How to Choose a Compact Camera 1
Thinking about purchasing a new compact camera? Issues like megapixels, camera size and photo print size may have your head spinning so here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself before you make a choice. These are mostly technical issues, so you’ll have to actually try the camera to asses usability, looks and feel as well, but these six questions should give you some direction. We’ll deal with two questions a day, so stay tuned for the other considerations!
What Camera Size are you looking for?
How do you plan to use your new compact camera? Does it need to be light-weight or fit in your pocket? It’s best to try to buy the largest camera that you are comfortable using, whether this is an ultra slim, mini or near SLR-sized camera. Smaller cameras tend to have fewer features or lower image quality for the same price range or generation. Camera size – especially lens width really does change the quality of your pictures. Choosing a smaller camera size may limit your low-light ability or zoom range along with other features.
What size prints will you need to make?
You’ll need to take photo print size into account because that will determing how many megapixels you’ll need. Megapixels are the main thing compact camera companies advertise, so your first reaction might be “well, as big as I can get!” but having more megapixels often comes with trade-offs such as decreased dynamic range (more blown highlights), larger file sizes, problems with purple fringing and, of course, a higher cost. More megapixels are not always better! In fact, it is often the camera’s lens and your technique that are the limiting factors for determining image quality—not the number of megapixels.
If you plan on producing no larger than an 8×10 inch photo print size, a 6MP camera will be plenty. Something else to consider is that having more megapixels will also give you more freedom to crop your image for a given photo print size.
If megapixels aren’t so important, what is? Today we covered camera size and print size. Tomorrow we’ll talk about how experienced you are, and what lighting conditions you plan to use your compact camera in.