Camera purchasing help.

[Phantasm]

So, one of these days I want to get my hands on a good digi cam and since this will be my first purchase of such a camera I have no idea what to look for or on what to base my decision.

There's this Nikon camera 7.2 megapixel that was about $246 I think. Seemed very tempting until I came across one that was wi-fi and an 8.0 megapixel but this one was for a $349. The thing is...I don't know how much of an importance a large MP number is. I've seen other cams with those huge lenses which are only 7.0 megapixels and cost like a $800+...

So...help and information?:) :confused:

[solarflere]

Nikkon is defenetly #1 Brand, and Canon is #2 but not far behind. For Professionals, it would be Canon Digital Rebel, and for others it would be Digital Elph Power Shot. At this point, nothing less than 5.1Megapixels, all the way up to 12Megapixels.

[Zubby]

The best advice I can give is know what you want to do with the camera before you buy one. There will be pros and cons to all types of digital cameras out there.

Small point and shoot cameras are fine if all you want to do is make snapshots and don't intend on doing serious photographic work. A 4 megapixel camera should give you decent 8X10 prints.

Digital SLR cameras are much more professional level cameras, but you pay for it. Two things they are good for are the ability to switch lenses like in a traditional 35mm SLR, and a near absence of shutter lag, that pause between your pressing the shutter and the image being taken that drives some digital camera users nuts. Most digital SLR's do not allow you to take video footage, and many do not have lcd screens, making it necesary to use the viewfinder. They can be expensive as well, starting around $800.00 and going up from there.

SLR-like digital cameras might be a good compromise. They don't allow for lens switching, but are smaller and lighter than digital slr's, good if you will be carrying it on hikes, etc. Many allow video footage, if you're interested in that.


Other things to think about: How does the camera store images? What type of removable drive does the camera use, and how expensive are they?
What file format does the camera store images in? Some will do jpegs only, others will do tiffs, and higher end cameras may offer raw format, preferred by professionals.

Camera sizes and the size of electronic components may get ever smaller, but you can only shrink optics by so much. Smaller digital cameras tend to have lens distortion (straight lines can look curved), not as much of a problem with SLR and SLR-like cameras. It's because of lens size. Small lenses are impossible to manufacture distortion free.

Avoid the megapixel myth. Higher megapixels does not mean better pictures. I've made perfectly fine 16 X 20 prints from a 5 megapixel camera. An 8 megapixel image would likely print well in poster size. Don't pay extra for what you might never use.

Avoid lens envy. Or, in other words, it's not how big it is, it's how you use it! If you have no use for a big, expensive camera full of incomprehensible features, then don't spend money on it. Digital cameras are crammed with tons of 'special' features that no one ever uses. Some of that will be unavoidable, but don't spend a lot more on things you don't need. All the features in the world won't make you a better photographer.

Research, research, research! Don't buy a camera before reading some reviews, and hopefully go handle one in person as well. This is the best website I've found for reviews of digital cameras:
http://www.dpreview.com/
You'll find extensive reviews there.

One last thing, in case you're wondering how I know all this, I am an artist and art educator that works extensively in photography.

[guinaevere]

Phantasm, what are you looking to get out of your camera? Everyday snaps? Photographs of nature? Portraits? And will these pictures be blown up very large to be framed or displayed, or do you think the largest picture you'll print up to be around 5x7?

Because if you're not going to print up pictures to be bigger than average, you don't need a huge megapixel count. My fujifilm S5100 is 4.0megapixels, and even blowing pics up to 8x10, the picture is fine. If I were to go larger, to 10x13, I'd want to make sure the picture is hung higher up, or in a location where a person wouldn't stand right next to it, as you'll begin to see clarity loss.

My choice in cameras was going for a larger zoom lens, because I enjoy doing outdoor photography, and enjoy being able to bring an object much farther away, up close. And Fuji is an excellent overall brand in digital cameras.

