Point, Shoot, Buy
I’m freshly back from a four-day trip to Kyoto with my wife and our aforementioned visitor. Being in Kyoto, the epitome of beautiful Japanese cities, we did what any good tourists should do: take loads of pictures. Pictures of temples. Pictures of deer. Pictures of deer at temples.
We took so many pictures, in fact, that our guest’s digital camera gave out on the last day of our trip. One minute it was chugging away, and the next minute it was refusing to retract its lens or focus (important things for a digital camera to do). Luckily for our guest, her camera (like the three of us) just needed a break; it started working again the next day.
For that one day her camera was broken, though, our guest was seriously considering buying a replacement. She was in the right place–digital cameras in Japan are probably the smallest, coolest and pinkest in the world. I was of course only too happy to help her do a little research on what kind of camera was best for her. Since she ended up not needing a new camera, and since I can’t let good research go wasted, allow me to pass my thoughts on buying a digital camera on to you.
The usual caveat
Remember in my article on buying the right computer when I said no one computer was right for everybody and you had to “buy the computer you need”? The same holds true for digital cameras. While there are fewer digital camera models on the market than there are computers, there’s still literally hundreds of cameras to choose from. The best way to get a camera you’ll be happy with is to take a few minutes to figure out how you will use your camera. Questions like:
- What will you use the camera for? (Taking snapshots? Taking professional quality portraits?)
- Where will you take the camera? (Everywhere you go? Just on special trips?)
- What will you do with the photos you take? (Put them online? Print them?)
- What accessories will you use the camera with? (Tripod? Other lenses?)
- What kind of media will you store the photos on in the camera? (Do you have old SD cards around? How about CF?)
- What kind of batteries do you want to use? (Standard AA batteries? Camera-specific batteries?)
What to look for
Once you’ve answered questions like those above, you’re ready to start matching your needs with the available features. That list of “available features” is pretty vast, though; here are some options you’ll want to consider and how each option fits with what you need in a camera.
- SLR vs. point-and-shoot. The first decision you need to make is whether you want a digital SLR (single lens reflex) or a digital point-and-shoot. (You want a film camera you say? What is this “film” you speak of?) SLRs are the kinds of cameras you see professionals carrying around–the kinds with big bodies and giant lenses. They take very high quality photos and give you complete control over functions like f-stop and timing, but are also hard to carry around and cost a small fortune. Point-and-shoots, on the other hand, are what everyone else carries around and are usually box-shaped. Quality of point-and-shoot photos ranges from mediocre to pretty good and composition controls are sometimes limited, but they are small and affordable enough for anyone to take anywhere. Unless you’re planning to make money from your photos, a nice point-and-shoot should suit your needs.
- Size. I remember back in the day, when I was walking uphill to school both ways, digital cameras were the size of my head and stored photos on floppy disks. Times have changed: today’s cameras are usually smaller than my hand, and in this case, smaller is definitely better. My advice is to get the smallest camera you can that has all of the other features you want and feels comfortable in your hands.
- Speed. The biggest complaint I have with my current, sadly outdated camera is how slow it is. I’ve missed many a good shot waiting for the thing to turn on or to take a photo after I’ve pressed the shutter button. Today’s cameras generally work much faster, but not all are equal: the best way to compare is to go to an electronics store and play around with the display models. Failing that, check out the test stats on cameras you’re thinking of buying (links to those are below) and aim for something with a startup time of under one second and the shortest shutter lag (time between pressing the button and taking the picture) you can find.
- Megapixels. Pixels are the tiny, tiny dots that make up a digital photo. The more pixels your camera is capable of recording, the more detailed your photos will be. When you hear that a camera takes “seven megapixel photos,” then, that means its photos are composed of seven million little points. The number of megapixels you need in a camera depends on what you will do with your photos. If you plan to mostly view your photos online or on your computer and occasionally print out a 3×5 snapshot to send home, you’ll be fine with four to five megapixels. If, on the other hand, you want to retouch, enlarge or publish books of your photos, go higher.
- Modes. Most compact digital cameras come with several modes that let you take pictures in a variety of conditions: low light, up close or with different depths of focus. These modes are all just preprogrammed combinations of different f-stop, timing and flash values. If you don’t really know what “depth of focus,” “f-stop” or “timing” are, a camera’s preprogrammed modes will be all you need. If you do know what all of those words mean (or think you might learn someday), get a camera with aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual modes.
- Zoom. The cardinal rule of photography is “get close, then get closer.” In other words, the best photos are usually ones where the subject takes up most of the frame, and nothing helps fill the frame like a good zoom lens. I’d recommend a camera with at least a 3x optical zoom, although more zoom will make for better photography. Don’t be fooled by cameras that advertise “3x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom”; all digital zoom does is electronically magnify the photo, trading a closer shot for a serious degradation in image quality. The first thing I did when I got my camera was turn off the digital zoom, and it hasn’t been back on since.
- Storage format. Storage media is to a digital camera what film is to a film camera: a place to keep your photos until you have them downloaded (or “developed” as they called it back in the day). Most of today’s digital cameras will use one of three kinds of storage media: Secure Digital cards (SD cards), Compact Flash cards (CF cards) or, if your camera is made by Sony, Sony Memory Sticks. All of these formats will work equally well for a non-techie. If you have CF cards, SD cards or Memory Sticks around from a music player, old digital camera or handheld gaming device, by all means get a new camera that can reuse those media. Also, do yourself a favor and splurge on a big memory card/stick; half the fun of having a digital camera is being able to take 500 pointless pictures at a time.
- Batteries. Batteries work the same way as storage media: different cameras use different kinds. Some use standard AA batteries, others use rechargeable units that only fit that camera. Before you decide on a camera model, check the review sites below to make sure that, whatever kind of battery the camera uses, it lets you take more than a few hundred pictures before needing a recharge.
- Screen and viewfinder. If lack of speed is the biggest shortfall of my current camera, its tiny screen ranks a close second. Since you’ll probably be checking your photos on your camera as you take them, look for a model that won’t make you squint to see your snapshots. Models with 2.5-inch screens give you plenty of room to review your work. Also, ignore the path camera manufactures are starting to go down and look for a camera with an optical viewfinder (that little hole you look through to compose your pictures). There are lots of cameras on the market that make you compose your shots using the screen; I find doing it that way leads to more shaking and blurrier pictures.
- Holes. The optical viewfinder isn’t the only important hole on a digital camera. All cameras have a port that lets you connect the camera to your computer, usually via a USB cable. Look for connections that let you hook up your camera to a TV for photo and video playback or to a tripod for stable shooting if either of those things is important to you.
- Language. One important note about buying a camera in Japan: unless you want to be perpetually confused, make sure the model you get lets you choose the language you went menus and commands displayed in. Also, if the manual you get with your camera is all in Japanese, you can usually find other versions on the manufacturer’s website.
Other resources
As much as I’d like to believe otherwise, I’m certainly no expert on digital cameras. Lots of people are experts, though, and they have websites to prove it. The following sites are worth a look when you’re considering buying a new camera; they have subjective reviews, objective stats and lots and lots of pretty pictures.