factor of the two ends of the focal length range – an18-54 lens would be a “3X” zoom – or as the 35mm (film) equivalent like a “28-105” lens. A 3X to 4X range is usually adequate for beginners’ everyday requirements, unless you want to shoot wildlife or close-up sports action with them. 

5. Megapixel Mystery: 

Megapixels are an indicator of the number of dots in the digital photograph that the camera uses. Higher megapixels bring greater detail in your pictures and help you make bigger enlargements. But then, how many of your photographs do you print to 20×30? More often than not we use our pictures in e mails or blogs; at most make 5×7 prints. 5 to 10 megapixel beginner digital camera are more than enough for the needs of most beginners and serious amateurs.  

6. Image Stabilization: Worth it

Here is some good news from the “added features” front.  A compact beginner digital camera today comes equipped with “Image Stabilization” to eliminate blurred pictures caused by unsteady hands. Camera shake is detected by the camera’s sensor which activates an opposite movement in the lens or sensitive plate (CCD), so that the net movement or shake is drastically reduced. The premium to be paid for this feature is worth it as image stabilization helps photographers make sharper pictures, freeze action, or shoot in ambient light in low light conditions.   

7. Batteries: Your Camera’s Powerhouse

Digital camera batteries are mainly of two types – rechargeable batteries particular to the camera model or the old warhorse, AA batteries (alkaline single use or rechargeable). Both are quite useful, but the moot point is, the batteries should not run out of power just when the birthday cake is being cut! A beginner digital camera battery should be able to take at least 250 shots.

8. What About Research?

Websites reviewing digital cameras can be very informative and utterly confusing too! It is easy to get lost in the technical jargon of camera tests. Sometimes the objectivity and bona fide of the reviewer might be suspect, too. The thing to do here is to gloss over the technical parts and read the conclusions. Also, it’s better to read reputable sites like Digital Camera Resource Page, Steve’s Digicams, DPReview, etc.

9. Say No to Extras:

Offers of accessories pour in when you have purchased your beginner digital camera. But do you really require that flash adapter, case or spare batteries? A good memory card – of 2 GB say  – is all you need to shoot and store hundreds of photos, and cost you $20.

10.  Buyer, Beware!

If you come across a store selling the camera you want at a price that appears too good to be true, then that is probably just the case: too good to be true! A good idea is to look up the store on ResellerRatings.com.

So that’s about all you need to know to go get yourself the perfect digital camera for beginners that gives value for money and meets all your needs.

Tags: How to Buy a Beginner Digital Camera

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 2:55 pm and is filed under How to Buy a Beginner Digital Camera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.