Cameras that use film are so old fashioned now, digital cameras have stormed onto the scene and totally dominated it, yet they can be really tricky to shop for. With all the technology being shoved into the cameras then it almost feels like you need a degree in IT to go shopping for one, here are our top tips though to help you get your perfect camera:

Don’t worry about megapixels: People think that the more megapixels they have then the higher quality the image will be, but that is not true. At around 8 megapixels then the only difference will be a larger print size (which will be huge by then anyway) and so you can print a large copy or zoom in better when you are editing. So unless you do intense photo editing and you need to zoom in really really close to the picture, or you need to get prints which are the size of posters, then don’t use megapixels as the deciding factor when you are looking at cameras.

Looking at total zoom: There are two types of zoom with digital cameras, optical zoom which is actual zoom where the front of the camera moves out and helps you zoom, and then digital zoom which is just the camera zooming in using software to make the image appear bigger. Most cameras will quote you ‘total zoom’ in their specs, which is optical x digital, but that can cleverly mask a poor optical zoom if they want it to. For instance, if a camera has a 3x optical zoom and a 6x digital zoom then the total zoom is 18x, but that is the same total as a camera with 6x optical and 3x digital zoom. So make sure you look at the optical zoom figures when you are considering how much zoom it has.

Not trying them out: Cameras are a personal choice, the specs for a camera can be perfect, but then you get it and it just doesn’t feel right, it is too small for your hands, the menu is awful, the buttons are hard to use etc. These are the kind of things you can only find out if you actually try one out in person. This is easy enough to do though, just nip into a local store that sells the model you want and they are usually happy to let you try out a display model. Take along an SD card or whatever it takes and try it out for a bit, then take your card home and look at the quality of the pictures it took.

Those three tips should help you to avoid the big mistakes that people make when searching for a digital camera, so you can spend your money on a camera that you will actually enjoy using and will give you great pictures to enjoy for years to come!

If you are going on holiday then consider getting a pink waterproof digital camera to liven things up!


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