I've written this article to help you understand the
things that really matter when you're buying
a digital camera and to help you with your choice
What I will not do is to recommend either a particular make or a particular model, and there are two reasons for this. Firstly, new models are being brought out all the time and so any information I or anyone else can give you will be out date almost immediately, and secondly there is probably no such thing as a right or a wrong choice - your choice should depend on the type of photos you want to take and on your personal budget.
It's a technical subject, but although you need to be aware of the technical issues I've done my best to explain things in a completely non-technical way.
Before we start, there is no doubt that digital is taking over from film cameras. Professional photographers like myself have used digital for years, then keen amateurs started buying digital, and now prices have come down so much, and quality has improved so much, that most of the people who only want a camera for their holiday snaps are thinking about digital. In September 2003 Kodak announced that they are stopping all future investment in traditional film photography and putting it into digital instead.
All of this is good for the consumer - in theory - but the amount of choice, and the slick marketing, has made it into a bit of a minefield for buyers!
The various types of digital cameras.
Basically there are 3 types, although sometimes the dividing lines can get a bit smudged...
Point & Shoot (P&S) are the most basic type. They are aimed at people who are looking for small, compact cameras that do everything automatically. Whether they look like cameras or not, they are really minature computers that can take basic photographs. These cameras are ideal for people who want a small camera to carry around with them, and they are ideal if high quality really doesn't matter. Typical uses would be where only very small prints (around 6"x4") are wanted, or no prints at all, because these cameras are very useful for taking photos that are going to be sent by email or posted on sites such as Ebay, just to show what something looks like.
Next up in the quality (and cost) stakes are the cheaper cameras designed for people who have an interest in photography and who want to exercise some control over the picture-taking process. The photographer can set the shutter speed and the aperture (the amount of light allowed to pass through the lens) and sometimes other features too. Typically these cameras will have autofocus, where the camera automatically measures the distance between camera and subject and (hopefully) sets the camera to the correct focus. Sometimes the autofocus doesn't work too well in all picture-taking situations, and so the camera may also have a manual setting so that the focus can be adjusted by the photographer. Typically, these cameras have zoom lenses and they also record more pixels than the cheaper point-and-shoot models so, in theory at least, they should produce sharper, more detailed pictures.
Then there are the so-called 'professional' cameras. The word 'professional' in this context is just a marketing term and is totally meaningless. As an example, one very well-known manufacturer produced a digital camera that they claimed produced professional quality. A few months later they discontinued it and replaced it with another, with twice the pixel count. They then said that this was their first professional digital camera. Very soon afterwards they discontinued this one too, and replaced it with a better (and cheaper) model, so you would think that this one would be called 'professional' too - but no, in the meanwhile they had brought out an even better and more expensive model and this one was described as professional, with its cheaper brother (the replacement for their previous 'professional' camera now described as a consumer camera!
Regardless of what their manufacturers call them, these cameras generally have both fully automatic and fully manual functions. They have interchangeable lenses (and are usually sold without a lens, so that the buyer can decide on the most suitable type of lens for the type of photography they do) At the time of writing they have chips or CMOS-type sensors that record between 6 and 14 megapixels. They are very similar in design and operation to 35mm SLR (single lens reflex) film cameras, where the photographer looks through a viewfinder and sees exactly what will appear on the finished photo, because s/he is looking at the subject through the actual lens. The image from the lens is deflected to the viewfinder by a mirror, which flips up out of the way when the shutter button is pressed. They also have a 'proper' camera shutter, unlike the cheaper digital cameras, where effectively the shutter is just a computer operation.
There is a 4th category, the true professional digital cameras, but they are outside the scope of this article.
Are digital cameras a good investment?
No, in fact they are probably the worst 'investment' you can make, in the sense that, like any other computer, they depreciate extremely rapidly. If you buy any digital camera today you can expect it to be discontinued very soon and to be replaced with a better and cheaper model. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't buy one, what it does mean is that you should be aware that it will lose its resale value far more quickly than a film camera.
Is this the right time to buy one?
Compared to 6 months ago, yes. Compared with what we expect them to cost in 6 months time, no.
Which Make should you buy?
If you're in the market for a very cheap point & shoot it probably doesn't matter too much which make you get, they all perform at more or less the same level. If you prefer a more sophisticated digital you might be better going for one made by a camera, rather than an electronics manufacturer. Well-known camera manufacturers who also make digital cameras include Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Minolta, Fuji and Kodak. The reason for this is that the camera manufacturers have a lot of experience with producing film cameras and are more likely to fit their products with decent lenses and with photographer-friendly features. They are also less likely to put the lens in an unbelievably stupid place, for example where you put your thumb when you hold it!
