Page 2:
Choosing Which Digital Camera To Buy

Trying to decide which digital camera to buy? You've come to the right place!

This page will first give you some tips on how to go about choosing the digital camera that is right for you.

I will then give you two tips about buying a digital camera online. It's very, VERY easy to get scammed while buying a digital camera even from what appears to be a reputable-looking website, and I want to tell you how to avoid that, and recommend the honest websites that have the best prices and the best, fastest, most helpful customer service.

After that, I will go over the cameras I recommend.

Ready? Here we go.

 

Tips for how to go about choosing a camera   Ok, here's how I recommend you go about it. I'll split it up into 8 easy steps. And the last two are largely optional ;) 1) Do you want a compact camera, a medium-sized camera, or a big-lens camera? Big-lens cameras offer the best image quality and the most zoom, and usually give you the option of completely manual controls if you know what you're doing (or if you've read Page 3 of this Guide, which is about how to expose well using manual controls). They also take the best pictures at low-light (bigger aperture). Compact cameras fit in your pocket, but their image quality is lower, so you sacrifice picture sharpness for convenience. (Remember how, on Page 1, I show that a 3-megapixel big-lens camera can take pictures about as sharp as those taken by an 8-megapixel compact camera). Medium-sized cameras offer the best value: Image quality is not quite as good as that of big-lens cameras but better than that of compact cameras. They're not as bulky as big-lens cameras, but not as miniaturized as (and thus cheaper than) the compact cameras. And, for the same features and image quality, medium-sized cameras are usually significantly cheaper. (For example, you can get a 10-megapixel medium camera with 4x zoom and manual controls, for about $200. These features on a compact camera would run you about $400, as would a big-zoom big-lens 10 megapixel camera, but the big-lens camera would take higher-quality pictures and the compact one would be more convenient). So, compact camera for convenience, medium camera for the best deal, or big-lens camera for best image quality and most zoom. 2) Set yourself a budget. Remember that a nice big memory card, extra batteries, and a camera bag will run you about $50, maybe a little more if the battery is more expensive. So now you know how much money will be left for the camera itself. 3) Read this webpage, or at least the info about cameras within your budget. Each camera has the price for it listed just under its name. This should help you choose a couple of cameras that are the size you want and within your price range. 4) Compare the features of these cameras. Which have the highest resolution? Which are powered by normal batteries rather than by expensive proprietary batteries? Which are smallest? Which have more zoom? Which can take the nicest-quality movies? Which of these features do you care about? This should allow you to narrow it down to about 3 cameras. 5) Visit sites like DigitalPhotography Review, DigitalCamera Resource, and Steve's Digicams, to check out full-sized pictures taken by the cameras you are choosing from. You will then be able to really see the image quality, such as how grainy the sensor is and how sharp the lens is. The reviews on these sites also offer in-depth looks at all the menus and modes, so you can see if the interface and operation of the camera seems complicated, restrictively simple, or "just right". 6) Visit your local Wolf Camera, Ritz Camera, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Fry's, or wherever else digital cameras are sold, so you can pick these cameras up in your hand and see how they feel. It may be only at this point that you realize that a camera is not very ergonomic, that the buttons are layed out in a confusing way, that the viewfinder is too small, etc. Besides, if you narrowed your cameras down to the few that have the features you want and the size you want, any of them should be fine, so at this point feel free to pick the one that feels best in your hand. 7) Come back to this webpage and use the "[Price] at Amazon" or "[Price] at B&H" links on the comparison tables below to actually buy the camera from one of those two websites. (If you do this, I get a small comission, so you will help to support this site and at the same time buy from a great online store with low prices and terrific, helpful service. No, you don't HAVE to, but I would immensely appreciate it). 8) Tell your friends about my site! :) (No, you don't really HAVE to, but I'd really appreciate it!)

 

