Rajcomputers: How to Select a Best Digital Camera

Saturday 21 May 2011

How to Select a Best Digital Camera

Capturing the best moments of life has always been great things to do since after going through those pics you can recall the precious moments of life. But very few people do care about the choosing right camera for snapping your dearest moments, if you don’t want to spoil those invaluable moment check this out!

Here we will check out what are the basics to select a digital camera and will look out towards few technical definitions used in this field from users perspective. I have enlisted few characteristic which drives a user to buy the camera accordingly.

1. Purchasing Power

Its the major factor which will force you to buy the certain camera even if you want to have high end camera but lack of money or your budget for the camera can bar your thoughts. The allocated budget range itself decides the range of camera that you will buy.
For example if your range is <Rs 4000 then there will be two option either you have to go with very very basic  feature from the big brand or you may get somewhat decent feature from little known brands existing in the Industry.
No matter how much you earn but one should spend the money on buying the camera according to his need and will. For example if you really are Safari lover or partying animal or always enjoy your holiday outside, I will suggest you to increase the budget since the lower end camera can never satisfy such people.
Again how much you can stress your budget is debating question since one has to arrive towards particular solution. As per my thinking the following budgetsmay be applied as,

For gifting dear ones   :  Budget upto Rs. 3000
Occasional user             : Rs. 5000-8000
For home users              : Rs. 8000-14000
Safari Lovers                   : Rs. 15000 -30000
Professionals                 : as per need

2. Mega Pixel

I have often seen many people  choose the camera by giving the priority to Mega Pixels. Upto certain extent it is right but there is loads of difference between the Mega Pixels of two different camera. How two people having same height can be same in size and weight? The same case is here too. MP of two different camera has different technical dimensions attached with it. Judging the Camera with MP is quite good but remember everything doesn’t depend on it.

I believe 10 MP is the descent and one can go with any camera for Rs. 8000 or more budget. Mega Pixel adds the resolution depth of the image more the MP more is the depth and quality. In general, More megapixel means one can view image with increasing the zooming power without hampering the quality of it.
For the normal view through desktop (for lower end camera) 3MP is the good investment. Remember 2MP = 1600×1200 pixels which is as equal as your desktop/Laptop configuration so viewing image in your personal computer wont trouble you. Adding further if you want to have print copy of your snapped pics just go for higher pixel. So the list for Mega Pixel can be restructured as,

For gifting dear ones   :  3MP
Occasional user             :  5MP
For home users              :  8MP
Safari Lovers               :  >10MP
Professionals                 : >8MP (they dont bother about it!)

Capturing the HD quality video has quenched the need of separate handy cam and one can also choose the camera depending on the Video shooting usability of the customer.

3. Zoom
This is the third feature that dominates the buying behaviour of user. For those who don’t know, there are two types of zooming capability viz., Optical zoom and Digital zoom. Optical zoom ensures you to capture the long distance scene without affecting photo quality where as digital zoom does the same function but here the quality will not be same as that in case of optical one.

Many people are confused with the “X” associated with the zoom. Let me clear you it does not tell you about the distance in any unit but ensures the object is “X” times closer than it actually appears.

For example 10x means the object is 10 times closer, suppose a car is standing at 100m from your position, the 10x zoom will cut the distance margin by 10 so you can have the same pic quality as if you are snapping it from 10m distance only.

Strictly, If you want to use Camera for out door use go for 10x zoom or more. Home user can go for 4x zoom. Personally I have 12x zoom camera but always desired for more zoom so choose higher optical zoom.
Note: Digital zoom  is just a formality.
First three priorities will always be same for almost every user but from here onwards the priority is arguable. I have done a quick survey among friends and enlisting you the further priorities/feature to buy camera.

4. Battery

Whatsoever is the feature of your Camera but if fail to capture the moment at time when needed will be a vague! So Battery has to be taken into consideration while buying camera. Generally, Camera comes with two types of battery.

1)Li-ion/NiMH type: These are comparatively long lasting batteries and has to be charged batteries in camera. Portable of which is very costly hence when you failed to charge you are gone.

2)AA type:  AA Battery( commonly Pencil Cell) are my favourite since they can be charge with other special charger and in case of default extra pair of rechargeable AA  or in worst case Dura Cell can come Handy.Go for AA type.

5. Display

3.o” display are most common but do remember that the screen resolution varies among the range. Display has not been keen issue on which people stresses much but its always good to have it. You can save few bucks by compromising with the Display.

6. Size,Weight & Design

Most people are caring about the device they handle and looks of Camera matters the most for such reserved users. Many companies are giving SLR look to the compact cameras. The size of camera is also getting lesser and lesser. Sony Alpha Nexus is one of the example of Nano Cameras. No suggestion from me in this category in the end its yours choice.

7. Auto/Manual Mode

Buying high end camera doesn’t mean that you will learn photography, for those who really want to try hand on this art I will suggest to choose Manual mode camera with maximum features enable. Home user and less concerned about photography should go for default Auto mode Digi Cams.

8. Aperture, Shutter Speed & ISO

Theses are all technical terms and we will try to get it in easier Manner.
Starting with, Aperture is the hole through which the light travels. While comparing the high end and middle range cameras Aperture can play a big role.
You might have seen range of aperture is f/x–f/y something like that. Simply Aperture deals with the focus of your camera higher the Aperture higher is the quality. so value of x in “f/x” should be higher means choose f/2 instead of f/2.8
Shutter Speed is the effective length of time a camera’s shutter is open. Lower the speed is higher the details we get. For example if you are snapping the running fan with higher shutter speed cam then you will get a hazy ring and as the speed goes on decreasing the details will be clear and you will see 3 blades with lower shutter speed.
ISO is the image sensitivity with respect to light. In auto mode ISO gets adjust according to light, ISO of 100 or 200 when taking photographs outside in sunny conditions where as it is upto 400 when snapping in overcast condition while it is 1600 when taking pics in complete dark.

9. Extra Features

To create niche market and product differentiation every camera offers something different than other. Many extra features like HDMI port, Bluetooth, High Memory card support, Red Eye technology, Sensor technology etc can be matched according to your requirements.
With this I Hope, All important terminologies of Cameras

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