Buying digital cameras

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It's easy to see why digital cameras have grown in popularity. You still 'point and shoot' in the normal way, but there's no need to buy a film or to wait for it to be processed - you just download the images onto a computer, send direct to a printer or email them instantly to friends.

And it's easy to get creative! Digital pictures can be edited so you can adjust colours, reduce 'red eye', crop the picture or add artistic effects. You can even use the images to create calendars, greeting cards and enlargements.

What are the choices?
What to look for - 5 easy steps
Other digital camera features to consider
More on memory cards
Video-clip recording
Creative effects, editing and connectivity
Digital SLR cameras
Direct printing
So how do digital cameras work?
Glossary
Digital camera
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More buying guides

What are the choices?
Point & Shoot
Entry-level digital cameras are ideal for personal or family use, and fun for sharing memories with friends via e-mail. Good value and easy to use, resolution can be anything around 5 MegaPixels - good enough for printing as well as web viewing, although printed images may look a little 'blocky' with some 5 MegaPixel resolution cameras.

Pocket Sized
Compact digital cameras which are lightweight and portable, often offering 5 or more MegaPixels. These modern digital cameras can be slotted into a small bag or pocket and offer high quality images, suitable for printing as well as web viewing, and will do justice to a range of occasions and events.

High Zoom
Digital cameras offering either an extended optical zoom lens (e.g. 10x or 35-350mm equivalent) to capture vivid images from distance or powerful digital zooms (e.g. 8x) to enhance detail of images during playback. High zoom capability can also be found in pocket sized and high performance digital cameras.

High Performance
Digital cameras and digital SLR cameras designed for professional use, often featuring over 7 MegaPixels or including powerful zooms, extended features or a combination of quality photographic elements. Digital SLRs offer the features and functionality found on a conventional SLR camera such as interchangeable lenses, designed to cope with the demands of professional photoshoots and media coverage.
Point & Shoot digital camera Pocket Sized digital camera High Zoom digital camera High performance camera
View our Point & Shoot digital cameras   View our Pocket Sized digital cameras   View our High Zoom digital cameras   View our High Performance digital cameras
     
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What to look for - 5 easy steps

1) Resolution
(expressed as Megapixels, or MP)

Resolution is one of the most important ratings of a digital camera - the higher the resolution, the sharper the image. Below is an approximate guide to maximum print size by resolution, based on prints at 150ppi acceptable photo quality (pixels per printed inch):
Pixels Megapixels Max print size
2464 x 1632 4 MP 16.42" x 10.88"
3008 x 2000 6 MP 20.05" x 13.34"
3264 x 2448 8 MP 21.76" x 16.32"
3872 x 2592 10 MP 25.81" x 17.28"
4290 x 2800 12 MP 28.60" x 18.67"

2) Memory
A digital camera's internal memory can usually only store a few pictures at any one time - its maximum image rating will tell you how many images it can hold at the lowest possible resolution (usually 640 x 480). The number of pictures you can store depends upon the compression settings you choose when saving the files, as well as on how an individual camera compresses. Higher compression allows you to fit more pictures on a card, but image quality will suffer.

A typical 5 megapixel camera with 64MB of memory can hold about 24 high resolution JPEG images, however if you buy a 7 megapixel camera you should be aiming for at least 512MB of storage. If you’re going on holiday you might not have access to a computer and you might wish to take a number of movie clips which take up more memory.

For this reason, and the fact that memory cards are becoming cheaper, a one gigabyte (GB), or 1000MB of memory, is now a popular choice. Choose from Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory Stick, SD/MMC memory cards or xD-picture cards. (see More on memory cards for more information).

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