In the past few years, digital cameras have become very popular. The fact that you can look at your pictures right away and retake them to fix any flaws, as well as store, edit, and send them from your own computer, has helped this market grow.
No longer is the question "Do I need a digital camera?" but "Which one should I get?"
First, you need to decide how you will use the camera. If you want things to be easy, all you need is a simple point-and-shoot digital camera. If you want to be able to change your camera as you learn more, get a point-and-shoot with manual controls. This will give you the best of both worlds: the freedom to be creative and the ease of an automatic mode.
Your next thing to do should be to talk about megapixels. To keep things simple, the picture will be better if it has more megapixels. So, how many megapixels do you need?
If all you want to do with your digital camera is print or email pictures, a 3 or 4 megapixel camera will work. Choose one with 5 or 6 megapixels if you want to use it for more professional work and to enlarge photos.
If you want the clearest picture possible, get a camera with 7 megapixels or more. Just remember that the price goes up as the number of megapixels goes up.
How much zoom do you need? Digital cameras have two types of zoom: digital and optical. Optical is more important because it lets you get closer to your object without losing quality. You can get closer to the object with the digital zoom, but the quality of the picture gets worse. If all you do is take everyday pictures, a 1x to 4x optical zoom will do. Get a camera with a 5x optical zoom or higher if you like to take pictures of things like sports. Choose an optical zoom of 10x or more if you need to do very important professional work.
Now that digital cameras have improved, you can get a great one with all the features you need that fits in your shirt pocket. Don't think you have to get a big one to get good quality. If you want to use it more professionally with a large optical zoom and other features, you may need to buy a bigger one.