The terms and length of the warranty is worth considering too - camera manufacturers seem to value their customers more than electronics firms and provided much better warranties.
Is digital quality as good as film?
Digital isn't really better or worse than film, it's different! Shots produced on film show grain when they are enlarged to a certain point. The grain is actually particles of silver halide, suspended in gelatin. Digital cameras don't have any grain, they have pixels instead, and if the image is enlarged enough the pixels will show. Of greater concern is digital noise, which in bad cases can look a bit like a TV screen with a poor aerial! The amount of noise depends on a number of factors, the most important of which are the size of the sensor and the ability of the pixels to cope with the electrical charge that produces the image. In simple terms, the smaller the sensor, the greater the amount of noise.
How many pixels does my digital camera need?
A pixel is a tiny piece of information captured by the camera and, in theory at least, the more there are of them the better the photo will be - but in practice that simply isn't true, as you will see later, and in any case you may not need a lot of pixels - it all depends on your personal quality needs and the use to which you are going to put the pictures.
Let's assume, for example, the following uses:-
Post 6"x4" pictures on Ebay, to help sell your auction items. You need a picture of around 6"x4", 432 x 288 pixels = 124416 0.12Mp
Email 9"x6" pics to your friends. You need a picture of 648 x 432 = 279936 0.28Mp
Get your family snaps printed by Jessops (or similar) size 6"x4" 1200x800 (resolution 200 dpi) = 1030400 1.03Mp
Get your family snaps printed by Jessops (or similar) size 9"x6" 1800x1200 (resolution 200 dpi) = 2160000 2.16Mp
Get your photos printed in a book, magazine or brochure, size 9"x6" 2700x1800(resolution 300 dpi) = 486000 4.86Mp
Mp = Megapixel (millions of pixels).
O.K., this means that any digital camera will be fine for sending pictures by email or posting on the web. And almost any digital camera can produce prints of your family snapshots. You don't need a 5 Mp camera unless you want your photos printed to professional standards, or as very large prints.
And here's a very important truth that the manufacturers and salesmen may not get around to telling you - the amount of detail captured by your digital camera will depend on the number of pixels contained in its sensor. You can 'add' more pixels later, on your computer (a process known as interpolation) but this only makes the file larger, it does not and cannot add information that wasn't there in the first place! Now, there are some camera manufacturers who have built software into their cameras that does this interpolation automatically. Some of them add 50% and some add 100%. What you, as the customer, end up with is (for example) a camera that claims to produce 6Mp but which in reality only produces 3, or a camera that claims 3.3Mp but which really only produces 2.1. Various terms are used in the sales literature to describe these 'increases', such as interpolation, image processing, algorithm, up-sampling, post-processing - but somewhere, perhaps honestly stated or perhaps hidden away in the small print, will be the actual number of pixels.
Some people believe that interpolation produces better quality but they're wrong! Interpolation only allows larger prints to be made, and it can't add detail that isn't there. And anyway, if you need to increase the size of the file it's much better to do it on your computer than to rely on the tiny computer contained in a digital camera.
Is the number of pixels what it's all about then?
No, because it doesn't necessarily follow that cameras with more pixels produce higher quality than those with less. One factor that is more important than the number of pixels is the size of the sensor that records them - and this is something that the manufacturers just won't get around to telling you!
The reasons for this are fairly complex but if you're not too concerned with the physics, all you need to know is that when the manufacturers reduce the physical size (and production cost) of the camera by 'shrinking' the size of the sensor then they are shrinking the quality too. And most people simply don't realise just how small these sensors are, in the cheaper digital cameras. Some of them are only 4 x 3mm - and that means that the pixels themselves are minute and cannot properly capture the light from the lens. And even then, the problems aren't over because the picture has to be enlarged so much to get a decent size print - an enlargement of over 50 times the sensor size, just to get a 10"x8" print - and you know what happens to quality when you enlarge a photo....
For example, if you take a 'standard' amateur film size of 35mm and enlarge it to 8"x12", this is an enlargement of 8 times. The enlargement will magnify any camera shake and poor focus x8 too. It will also enlarge the grain, which is the physical structure from which the film is made. Most people consider that 8"x12" is about the limit for reasonable quality from 35mm film, which of course is why most professional photographers use much larger cameras.
But only the most expensive digital cameras use a sensor the size of the small film cameras, so there has to be a substantial loss of quality if you enlarge the picture too much. My advice to you is to go for a camera that has a relatively large sensor, this is far more important than the number of pixels. And don't be deceived by adverts that claim their cameras have 1" or 3/4" sensors - this term does not mean what you expect it to mean, the term itself is a throwback to 1950s television tube sizes and bears little relation to the real size. What you need to know is the actual size of the sensor, in mm. Unfortunately the actual physical size of the sensor is something that the manufacturers tend not to shout about, unless of course their camera has a decent-sized sensor.
