Doing good research and learning from others' personal experiences is critical for buying electronic gadgets. One thing which we have realized is that these gizmos may look the same or have the same technical specifications, but when it comes to how they perform in real life, its a whole different ball game. In this article, we focus on the basics, and advanced information required for buying a digital camera, one of the common electronic gadget a lot of people buy.
Let us start with the basics i.e. some key features important for consumers but usually not reflected in the technical specifications.
Portability: With rapid advancement in technology, digital cameras are getting smaller and smaller but offering high technical features. These days, some cameras weigh around 100-150 grams and you can easily carry one inside your pocket without feeling it. This is very good when you regularly use the camera outdoors and do not want to carry around a heavy camera.
High-end/Low-end: For advanced photographers, who need SLR capabilities and very good optical zoom, prices easily shoots up more than 500$ (lower limit). In this article, we focus more on the average users, who don't want such high end functionalists. The price range is usually 100$-350$ for these cameras.
Power Source: This is one of the most important feature you need to check when buying a camera. A lot of digital cameras derive their power from AA batteries. If you have got rechargeable AA batteries, you can always recharge and can also keep additional AA batteries, which are cheap. The cons of using AA batteries are that you get less shots per battery compared to camera-specific battery packs (the other powering option). Also, these cameras get slightly heavy and bulky. More compact cameras (such as Cannon SD series) use Ni-MH or lithium-ion rechargeable battery packs and come with a charger. These packs give much higher number of shots per charge and the camera is usually lighter. But getting an additional NiMH battery is more costly at list prices. You can get them on sale for as low as $10 though.
Shots per Charge: How many photos can you take on a full battery charge? In addition to the camera, this depends on the usage such as use of LCD screen or settings for auto-shut off timer. You can find this information for different cameras on the following websites.
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
Memory Capacity: How much photos can you store without running back to your computer for transferring them? As you can always increase the memory capacity with a new card, this is not a big issue. But secure digital and compact flash cards (abbreviated as SD and CF cards respectively) are much cheaper than memory sticks which are used in Sony digicams.
Accessories: Many deals come with accessories also such as extra memory card, camera case, tripod, etc. Always compare the price individually as you can always get these accessories for cheap.
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