Shopping Online   Many sites that sell cameras online - even the websites that look absolutely reputable and legitimate - are out to scam you. No, really. Many of them will pull a bait-and-switch: When you place an order for an item at a great price, they will call you or email you, tell you they're sold out, and ask you if you would like to buy this other item, which happens to be more expensive and/or not offered at such a great price. Or, even if you do get an order through for an item at a great price, here's what often happens: After you pay, they will call you and tell you that you paid for just the camera. If you want the cables, battery, manual, etc, you need to pay more (which brings your total price to more than you would pay at any website or even at any actual store). And then, if you don't offer a lot of accessories, they'll say your item is on back-order and will not be shipped for weeks. And if you ask to cancel your order, they will do everything they can to stop that from happening, and might even not return money to your credit card. Often they will not pick up the phone when you ask, or be very rude if you do manage to get someone on the phone. Don't believe me? Then read this, this, this, this, this, this, or this. Buying photo gear online can be very tricky. The solution? Buy from trusted websites. There are two websites that sell for fairly low prices, can be counted on to immediately ship exactly what you ordered, and also offer very honest and helpful customer service. So my two tips for buying cameras online are 1)BUY FROM AMAZON. Their prices cannot be beat. Their catalogue is enormous. They have a variety of shipping options. Their return policy is fair. And if you have any questions, email them, you're bound to get a helpful email back. I do pretty much all my online shopping on Amazon, including books, movies, video games, and random things like hard drives and memory cards and remote-control helicopters and model airplanes. Especially since a whole bunch of websites now have their products listed through Amazon and allow you to buy them through an Amazon order, you get the most stuff at the best price with the reliability, accountability, and service of Amazon.com. I must admit, however, that in general I don't buy photo gear from Amazon. That's because my photo gear costs thousands of dollars, and so I want even BETTER service and accountability. I am willing to pay 50 or 100 dollars more (on a 1500-dollar lens) in order to get those things. Which is why I... 2)BUY FROM B&H PHOTO. Their prices are just a little higher than most websites, but no higher than any real store. And B&H does have a real store, in Manhattan, pretty much right across the street from Madison Square Garden. Their prices are, somehow, about the same as what you'll pay at Circuit City or Best Buy, but with a huge difference: Their sales staff are really knowledgeable and helpful. They even speak many languages. More importantly, they often accept returns no questions asked. And if you make a mistake in your order, you can call them up and they'll fix it. Yes, you can CALL them, on the PHONE, and get someone right away, and even if YOU made a mistake in your order, they will fix it. Once I ordered a lens from them, and made the mistake of also ordering a bag for the lens which (unbeknownst to me) was included with the lens. I only noticed this after placing the order online. I sent them an email, explaining I had made a mistake, I did not mean to order the bag, asking if I could return it when I got it. They just went ahead, removed the bag from my order, refunded the value to my credit card, and sent me an email saying that they had taken care of it and that I should contact them if this solution was not satisfactory in any way. I have since bought one or two more lenses, a new SLR, a camera bag for all my gear, and some filters and batteries and memory cards and other accessories, from B&H. I now see why most serious photographers don't shop anywhere else. See for yourself.