Logic tells us that it must be better to have a camera that has 8 million pixels than one that has only 3 million - and so it is, but only if the pixels in the 8MP camera are the same size and the same distance apart from each other in both cameras. The reality of course is that, because the sensor is the most expensive part of the camera, it is made as small as possible and the pixels themselves are minaturised. Because of this the overall quality of an 8 MP camera is likely to be worse than that of a 3 MP camera with the same size sensor - the pixel count is just marketing hype!
Shutter lag is the length of time between pressing the button and the camera actually taking the picture. Cheap digital cameras are notorious for having very long shutter lags and you will need to spend serious money on professional/semi professional digital cameras to avoid shutter lag, or at least to reduce it to the level of film cameras.
Whether or not shutter lag is a problem for you will depend on the type of photography you do - if you're taking photos of a landscape it won't matter, if you're taking photos of a toddler running towards you you'll find that the delay will completely spoil the picture!
Physical size of the camera
Well, this one is very much a matter of personal preference, but bear in mind that something has to give on very small cameras! If the camera is both small and relatively simple there may not be too much of a problem, because there won't be too many buttons to press, but with more complex cameras small size can be a definite disadvantage - the buttons will be smaller, and closer together, and usually you will find yourself having to press and hold down button A and press button B seven times to change something or other - not only is this inconvenient, especially if you have large hands, it is also almost impossible to remember! So you end up having to carry the instruction book around with you....
The viewfinder
Basically there are 3 different types of viewfinder. Single Lens Reflex cameras (the most expensive type) have the best viewfinders, because you will, in effect, be looking through the actual camera lens when deciding what to include in your picture.
Then there is the LCD-type screen on the rear of most cameras, which seems excellent but it does have its disadvantages. You have to hold the camera, not to your eye, but in front of you. As you move the camera around, the screen 'refreshes' to show the latest view. This is all very well, but the image is very jerky. And then there is the problem of sunlight, if you're using the camera outdoors. The image on the screen is fine for indoor use but in bright sun it can be very difficult to see. You can buy a shade that fits on to it, from camera shops, but this adds to both the bulk and the expense.
And then there is the 'optical' viewfinder. This is a simple look-through viewfinder which gives you a very good idea of what you will get in the picture, but they are not very accurate, especially at very close distances (because the viewfinder is seeing the picture from a slightly different position to the lens).
Zoom lenses.
Some of the cheapest digital cameras have a fixed lens. No zoom at all, which means that you have to use your legs to get more or less in the picture. If it does have a zoom lens then it could be one of 2 types, or a combination of both.
Optical zoom lenses are real zoom lenses. A zoom ration of, say, 4 to 1 means that you can adjust the images size to zoom in or out to make it 4 times bigger or smaller.
Digital zoom lenses are computer-generated zooms and in my view are a total waste of time. You can get the same magnification effect simply by making adjustments on your computer. There will be a quality loss if you do this, but there will be the same quality loss if you use a digital zoom lens.
Do you really need a zoom lens?
That depends, partly on the type of photos you want to take, partly on how much effort you're prepared to put into getting decent photos and partly on whether you want to print them or to just view them on the computer or email them.
Zoom lenses work in 2 directions, not just 1. You can zoom in to, effectively, make your subject bigger and you can zoom out to include more in the picture, as if you had moved further away. If the quality loss doesn't bother you too much, or if you are only going to view the photos on a computer, you can 'zoom in' on the computer, effectively cropping what you don't want out of the picture.
But you can't zoom out unless you have a zoom lens. You may be able to walk further away, but if there isn't enough space for this there will be pictures that you simply won't be able to take without a zoom lens.
As far as personal effort is concerned, there are people who will take a camera out of their pocket and snap away without any thought and there are others who will put thought into the process and who will move to the best position before taking the shot. The more effort you contribute the better your photos will be, and the less essential a zoom lens will be.
As mentioned earlier, high quality is not needed for email, website or computer viewing, so zooming in (cropping) on the computer is a reasonable alternative to the telephoto end of a zoom lens, but if you want to print your photos you may find the quality loss unacceptable.
Digital storage
The photos have to be stored in some way, within the camera. Later on, you either copy them on to your computer or you take the storage media to a high-street photo printer to get them printed. The 'bigger' the storage, the more pictures you can take before you fill it up. Just how many pictures you will be able to store will depend on 3 factors:
1. The size of the pictures - The more pixels the camera records, the larger the files will be and the less you will be able to store.
