Feb 17, 2006 11:41 AM
5041 Views
(Updated Feb 17, 2006 03:12 PM)
In the past 2 years, digital cameras have been increasing there presence in the Indian market. Also there prices have also been falling steadily. Today if you desire to buy a camera for personal use, your obvious choice should be a digital camera for 2 reasons:
No recurring costs of film rolls.
You can review your photographs at the time of shooting it and can take a re-shot if the snap has not come out proper.
On the flip side, digi cams are still costlier than analog cameras.
Any way if you have decided on going for a digi cam, here are few of the things that you should keep in mind b4 you make your choice.
The Megapixel: Today digi cams are available in 2MP to 7 MP. The Megapixel(MP) of the camera tells you what size of the photo that can be printed without any distortion of the image. 3 MP is good enough for a normal postcard size print. 7 MP is good enough for a poster size print. In general if your usage is generally of normal postcard prints, opt for a cam that gives bet 3 and 5 mp.
CMOS or CCD: These are the type of buffer memory on which the image is stored when it is shot. Cheaper cameras (1k -2k) cameras use CMOS. All good quality cameras use CCD. Choose a camera that uses CCD.
Optical vs Digital Zoom: Digi cams generally come with 2 to 12x optical and 10 to 20x digital zoom. DO NOT GET FOOLED by the digital zoom figure. The effect of the digital zoom can be achieved on a computer also. Put your money on the camera that offers better optical zoom. Some sales persons/adds state the zoom as multiple of optical and digital zoom. For ex a camera with 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom can give a effective zoom of 3*4 = 12x. Stress on knowing the optical zoom.
If you can afford it go for a 10x optical zoom. If you are divided between a 5MP, 3x optical zoom and a 4MP, 10x optical zoom camera, go for the latter. You will probably never take prints more than A4 size, but will definitely feel the missing zoom.
Video Recording: Lots of cameras support video recording. Though nowhere near a dedicated video camera, it is good enough to record a few seconds long video. The cost difference between a camera that supports video recording and the one that doesn’t, is negligible, so go for the one that supports video recording. This comes handy.
Memory: This is the place where the images are generally stored. Some cameras have built in memory also. But generally this is very less(~32Mb). In general a good quality image takes approx 1mb of space. Go for at least 256Mb memory. This will allow you to store at least 200 images. If you plan to buy a bigger memory card. say 1Gb or so...instead buy 2 512 Mb cards. Simple reason, if the memory card goes bad, you wont loose the whole 1Gb. If your digi cam supports video recording, it is advisable to go for at least 512Mb card. Digi cams generally support either MMC or SD or CF card. All are good. All cost abt the same. If you have a mobile phone that supports SD/MMC card, give a little higher weightage to camera that has that type of card. This will give u a multipurpose mem card.
LCD Display: Always buy a camera with LCD display. Remember one of the reasons you are buying a digi cam is so that you can review your shots at real time. Tough LCD display eats up battery, but this is worth a compromise.
Battery: This is one place where a compromise is generally made. Some cameras use 2 and some use 4 AA type batteries. Some cameras may use a different kind of battery. Prefer to buy a camera that uses AA type battery...for ease of availability.
Always buy rechargeable batteries. Buy a set of spare batteries. Buy the batteries that have highest mAmp (milli amp) value. Higher this value, longer will the batteries last.
Size: Depending upon the usage, choose a camera that suits your size requirements. Generally smaller the size higher the cost.
Brand: Go for a known brand. My personal preferences wud be: Sony, Cannon, Kodak, Nikon, and Olyumpus.
In summary, a 5 MP, 10x optical zoom, 1Gb mem card, 4 rechargeable batteries with charger, digi cam will set you back by at least 10-15k.
Go-ahead and treat your self....unleash the photographer within.
Keep one thing in mind...once you have your gizmo, clicking is not going to cost you any thing. so don’t hesitate.
