Top Tips to Buying a Digital Camera

There are a lot of digital cameras available on the market at the moment. Choosing the "right" one for you can be daunting. By looking at a few critical features can save a ton of money and and aggravation on your part.

What kind of photos are you going to be taking with the camera? Is it going to be large scenic views, fast sports cars in motion. Or home photos your gran or pet.

Digital camera makers put a lot of focus in the number of pixels a camera has. The more pixels it has the larger the print can be and obviously the sharper and more detailed it will turn out. The ranged are 4-6 megapixels, these are the very low end of the market and are not sold very often now. They will produce standard sized photos but wont allow for increased sizes in print due to the low level of detail they produce. Preferably you want something with at least 8 megapixels as they have come down in price quite a bit and will give you a very high level of detail and can give you a nice A3 sized print if you wish to have something framed for your home.

What type of memory slot does the camera have? Older cameras had built in memory, but this never used to be very large and you would have to download your images onto your computer before you could take any more. But that's no longer an issue if you're buying new. One thing to keep in mind is you will need to way to read the memory card on the camera to get it on your PC. If you are using a laptop, most of them come with a card reader in the side which you just slot the memory into. But if you are using a home PC it probably wont, so you may need to buy a card reader that will go into the USB slot. Another option for some cameras is you can just use a lead from the camera to the PC and transfer them that way. The most popular types of card are CompactFlash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), or xD-Picture Card.

Digital cameras need batteries of one type or another to operate. Some cameras have built-in batteries that have to be charged before use. When the power runs out from taking a lot of pictures, you have to stop and recharge. Other cameras use either AA or triple A batteries. These batteries are cheap and easy to find at almost any convenience or drug store. The more expensive cameras have a rechargeable power pack. These power packs will usually last a long time as compared to AA batteries but they still have to be recharged. Having a second power pack will mean you won't miss the action but the cost of these packs are much higher than disposable batteries.

Try the camera before buying. A lot of retailers will have live examples on display. Ask them if you can use it just to take a few test snap shots in the shop. Just to get a feel for everything and how easy it is to use it. Thing of things like the weight of it, can you reach the zoom buttons easily? Consider then going on to buy from the Internet as it can be cheaper than retail high street shops.