By now, you should feel like you can at least narrow down your choices when you step into that electronics store looking for a digital camera. Its no longer just a counter of 30 cameras that all look the same to you. Now we’re going to help you break down some of the bells and whistles associated with digital cameras. I call these bells and whistles because not every single camera has these features.
Types of Cameras
We know we’re talking about digital cameras but even with that category there are a few different types. Some people may break these down differently and you could probably slip them up into tinier categories until you cried but here’s the way I think of it.
Point and Shoot
This is one giant category. It covers everything from the small, pocket sized cameras, to large ultra zoom cameras that look a bit like 35mm SLR cameras. What these cameras have in common is that they use a view finder and/or an LCD screen to help you compose the picture.
In a point and shoot, the camera operator needs only point the camera in the right direction, center their subject, and press the shutter button. The camera takes care of everything else including focusing! This is by far the most popular camera for amateur shooters and because so many are made, you are bound to find one in your price range. They can sell for anywhere between $100 and $800 depending on the bells and whistles attached.
One of the strongest points of these cameras is their ability to let you preview a picture on an LCD screen before you snap away. The LCD screens are anywhere from 1.5” to 3” wide depending on the model and can make the difference between an opportunity wasted, and a great shot.
D-SLR
D-SLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. These are the cameras you traditionally think of when you thing of a 35mm. They have a big cylindrical lenses and a rectangular body. In an SLR camera, you look through a viewfinder in the back of the camera. This guides you, with the use of mirrors, to the view through your lens. When you press the shutter release, the mirror in the back of the lens flips up exposing the film, or in this case the sensor, to the image you are shooting.
The huge benefit of the SLR is that you get to see exactly what the camera’s lens sees and even preview the effects of aperture. They also allow you to change out lenses depending on your needs. Wide angle, telephoto, macro lenses, and more can be swapped out as the situation demands. If this is all over your head, don’t worry. D-SLRs are the toys of professionals and serious amateurs only. Their price tags start at about $600 for an entry level camera with no lens and go well up into the thousands.
LCD
Almost every digital camera on the market today has an LCD screen on it that allows you to compose, preview, and review your photos. In my humble opinion, this is the single biggest practical advantage that a digital camera has. Because you can review the pictures instantly you can see whether someone blinked, made a funny face, turned away, or in some other way ruined the picture and before they walk away, you can try again. Think about how many shots you took on vacation only to find out two weeks later when the prints came back that the photos you took in Hawaii didn’t come out. That won’t happen with digital unless you want it to.
Of course, simply having an LCD doesn’t make for perfect previews. LCD screens cost money and therefore are often small on less expensive cameras. A small LCD will still give you an idea of what you’re shooting but you’ll easily miss some finer details. For instance, a shot that looks great on a small LCD may prove to be a little out of focus once its printed. This is because the LCD view was too small to reveal the detail.
An additional LCD feature is its ability to be repositioned. While many cameras have a stationary LCD on the back of the camera, many more are offering LCDs that are on hinged panels. This allows you to reposition the LCD so that you can take difficult shots (shots with the camera over your head, at your waste, or even self portraits) while still being able to see the LCD screen and align the shot.
As with many things, bigger is better with an LCD. Get as large an LCD as you can manage without sacrificing too much else (resolution, zoom). A positionable LCD will open the door to many more types of shots but because you were never able to do it before, it may not be worth it if it means going with a smaller LCD. 1.5” is about as small as you’ll see in an LCD today. The average is somewhere around 2” with some hitting 2.5” or even 3”. The important thing is to look at them in the store to really judge their readability.
Controls
Even with a point and shoot camera that is fully automatic, you are likely to find some level of manual adjustability. Many more expensive cameras will offer Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual Priority, Manual Focus, or multiple program shooting. If your head is vibrating and about to explode, count backwards from 10.
The simple answer her is that you only need be concerned with most of this if you are interested is photography as a hobby. If you are, you should check out some photography websites to learn more. If you’re a shooter only concerned with preserving memories as simply as possible, this is pretty basic.
Without getting into too much detail, different situations call for different camera settings. For example, shooting fireworks calls for a much different setup than shooting a daytime landscape. Shooting an indoor portrait is much different from shooting a track meet. Even an automatic camera will have a tough time differentiating between the two. That’s why in some cameras, Shooting Modes are employed. Different manufacturers will call this feature different things but the bottom line is that these shooting modes, adjust the camera’s settings to best capture what you’re shooting.
Let’s say you’re shooting a birthday party, just set the camera to Party Mode and its setting adjust to best shoot that situation. At your son’s baseball game? Set the camera for Sports Mode and it adjusts for it. There can be as few as two or three or a dozen such shooting modes on a camera that has them.
Why be concerned about these modes? By using them, you can allow your camera to take the best pictures possibly. Without it, the camera will average tings out which may result in blurred action shots, or under-lit portraits.
To find out if a camera you’re interested in has these modes, you may be best reading about the camera’s features on the manufacturer’s web site or on one of the many camera review sites (I’ll post those at the end of the feature.)
Summary
Now you know you’re looking for a point and shoot camera. You also know that you want an LCD screen and that while you’d like a movable screen, you’d go for a bigger screen over a movable one. Finally you know that while you don’t need to get full control over your camera, you would like one with preset shooting modes for common photo situations.
I promised more about other bells and whistles this week but I’ve once again proven to be long winded! Next time we’ll cover features like Anti-Shake, Video, and others.