Buy a Digital Camera
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You’re buying a camera, but you have absolutely no idea what is best suited to your needs. Even for a seasoned photographer, it can be tough. Try to keep these tips in mind next time you’re shopping for a new camera.
- Read the reviews. This is especially important if you don’t know much about photography or cameras. Camera reviewers tend to be really knowledgeable and passionate people. There are many sites that have extremely thorough reviews that bring up very specific things that you probably wouldn’t have bothered to check out, like whether or not the camera has manual focus controls.
- Make sure you see sample shots/footage Do some web searches for sample shots from the camera you’re looking at. Don’t go the companies website, because their pictures are usually done professionally in optimum lighting situations. Search on Flickr for the camera to see samples or on video sites like Vimeo, Youtube and Blip.tv. These will be from regular camera owners and users playing around with their cameras and it’ll give you a good idea of what you can do with the camera.
- Go see the camera. So, you see the camera of your dreams, and it looks great, however just because it looks great on paper doesn’t mean you’ll love it in real life. For example, if the camera is too large or small for your hands, it doesn’t really matter how great it’s specs are, your are never going to be comfortable with it.
- Watch out for scams Cameras are popular bait in online scams. If you see a deal that looks too good to be true, well, it probably is. Do a search for the seller and see what comes up. Last time I was looking at a camera I saw 3 retailers selling it at an unbelievable price, but when I search for their names I found multiple blog and forum posts for each saying how their were a scam, so even had pictures of taken from the addresses listed on their sites where they found boarded up or abandoned buildings. Just because the site lists a phone number, it may not be enough. Also make sure you know where the camera is from. Not where it’s shipped from, the camera’s origin. The camera might end up being from Japan in which case there will be no warranty.
- Pay attention to the small details When buying a camera there are a lot of tiny things that you might not notice when researching a camera. Here are some of the most important ones:
- Media types Remember to check out what type of digital media the camera takes, like SD, SDHC, Compact flash. Digital SLR do better with Compact Flash and SD and SDHD are more common in smaller point-and- shoots.
- File Format Look to make sure that the file formats are something you can actually work with for example see if the camcorder requires AVCHD support, because many video editing programs have trouble with it and it is slightly lower quality than tape.
- Viewfinder It’s a very handy thing to have on your camera, if you don’t care, you can ignore this, but if you do, make sure you check that out because while most cameras will have one, many will just be a little nubby thing that won’t do much for you.
- Battery type Look for rechargeable Lithium Ion battery cameras as the camera will go longer than one with standard batteries.
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