For film cameras, I had a Nikon (they make excellent film cameras and lenses, but are hit or miss with digital cameras) with a really nice zoom lens. To have replaced it with an equal SLR and matching lens would have put me in the $2000-$3000 range, and I really didn't have the money, or the need for such a camera at the time.

Edit: I just realized that not everyone reading this will know what I mean by SLR. SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex. What that means to you is that the camera you purchase is generally just the camera body; the lens are sold seperately. These are the more expensive cameras and vary in range from consumer grade to professional quality and will cost from $1000 (that's a VERY cheap one, up to the $10,000 range) fully outfitted.

Mine (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms5100/) is an SLR-like camera. While it doesn't have the ability to remove/change the lens attachment if I desired, it has a decent lens (zoom) already included. [/edit]

What I needed was a first time try at digital cameras with a decent lens (10x optical) and resolution.

No matter what you're looking for, I strongly recommend looking for at least a 3x OPTICAL lens. A digital zoom (any number) doesn't do the work. The easiest way to describe it for me is that it's basically a software ability to crop the image you're looking at. That's not going to help at all if you're at a ball game or somewhere where the image you're shooting is truly further away. The topic will still look like a spec on your photo.

My next suggestion to you is this:

Take a look at the Digital Camera buying guide at epionions.com (http://www.epinions.com/buyers_guide/Digital_Cameras_buyers_guide_p1.html) or here at digital-camera-buying-guide.com. (http://www.digital-camera-buying-guide.com/what_do_you_need_your_digital_camera_for.php) Both have a basic run down of what you can expect digital cameras to do for you. Comsumer Reports (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/digital-cameras.htm?AFFID=S145EI0&source=DG) also has a good product selector feature, but the site is for subscribers only. If you don't subscribe, you can always go to the library and ask for whichever month of Consumer Reports was their Digital Camera issue. This all may seem like a lot of work, but I always educate myself first about any electronics purchase. A) because of the expense of the purchase, B) because I like to know what options are and aren't available on the models I'm interested in and C) because technology in consumer electronics is so cool.

And don't forget to go to Best Buy or WalMart or where ever you feel comfortable handling the floor models. Take a look, hold them, play with their features and don't be afraid to ask questions. (The knowledge of the clerks at Wally is hit or miss. Usually the clerks at Best Buy have a better idea of what the cameras can and can't do.) If a camera feels cheap or poorly made, or the buttons and menu aren't intuitive to *you* don't go with it.

When you find a model or models in a store that seems to fit your needs and you're comfortable handling it, and using it's features, write down the brand name and model numbers, and their respective prices. When you get home, hop online and Froogle the cameras to see if B&M (brick & mortar) store prices are a good deal, or if you can get a killer deal at a reputable online site.

You can often get better prices online, but the drawback is if you have a problem, you have to send it back. If you're only saving $20 or so, I'd say, plunk the money down in whatever store you find has a good return/repair policy.

For me, that's Sams Club believe it or not. I don't know if it's owing to the fact that they're a members- warehouse or what, but they're return policy is very liberal, and that works to the consumers benefit. I've known people to return products for full refunds two years after a purchase, when it suddenly stopped working.

And you get a shiney gold star Phantasm for asking questions before making a big purchase! =D

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Nothing to add to the preceeding, but just a comment on something said earlier:


Two things they are good for are the ability to switch lenses like in a traditional 35mm SLR, and a near absence of shutter lag, that pause between your pressing the shutter and the image being taken that drives some digital camera users nuts. Most digital SLR's do not allow you to take video footage, and many do not have lcd screens, making it necesary to use the viewfinder. They can be expensive as well, starting around $800.00 and going up from there.

