Note: This is a guest post written by Sonia M
Choosing a digital camera can be a difficult process, especially if you don’t understand all the techno-babble and jargon that surrounds them. To help you out, here are a few of the things that you should look out for when choosing a camera. For the best camera deals, visit currys.co.uk.
Pixel power
Usually, the first thing that is mentioned about a digital camera in the product description is the number of megapixels. Pixels are the tiny dots that make up the images you see on a TV or computer monitor. The more pixels an image contains, the more detailed it will appear, and the bigger you can make it without it looking blocky. 1 megapixel is equal to 1 million pixels, and even the cheapest digital cameras come with sensors capable of three or four megapixels, which is perfect for viewing on a computer monitor or making a small print.
However, if you want to be able to blow your pictures up to a larger size, you will need more megapixels. Five megapixels will allow you to print out A4 pictures at about the same level of detail as a 35mm film camera, and any more than that will enable you to print out poster-sized images, or take a small part of the image and blow it up to full size.
Lens
While the ability to take high-resolution pictures can be very useful, the quality and size of the lens is much more important in terms of the potential image quality. A good quality lens will give sharper detail and less visual distortions, and larger lenses tend to be better than smaller ones for most purposes. This is why professional SLR cameras have big lenses, and it is also why even the cheapest digital cameras tend to produce better results than the cameras on expensive smartphones, which tend to have very small lenses.
Zoom
A zoom function can be very handy for taking pictures of subjects that are far away. There are two types of zoom. An optical zoom lens physically changes the distance between the lens and the sensor, whereas a digital zoom merely takes a piece of the captured image and enlarges it, resulting in a loss of pixel resolution. An optical zoom will always give better results, but these tend to be a little more expensive.
Batteries
Standard AA batteries, such as those made by Duracell, are very easy to obtain, especially when you are on the road, but they do not last very long inside a digital camera. Specialist camera batteries last longer, but they can be harder to obtain, so the best solution is to choose a camera that takes both types of battery.
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