The holiday season is here and I’ve been getting all kinds of questions from friends and family about digital cameras.The question people ask me the most is “Which camera should I buy?”
I think most of the cameras are pretty similar these days so it comes down to brand preference. According to http://www.dpreview.com, a respected digital photography Web site, the top three searches for cameras are Canon, Nikon and Sony. If you purchase one of those cameras, you can count on a reliable well-made camera.
At the Chronicle, most of us shoot Canon, but a few photographers still cling to their Nikons. I have used both cameras over the years and recently switched to a high-end Canon. Personally, I think the new Canon is better than the top-of-the-line Nikon in just about every category.
The next question I get is “How many megapixels do I need?”
Buy the most megapixels you can afford. A camera with 6-10 megapixels is really the way to go. With that resolution, you can make photos as large as 16x20 with minimal loss of quality and your smaller photographs also benefit from the higher resolution.
“So, don’t buy a 4-megapixel camera?”
I don’t think so. If you are ever going to make a picture larger than 8x10, you should really have 6-10 megapixels.
The final bit of advice is to always buy the best camera you can afford. A $400 camera will always be better than a $100 camera. You are recording memories so don’t skimp on the camera.
Have you purchased a camera recently?
What do you think about the new camera?
7 comments:
My current digital is a Sony that records onto a floppy disk! I can see the need for improvement/upgrade there.
I'm asking Santa. We'll see if he can come through...
Thanks for the great information. I was considering a lower mega pixel camera and now I know better!
Mr. Bishop:
If I wanted to shoot some video for a project I was doing on the internet, would you recommend a certain type of digital camera with the ability to take short video clips? Do you recommend a certain brand or style? I would be taking indoor and outdoor video and it would be very important for the audio to be captured.
Mr. Bishop:
If I wanted to shoot some video for a project I was doing on the internet, would you recommend a certain type of digital camera with the ability to take short video clips? Do you recommend a certain brand or style? I would be taking indoor and outdoor video and it would be very important for the audio to be captured.
J. Ondo,
Everyday there is a new product packaging video, photos, and music into one product.
Video cameras on cell phones have a long way to go before they offer anything more than the novelty factor.
Digital cameras with video functions aren't bad but you really can't expect to watch them on televison.
I have a friend that went to China on a business trip and brought back tons of really cool video that he shot with his digital camera. For a few hundred dollars he could have had beautiful video shot with a small digital video camera.
Got the link here from Scott's WoM blog. Will plan on being a regular visitor.
Personally, I like Olympus. I bought a C-3020 Zoom back in 2002. It's a 3.2 megapixel, has 3x zoom on it. I paid $500 for it. I love the pictures that it puts out. I've recently become more serious about photography and am still learning new features of this camera.
One thing that I would like to add to your article is that even though some of these cameras have 6-7+ megapixels, you have to be careful about what type of lens it has. I've seen tons of cameras with 6-8 megapixels for $250 and less. But the images that you get from it are horrible. Reason: cheap lens.
I'm looking for a new camera myself. Would also like to add that when you're looking, look for as much OPTICAL ZOOM as you can. Optical zoom is what your camera can do with just the lens. Digital zoom enlarges the center of the scene that you are aiming at, thus you sacrifice image quality. In a nutshell, digital zoom enlarges the pixels.
Sorry if it looks like I tried to hijack your blog. I've been looking for a long time for a camera for myself, and just bought two new Olympus' for my kids. I've been pounding website after website to average out the reviews.
Another good site for reviews is
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
Scott,
Welcome, you are right about the optical zoom. It's one of the great scams in the camera industry. It ranks right up there with battery life on video cameras. You know--- the six hour battery that lasts 30 minutes under normal usage. A huge zoom on a digital camera means nothing if the image quality is so bad that the final product looks terrible.
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