Buying a Digital Camera – Things to Consider
One of the most important decisions you’ll have to make when learning the basics of digital photography, or any type of photography, is to carefully consider the type of equipment you’ll start with. This is especially true when you’re shopping for a digital camera. There are such a wide variety of options and so many different brands that this process can seem a bit overwhelming at first.
buy a digital camera
To begin with, cameras are effectively divided into three main categories. There’s the standard point-and-shoot camera, which as the name suggests, is designed to be a simple camera intended for beginners. As such, there are very few features to play with, limiting any real creativity when taking photos. Next up is the SLR, or Single Lens Reflex, which will generally have additional features and will produce higher resolution and better quality images. If you really want to learn photography, I recommend saving up and buying an SLR. The last category is the top of the range, professional cameras, which will often include advanced features and produce very high quality images. However, these cost thousands of dollars and unless you have a lot of money to spend it would be almost a waste to buy one of these until you have learned more.
buy a lens
Probably the next thing you’ll look at when shopping for a digital camera is the lens or lenses. In a nutshell, the lens is what your camera uses to focus on the desired subject. Some of the main defining characteristics of a lens are its focal length and its aperture. The focal length is basically how much the lens will be able to magnify the image. So the longer the focal length, the more you can “zoom in”.
The average focal length is 50mm. Anything more than that, and the lens is considered a telephoto lens (think telescope). Anything less than 50mm and the lens is called a wide angle lens. Also worth noting are the varieties of zoom lenses. These lenses have a variable focal length. You can have anything from 28mm to 105mm or 80mm to 210mm. The other defining factor of a lens is its aperture. Basically, the aperture is the size of the hole that allows light to pass through the lens onto the camera chip. The smaller the aperture number, the larger the hole and the more light enters. Aperture will also affect depth of field, which is the amount of the image in focus. The smaller the aperture number, the shallower the depth of field.
buy a tripod
Next on the list when buying a digital camera is the tripod. Often when taking photos, you won’t be able to hold the camera still enough to get a nice, sharp image. This is usually due to a lack of light, which in turn slows the camera’s shutter speed, resulting in a soft or blurry image. The thing is, amazing photos can often be taken in the early morning or late afternoon, when very little light is available. This is where the tripod comes in. It allows you to use the full range of your camera’s shutter speeds and make interesting combinations with your aperture, often producing incredible results.
When shopping for your tripod, try to find one that is sturdy, but not too cumbersome to carry around. These are usually adjustable, but just in case, make sure it’s tall enough that you can look through the camera at eye level.
Memory cards
The next thing when buying a digital camera is memory cards. These tiny devices are much more convenient and practical than traditional photographic film, and you can literally hold thousands of photos on one of them. They vary in memory size and can range from 128 MB to 32 GB and even more. Most SLRs use Compact Flash or CF memory cards, while smaller cameras often use Secure Digital or Sony memory cards.
If you ever decide to buy another camera, try to find one that uses the same type of memory card as your original camera. This will allow you to interchange them and is much more convenient than having two cameras that use different memory cards. Most small point and shoot cameras use SD cards, however some of the more sophisticated ones use CF cards.