I'm pretty sure all of the modern digital SLRs do include LCDs these days, but you're right that you can't use the LCD to compose your shots. The benefit is that what you see in the viewfinder is really what you're going to take a picture of. With the point-and-shoots, there is a slight difference between what you see in the viewfinder and what the camera will take a picture of. This is not a problem with digitals, where the LCD will show what the camera is going to take a photo of, but if you can burn your batteries really fast if you spend a lot of time trying to compose your photos. The LCD is the most power-hungry device on the entire camera.

The other reason why one would want a digital SLR is control. Digital SLRs let you control things like shutter speed (how fast the camera is going to take the picture) and "depth of field," which just describes how much of the picture will be in focus. When you see a photo where one subject is in focus but stuff in front and behind it is blurry, that has a low depth of field. Photos where everything is in focus no matter how far away it is have a high depth of field. Most point-and-shoot cameras are locked-in to a high depth of field. Portraits and things are better shot with low depth of field, to emphasize what you're taking a picture of over the background elements.

Of course, if none of that matters to you, then there's really no reason to spend the money on an SLR. I bought a DSLR (Nikon D70s) last year because I do want to do these things occasionally. It's a great camera, selected over the Canon Rebel XT, because they shrunk the camera body, and it didn't feel right in my hands. In hindsight, I may have spent the extra cash for the Canon 20D, especially after looking at RAW image handling between Canon and Nikon and the fact that I could steal gear from my brother- and father-in-law.

The last thing to note is that spending lots of money and knowing the lingo is not enough to make you a good photographer, as you will see when TZ News puts up the photos I grabbed this past weekend with my DSLR at the New York Comic-Con ;).

-- Ed/Ace

[Zubby]

Digital SLRs let you control things like shutter speed (how fast the camera is going to take the picture) and "depth of field," which just describes how much of the picture will be in focus.


Both my SLR-like digital camera and my point and shoot digital allow for aperture and shutter changes. In other words, I have control over depth of field (aperture) and ability to stop or blur motion (shutter speed) in both my digital cameras. Just depends on the model you have and what features were included.
For the record, both my cameras are Minoltas. My point and shoot is a Minolta DiMage F300, the SLR-like camera is a Konica Minolta DiMage A200. I reccomend them both.

[Phantasm]

Thanks so much for all the very valuable information. I already feel so much more educated about digital cameras after reading the above posts.:)

I browsed through the websites you guys provided and have my eye on this (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?cameras=nikon_cpp1&method=sidebyside)camera. Do you think $300 on this is a good enough deal?

[Zubby]

It's probably a decent camera, and $300 is probably a decent price.

A couple of things:
I would have liked some info about the lens and any distortion that might be present.I don't know what to expect here.
It only saves compressed (jpeg) images, which you might not want if you plan on manipulating images in Photoshop, etc.
The range of available apertures looked on the small side to me, especially for what they say is an aperture-priority camera. This might not be a major issue.
The 'unknown' ISO range seems a little odd. My guess is that they didn't have that info, but you will what to know what the camera has here, as it will dramatically effect your ability to shoot in varying amounts of available light.
You will definately want to buy an SD card for storage. The 32mb built in is only good for a few images on highest resolution.
I found a review here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Nikon_Coolpix_P1/4505-6501_7-31511364-2.html?tag=nav
This site has pretty good reviews, and rates this camera at the good side of the mid-range in quality.

[Phantasm]

wow...that is a very informative review...hhmm...so is there a potentially better camera available at the same price range? I dunno...says the picture quality is good tho.

[solarflere]

As Zubby points out, Cnet.com review gives it only 6.8. You can find a much much better camera for that price range. And always see if Cnet.com has a review on it. Its my main source for electronics review from cellphones to watches.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,


Both my SLR-like digital camera and my point and shoot digital allow for aperture and shutter changes. In other words, I have control over depth of field (aperture) and ability to stop or blur motion (shutter speed) in both my digital cameras. Just depends on the model you have and what features were included.
Aw, man, where were YOU when I was doing my camera shopping??!

;).

Let this be a lesson about doing your homework before you buy. Still love my D70s, though.

-- Ed/Ace