!#8# 5 Things To Ignore When Shopping For A Digital Camera

!±8± 5 Things To Ignore When Shopping For A Digital Camera

Between all the numbers and features used to described a modern digital camera, such as ISO, Aperture, Adaptive D-Lighting, etc, several ones make no practical difference. Knowing which one to ignore goes a long way in limiting confusion, so here are the top five specifications to ignore when choosing a digital camera:

Digital Zoom: This is the original culprit and we keep seeing cameras boasting huge total zooms which is a number they obtain by multiplying the optical zoom (say 10X) by the digital zoom (say 8X). Only true optical zoom counts. This is the number of times the lens can magnify the view and give you the impression of being closer to your subjects. When cameras use digital zoom instead, they simply crop the center of the image to give the impression of being zoomed more. For one, this dramatically reduces image quality, but even if you do want just the center of an image, you can easily obtain the same result using image editing software like Photoshop Elements or the Google's free Picasa. Be careful, some manufacturers are on to people ignoring digital zoom, so they give it new names like Intelligent Zoom, Fine Zoom, Smart Zoom or Digital Tele-Converter. Make no mistake, none of these do anything you cannot do later on a computer.
Megapixels: Megapixels are still the big thing. Most consumers believe that more megapixels mean better image quality when today's high-megapixel-count cameras perform less well. As a matter of fact, Canon and Nikon went from 14 MP down to 10 MP among advanced models. Both the 14 megapixels Canon G10 and Nikon P6000 were followed by the G11 and P7000, respectively, that show much better image quality at 10 megapixels. Megapixels actually make a difference when printing large but the most common print size, the 4"x6", only requires 2 megapixels! Even when showing off images on a huge HDTV, the most that is ever used is 2 megapixels! At 14 megapixels or more, there is plenty of room to spare among recent digital cameras.
Maximum ISO: A long time ago ISO sensitivities reasonably went from about 80 to 400 and then Fuji introduced new SuperCCD sensors which did an admirable job up to ISO 1600. The competition, lacking this technology and not wanting lower ISO specifications, decided to implement even higher sensitivities regardless. This resulted in cameras claiming ISO 10000 or more without producing a usable image. Some cameras have much better low-light performance than others but it is only by reading digital cameras reviews with 100% sample crops that one can tell which one is actually better and which sensitivities are even useful.
The Kit Lens: DSLRs are expensive. Lens are expensive. So how do manufacturers make this more affordable for beginners? By producing cheap low quality lenses of limited use. They get away with it because most people think about buying a camera, not a lens. The only thing is that lenses are more important than the camera. Instead, choose a lens that matches your needs. Pay particular attention to zoom range and maximum aperture when choosing a lens.
Memory Card: Memory cards used to be a big investment, costing several hundreds to over a thousand. So, when purchasing a new digital camera a lot of people only looked at models which use the type of memory they already had. Times have changed, and given you can get a sizable memory card of any type for USD or less, this is a wasted concern. There are much more important factors to choose a camera by!