Its amazing to see how fast the digital camera's have outnumbered the traditional film based cameras and for a very good reason.

Digital camera is basically a modern day camera that records pictures in an electronic format.

A few advantages of a digital camera are -

• You can see the results instantly rather than dropping at the photo studio for printing. The small screen on the camera is called "View Finder".
• Take as many pictures as you want till the desired results is reached. ( You can see it on view finder)
• Delete unwanted pictures instantly (or later). In older film based cameras if you had taken a wrong picture that portion of film was permanently lost.
• Connect to the computer and email your pictures as they are already in an electronic format, you can also modify the pictures.
• Print pictures instantly if you have a color printer or a camera station/printer (does not require a computer).
• Even use it as a handy cam (camcorder) for capturing short videos.

Buying a digital camera is quite a challenge these days because of the range of choice that is available in the market. I have tried to put together some factors that will be helpful in understanding and buying a digital camera for a beginner to an intermediate level user. I personally think 90% of all people fall in this category, assuming that the 10% category includes professional photographers and very high end users. I am going to refer these 90% of the people as "NORMAL" users in this article going forward.

BUDGET - how much will it cost me / how much should I spend:
Although the price of a digital camera can vary from $150 to thousands of dollars, a NORMAL user can get a good digital camera for about $250 to $400. These cameras will have a good automatic point and shoot capability. Automatic mode means just point at the object person and click, the camera will automatically adjust its settings based on light, distance and overall environment. Most NORMAL users click pictures in Automatic format only.

Most cameras also have specialized preset modes like portrait, landscape, macro, candle light/night and sports mode. A custom mode that lets you set your own brightness and contrast levels that is available for advance users is also available in almost all cameras. Cameras come pre-equipped with inbuilt flash, zoom and a small memory card. If you go with higher feature/price range camera there is a good chance that you will never use those high end features.

MEMORY CARD:
What is a memory card?

Memory card is basically a small chip in plastic cover that goes inside your your camera. Think memory card like a box that can hold certain number of balls (in this case memory card holds pictures). The size of memory card decides how many pictures can stored in it. As more digital pictures are clicked the memory card starts to fill up.

• Then you can transfer your digital pictures from memory card to your computer ( or CD) or
• If you do not want to do it yourself just take that chip (or the whole camera) to a nearby store and they will transfer your pictures in a CD so that your memory card can be emptied.
• You can also get the paper prints for about 10-20 cents per picture for the selected pictures you decide to print.

Once the pictures have been transferred from the Memory card to CD (or computer), or simply deleted after prints are made, the memory card is ready to be used again as if it was new.

How big should it be?
Normally a 1GB card holds about 370 pictures at a time, when clicked by a a 5 Mega pixel Resolution camera (explained later. An 8 mega pixel camera will store 225 pictures.)

RESOLUTION:
What is Camera Resolution?
Following the logic of box and balls from the previous example. Think mega pixel of a camera as the size of each ball. As the mega pixel of a camera grows the number of pictures that can fit in the memory card reduces. Therefore higher the resolution means bigger picture. It will also mean the picture will be more clear when its printed.

Ideally what should be the resolution of my camera?
About 3-4 years back the camera's use to have 1 to 3 mega pixel resolution and this was a big deciding factor. These days a typical camera comes with 5 mega pixels or more . If you click a picture with a 5 mega pixel camera and another with a 10 mega pixel camera, then get 5x7 inch prints made from each one, its almost impossible to tell the difference.

With a 5 mega pixel camera you can get even 8x10 inch prints of great quality, a higher resolution camera can will enable you to get bigger pictures with better clarity but a NORMAL user is unlikely to do that. A disadvantage of going with a very high mega pixel camera is that it occupies more space on the memory card so you can take lesser pictures. An alternate way is to get a bigger memory card but that will be more expensive.

Remember these days the cameras can also take videos like your handy cam/camcorder. However that tends to use the memory card space much faster than pictures. so a 1 GB card is probably more than what a NORMAL user will need. About 200 pictures plus about 20 minutes of video.


ZOOM:
What is Zoom?
Zoom is basically a magnifier that makes the distant object appear closer using lens ( also called "optical" zoom ). This enables to take pictures of objects which are far and small, to appear closer and bigger. There is also another type of zoom in cameras called "digital zoom" which is a non-lens based magnifier. The drawback of digital zoom is that it gradually reduces the quality of pictures so for NORMAL users it should not be taken into account even if your camera has this feature.

How much should it be?
This really depends on your need, but mostly an optical zoom of 3X is quite good ( 3 times magnification than the original picture). Some cameras come with 5X to 10X zoom which is even better but that increases the cost of the camera and often the size of camera too. I personally think 3X is fine, anything more is just an additional benefit.

SIZE & WEIGHT:
Bottom-line - smaller the better. If the camera can slip into your pocket or a small purse, that is ideal. Again do not go for smallest possible camera as it tends to be more costly. Just visit your local store and hold a camera, see which one you are more comfortable with. Some people with bigger hands may find very small cameras inconvenient.

BRANDS:
I would prefer to stick with famous brands like Canon, Sony, Fuji, Kodak, Nikon etc..

CAMERA ACCESSORIES:
Camera Case, Memory Cards, Spare Batteries/Re-charger and Tripod are common accessories.

READ REVIEWS ONLINE:
Before buying a digital camera take the time to do a little research and not rely on the sales person inside the store. Read some reviews on digital cameras in magazines or online. There are some great free websites around that give expert user reviews.

SEARCH FOR A GOOD PRICE:
Shop around your local stores and find which has the best price, selection and return policy. This will also expose you to a lot of cameras and help in deciding which one is right for you. You can also buy it online but try to stick with popular sites. 

 

The file size is based on the standard dimension of high resolution JPEG. Number of pictures - Megapixel. Image Size File Size The Estimated No. of Images   128 MB 256 MB 512 MB 1 GB 2 GB 4 GB 2 MegaPixel 900 KB 140 280 565 1135 2270 4550 3 MegaPixel 1.2 MB 105 210 425 850 1705 3410 4 MegaPixel 2 MB 60 125 255 510 1020 2045 5 MegaPixel 2.5 MB 50 100 200 405 815 1635 6 MegaPixel 3.2 MB 40 80 160 320 640 1280