Digital Cameras - Digital Camera

Digital cameras come with a huge variety of prices and features. Maybe you just want a basic point-and-click digital camera for holiday snaps and family get togethers - or maybe you want a digital SLR camera with more advance features and a higher picture quality?

Listed below you'll find the main features to consider when you're choosing your digital camera. Basically, you can pretty much have anything you want these days - but the price will increase with the number of features.

Digital Camera Resolution
A digital camera's resolution will heavily influence the quality of your final digital photographs. Resolution is defined in megapixels (Mp). The greater the number of megapixels, the greater the detail - meaning you can create larger prints without noticing any distortion in the finished picture.

The table below shows some typical photo sizes along with the resolution in megapixels that you would need for a decent quality print.

Zoom Feature
Almost all digital cameras have a zoom feature, and most digital cameras have both an optical zoom and a digital zoom feature.

Optical zoom is performed in the "traditional" way by using the lens to zoom in on the subject. Digital zoom uses software inside the camera to enlarge the image. This can lead to a reduction in quality. Optical zoom is considered to be significantly better than digital zoom.

If you think that you might be taking a lot of long range pictures - for example your kid's high school play or sports day - then shelling out for a better optical zoom might be worth it.

You can use optical and digital zoom together. For example, on a camera with 3X optical zoom and 10 X digital zoom you can achieve a combined effect of 30X zoom.

Shutter Delay
Some digital cameras actually take the picture over a second after you press the button. This is due to the autofocus systems and other features that need a "measurement time" prior to taking the shot.

One tip to avoid this is to half press the button when you're setting up a shot. This activates the camera's autofocus and reduces the delay.

Viewfinder
Almost all digital cameras have a small LCD screen to help you take your pictures. However, an optical viewfinder, as gound on older cameras, can be good in bright sunlight when the LCD screen can be difficult to view.

Size and Weight
Digital cameras come in all sizes and weights today. If you want a pocket sized model then be sure top check the weights and dimensions before you buy.

As a general rule, larger cameras tend to have more features and often, but not always, take better quality pictures.

Face Detection
If you're planning on taking a lot of portrait shots you may wish to consider a camera with face detection. Simply put, it helps you take good pictures of people.

These cameras can normally detect 8 or 9 faces in a frame. With face detection turned on the camera will focus on the faces so that they're sharp and not too dark or bright.

Video and Sound
Most modern digital cameras have the ability to take short videos, usually with sound. This can be handy - but the quality of video will be lower than a standard digital camcorder.

Image Stabilisation
Even if your camera is focused perfectly your photo might still be a little blurry, especially in dim conditions or if you are using a lot of zoom. The cause of this is camera shake.

You can use a tripod to combat this, but it's not always practical to lug one of these about. The best digital cameras now have image stabilisation technology to help produce sharper images.

You may sometimes see camera manufacturers touting their "anti-blur" features. These aren't true image stabilisation and they can increase the noise in your pictures. Even so, it's a useful function to have as blur is usually a bigger problem than noise.