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How to Choose a Camera

Most of users would like to know what kind of camera they should choose. In order to answer this question, they would first figure out what kind of camera users they belong: amateurs, hobbyists or professionals. If you just want to take some pictures of family and friends, capture memories from vacations or produce shots of nature and landscape to build a portfolio, the following tips would be helpful for you.

Camera Categories

Cameras are typically classified into ultra-compact, compact, hobbyist and digital SLR.
Ultra-compacts are designed to be most portable, often fitting into pockets easily and used as key chains.
Digital SLR cameras are professional quality tools that have the widest range of options, such as external flashes, lenses and tripods.
Compacts fall into the middle two categories with a good range of quality, resolution and options.
Hobbyists range including higher quality and greater control over manual options and accessories.

Megapixels

It is one of the most important considerations of choosing a camera.
Less than 3 megapixel cameras are suitable for basic snapshots but the images won't be as clear if you want anything larger than standard 4x6 prints.
Between 3 and 5 megapixels, this kind of cameras is good for everyday use and vacation. The photos took can be used as desktop images and will be able to make good quality prints at a variety of sizes.
From 5 to 10 megapixels, these more serious cameras are for hobbyists who want to explore photography as an art. The images will take up more hard drive space but will be perfect for manipulation and printing out in large size.
10 megapixels or more is usually for professional or those who expect to be paid for the work produce. Photos took can be enlarged for mounting or framing.

Zoom

It is another important consideration with digital cameras with two kinds of zoom: optical zoom and digital zoom.
Optical zoom: it relies on the lens itself magnifying the light coming in so that what is distant appears large and closer in the resulting image.
Digital zoom: it is one that takes the resulting image and magnifies it after the fact. It is less important than optical zoom.

Storage Media

Common formats:
Compact Flash (a fairly common format across both compact and professional cameras)
Secure Digital (SD) cards (which are fairly common in compact cameras due to their smaller size)
Sony Memory Stick (unique to Sony cameras, but also supported by Sony computers, televisions, and other devices)
Storage sizes can range from smaller 8MB cards/sticks, which can hold about a dozen three megapixel images, to larger 32GB cards/sticks and higher.
Prices have come down on most of the memory cards/sticks making selection of the larger sizes more affordable and a smarter choice.

Tips: That is just some tips for choosing the suitable camera for you, and all the decisions are made by yourself according to your needs. Get some tips for taking photos, check here.

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