2. The way in which you capture the photos if you have a camera that allows you a choice, you may be able to store them as RAW files, TIFF files or JPEG files - and if you are storing them as JPEGs, which are compressed files,you may be able to choose how much you compress them. The more they are compressed, the more pictures you can store but the lower the quality.
3. The amount of data the digital storage can accommodate
Just as an example, looking at the digital camera in front of me now, which is fitted with a 256 Mb Compact Flash card, it can store:
19 RAW files, 6 TIFF files, or 53 high-quality JPEGs, or 104 lower-quality JPEGs, or 880 lowest-quality JPEGs.
When you buy your digital camera it's bad enough trying to decide which features your camera needs. Then you have to make a choice as to what type of storage you want. Over the years, rather than standardising on one type of memory, more and more types seem to hit the shops. This can make the choice rather confusing. At the moment there are eight leading types of storage card to choose from. These are Smart Media, Compact Flash, Microdrive, Memory Stick, Multi Media Card, Secure Digital Card, CD and PC Disks and the XD-Picture Card. See the separate article on digital storage media.
Data Recovery
If the worst does happen and your storage card becomes damaged there are companies that specialise in retrieving lost data. If this ever happens to you then it is well worth paying a visit to www.flash-card-recovery.co.uk.
Look on Ebay for the best deals on digital storage, often around half the price of the same card in a camera shop!
Some digital cameras don't accept any kind of storage media - they just have their own internal storage, which is usually very limited.
Improving your photos on computer
Some people don't bother with this, but to many people this is at least half the fun, and they spend untold hours on their computers both improving the photos and deliberately producing weird and wonderful effects!
You can just take your digital camera (or its storage card) to a high-street shop (such as Jessops) and get prints made, but it's far better to upload the pictures on to your computer, carry out any necessary improvements using one of the many image enhancement programmes, write the finished pictures to disk and then get them printed. The programme used by professionals costs around £500, needs a powerful computer and a lot of experience, but very few people need a programme that powerful. Most digital cameras include some kind of image enhancement programme - check before you buy - and these simple programmes will run on any modern computer and are fairly simple to use. You would normally use them to crop the picture (in effect zooming-in to cut out the bits you don't need, that you should have cut out when you took the picture), change the colours or change it to black and white, change the size, change the contrast and/or change the brightness. At the same time, you will decide which pictures are worth printing and which would be better deleted.
Getting prints made
You can print your digital photos on an inkjet computer printer but this is a very expensive way of doing things, the surface is fairly easily damaged and the photos will often fade quickly if they are exposed to too much bright light. The cheaper and better option is to write them to disk and get them printed on real photographic paper by a high street multiple such as Jessops.
Where should you buy your digital camera?
The Internet is often your best choice as far as price is concerned, but you should be aware that digital cameras have complex electronics and can go wrong, so it makes good sense to consider whether it might be better to deal with your local camera shop, where hopefully you can expect a reasonable level of service if things go wrong. Not that I'm advising you against buying on the Internet! I've had some great buys on Ebay. You should however be aware that there are fraudsters around and they seem to be especially active with high-priced items such as some of the more expensive digital cameras. There are also some unbelievable offers on some models of digital camera that are in short supply - the golden rule applies, if it seems too good to be true then it probably is!
Be careful too about buying from other countries - even if your expensive camera actually arrives, you will be liable for both import duty and V.A.T. on top of the price you paid, and you will have to return it to the country of origin if you have any problems with it.
Counterfeit cameras
Well, it had to happen and now it has! Apparently there are many thousands of counterfeit digital cameras around that look almost exactly like expensive models made by Canon, and possibly other makes too. Be especially careful if buying on an auction site or from a 'cheap' high street dealer.
Discontinued models
Everything gets discontinued at some point, but unlike most new products, digital cameras are discontinued and replaced by new models very frequently. So what happens to stock of the old models? They're sold off to unsuspecting buyers on auction sites, by mail order and in 'cheap' shops. Unlike counterfeit goods, discontinued cameras are not necessarily a bad buy - but make sure that you are paying less for them than the model they have replaced (which is probably both cheaper and better) and not just less than the original list price.
What do the specifications mean?
As a general rule, digital cameras sold in the high street seem to be sold on their looks, whilst those sold on internet auction sites seem to be sold on their specification and features. The trick is to read the specification carefully and to try to interpret the information provided. Below are examples of two different camera specifications, with my own comments in red. The second camera clearly has a far better specification, although the prices seem to be very similar! My own comments will help you to interpret the specifications but you should remember that you can only interpret what's there and the sellers won't tell you about important things that aren't there - for example, the camera in example 1 (below) doesn't have a built-in flash but the specification doesn't say so.
This article was written by Garry Edwards. Garry has written a number of informative guides to photography. They are available from www.photolearn.co.uk.
