“It’s all so confusing, why is one camera more or less than that one?”
I get this question a lot when customers are looking over the array of point and shoot digital cameras in a store.
Here are some quick tips to help you the next time you’re shopping for a camera:
1) The LCD screen size, bigger usually means a little more expensive, not always, but it’s also something to consider when comparing different models.
2) The size of the camera itself, cameras tend to get more expensive the smaller they get, and also it makes it harder for the manufacturer to put more lens in for zooming.
3) Mega pixels, 14 mega pixels will usually cost you more than say, 10 mega pixels. Now unless you’re going to be blowing pictures up bigger than 8.5″ X 11″ or doing a lot of intensive cropping, you probably won’t see a big difference in photo quality as the camera goes over 5 or 6 mega pixels, but it’s a price point for camera manufacturers and it helps sell more camera’s.
4) Optical Zoom, how close do you want to get by standing as far away as possible? Always make sure you’re looking at “optical zoom” numbers as compared to “digital zoom”. A lot of people leave digital zoom turned off because it makes the pictures look grainy.
5) Lithium rechargeable batteries or double A’s? Pro’s and cons to both. The lithium last for way more picture taking hours and of course can be recharged over and over. The only drawback is if you’re out and about and don’t have your charger on hand, you can’t stop by a store and pop in some fresh double A’s to get you through.
6) Can it record HD ( High Definition ) video? Some people want that, some could care less. They just want to take a regular picture but if the camera has it, chances are it’s more expensive.
Okay, so there’s the six basic things to look for. These are the things I always point out to customers when they’re confused by all the options.
Of course a good sale on camera’s can make all these points mute when it comes to price, but at least you’ll know you’re getting a pretty good deal.
There’re a lot more features to add to the list of course. but hopefully this will simplify it a bit and at least get you started.