The most important piece of equipment when it comes to taking good pictures has nothing to do with anything you can buy at a store. It’s actually your own two eyes and your brain. Being able to see what you want to take a picture in your mind is the first step to taking a great picture.
How do you distinguish the flood of technical specifications between important features, and marketing hype? Knowing what to look for and what to ignore can help ease your buying decision. And save you money.
I heard a great story from an aspiring young photographer about their college days. His professor in a photography class full of promising professional photographers was given a simple task.
Just ignore them. Five or six years ago, when the majority of cameras had below 4MP, it was a significant item to consider when deciding which digital camera to buy. Today, it’s practically impossible to buy a new digital camera with less than 6MP. The manufacturers (all of them) still continue to flaunt megapixels, like it’s the holy grail of digital imaging. It’s really a disservice to the consumer and they know it.
Another thing to consider, is LCD screen size. A lot of digital cameras have 2.5 or 3 inch LCD screens. Nice for viewing, but also guaranteed to chew through batteries like crazy. If you look around a bit, you should be able to find some models with a 2 inch screen.
It doesn’t really matter. What does matter, is that you make a decision, and start taking pictures. The more pictures you take, the better your next set of pictures will be.
In the spirit of saving batteries, and keeping your costs down, make sure your camera has an optical viewfinder. That way, you don’t have to use the LCD screen all the time. Many LCD screens don’t work well outside in bright sunlight anyway. A lot of digital cameras these days (especially the least expensive) exclude the viewfinder.
Take your time looking around, and you’ll be sure to find plenty of cheap canon digital cameras. Online prices can be very competitive, but sometimes it’s nice to hold on to a camera before you buy it.
Look for some shadowing areas, and take pictures of those. If they’ll let you, try the camera outside to see how the LCD looks. Ask as many questions as you can, and just get a good feel for the camera. When the pictures look good to you, and the camera feels right in your hands, you’ll know you’ve found a winner.
Tags: New Digital Camera, Six Years, Deciding Which Digital Camera, Digital Cameras