My Top Picks   (Last updated, March 2008. The next update, in April, will replace the T200 by the T300 and the TZ3 by the TZ5)   If all the advice at the top of this page is not enough for you, and you want me to specifically recommend some digital cameras, then ok, here are my recommendations. These are not too expensive (the better ones are much more expensive but barely better in any real way, if at all), tale great pictures, are easy to use, have the features that most people would want, and are fairly compact. While these parameters (cost, image quality, size, features) can be optimized in hundreds of ways (as you can see by the fact that there are hundreds of digital cameras out there to choose from), I believe that the handful of cameras below really do include the "best" cameras. In other words, no matter what kind of camera you are looking for, I am sure one of the ones below will be it, since the cameras similar to these are either way more expensive or significantly inferior.   SUPER TINY Casio Z77, Silver: $139 at Amazon Casio Z77, Black: $142 at Amazon If you want a tiny tiny tiny camera that fits easily into your breast pocket, small purse, or any other extremely restricted space, then this is the camera for you. Not only that, it is also extremely easy to use (Most digital cameras have a lot of buttons and functions that are intimidating to a beginner. Not this camera!). Oh yeah, and picture quality is actually decent, especially for a camera that small. Because it is so small and easy to use, when my mother asked me to recommend a digital camera for her, I told her to go with this one. Seriously. I can't think of a better endorsement!   SUPER COOL Sony T70 White: $251 at Amazon Sony T70 Silver: $251 at Amazon Sony T70 Black: $263 at Amazon Sony T200 Silver: $379 at Amazon Sony T200 Black: $379 at Amazon These are the camera equivalent of the iPhone: Pleasantly thin, surprisingly fast, extremely capable, uniquely stylish... and the whole back is one giant touch-screen. If you want a camera that will cause people to crowd around you at parties, then you can't do much better than one of these. And they're actually good cameras, too: they have image stabilization, deal well with low-light, record high-quality video with zoom (so you can use them as a little camcorder), and the T200 model has a 5x optical zoom!   TAKES GREAT SHOTS FAST Canon SD850: $235 at Amazon Canon SD950: $336 at Amazon If you want a digital camera that fits in your pocket, but you want one that is very very fast and that takes very sharp pictures, this is it. So if you have a very good camera like an SLR, and so (to you) speed and image quality are the most important attributes a camera can have, and you want a compact camera for all the occasions when you can't take the SLR... This is the one. I have had the chance to play with this camera a couple times and I was shocked that a camera this small could react as fast as my SLR, and take pictures almost as sharp - and I'm picky about that kind of thing!   LOTS OF ZOOM IN YOUR POCKET Panasonic TZ3, Silver: $223 at Amazon Panasonic TZ3, Black: $223 at Amazon If you like to photograph sporting events, theatrical performances, music concerts, birds, aircraft, motor-sports, or a variety of other things, you pretty much need a lot of zoom. And if you want to be able to use all that zoom and not get blurry pictures, you need optical image stabilization. Problem is, cameras with a lot of zoom tend to be bulky, with huge lenses, especially the ones with image stabilization, right? Not anymore. This compact camera has a stabilized 10x-zoom lens. And it's not just any lens: It's a Leica lens, one of the sharpest on any digital camera, one that will make your subjects appear tack-sharp while the backgrouns look nice and blurry (or the background can be sharp too is you prefer, but the artsy thing to do is to have a blurry background, right?). So if you want a lot of zoom in a fairly compact camera, get this one. Oh, and it's also very easy to use. Jeff Keller, founder and editor of one of the internet's best and biggest digital-camera websites, gave one of these to his dad. And I know at least one semi-professional aviation photographer who also loves this camera. Myself, I'm considering getting one to replace my aging FZ-series Panasonic (for occasions when I want better image quality than what my Kodak can offer, but can't or don't want to take an SLR). Highly, highly, highly recommended.   BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK Canon A570: $139 at Amazon Canon A720: $189 at Amazon So you want professional-level image quality, the option to adjust all the settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance...) just like on an SLR, the option of a great easy Auto mode that does it for you, a camera that is not too big, a camera that lets you attach converters to the front of the lens so you can get a 0.5x fish-eye for it or a teleconverter that doubles the zoom, a camera that turns on and focuses and takes pictures really fast, a camera that is powered by normal AA batteries so you don't have to worry about not being able to find a battery for it (or about having to pay $50 when you do find a spare battery)... And you want to spend less than $150. Impossible? Nope. The Canon A570 offers all of this. Not good enough? If you want a 6x zoom lens, with image stabilization, on top of everything else... then the Canon A720 is the camera for you. Both of these are fairly small (not as tiny as a pocket-sized camera like the Casios and Sonys mentioned above, but still way smaller than your old 35mm camera), take great-quality pictures, have all the fancy features of the bigger and more expensive cameras (so you can learn how to achieve certain artsy effects by playing with the aperture and shutter speed), or can be left in "auto" and be just as straightforward to use as any other camera. There's a reason why these are pretty much the best-selling digital cameras around. If you care about image quality but don't want to waste your money, if you don't really need a ton of zoom, and/or if you realize that having a camera that fits in your pocket might not necessarily be worth the cost in image quality (and in dollars), then what you get is one of these.   SUPER CHEAP BUT PERFECTLY GOOD Fuji F5fd: $115 at Amazon Fuji F480: $116 at Amazon Kodak M853, Black: $117 at Amazon Kodak M853, White: $129 at Amazon Kodak M853, Silver: $129 at Amazon I'm not going to lie to you: These are the least expensive cameras that take what I would consider to be good-quality pictures, and that can still be purchased new. Other than the F5fd, they're not super compact, and none of them is particularly fast. The review screens are not as huge as on most newer digital cameras, the lenses don't have more than the basic 3X or 4X zoom, no image stabilization or anything like that... But these cameras can still take very good pictures (probably better than, say, the Casio listed at the top of this page). A little more specifically about these cameras: The Fuji Z5fd is a pocket-sized camera that works well in low-light. It has a facial-recognition feature that finds the people in the frame and makes sure that they are in focus - pretty neat if you ask me. The Fuji F480 is a little bigget but has 4x zoom and a fairly wide lens (great for those group shots, landscape/panoramas, and interior/real-estate pictures). And the Kodak M853 is pretty much in-between. Looking to give someone their first digital camera? You'll want to choose one of these.   HOLY CRAP, 18X ?!?! Panasonic FZ18, Black: $329 at Amazon Panasonic FZ18, Silver: $359 at Amazon Say you want to take a picture of something small and/or far-away, and 3X zoom is not nearly enough for you. 6X zoom is a little better, but your subject is still too small in the frame. 10X or 12X is a lot better but you do with you could get in tighter and fill the frame with your subject, get a nice rich detailed picture. Lucky you, Panasonic now makes a camera with 18X zoom! It has a really sharp Leica lens, and optical image stabilization (which is a must when you're zoomed that far out - any camera shake gets immensely magnified), and high resolution, and you can adjust all the settings if you want (just like in an SLR) or leave the camera on "auto". I am a huge, huge fan of the FZ series of cameras. The FZ1 was the first camera with image stabilization, and the first camera with 12x zoom, and the quality of the pictures it took was head and shoulders above any other digital camera back them. I pretty much learned how to take good pictures by using the FZ1, FZ3, and FZ10. Their easy interface, amazing lens, fast speed (in turning on, focusing, and snapping a picture) and relatively small size (compared to a professional-level SLR) made it very easy for me to learn how to use all the features, and then to know what I was doing when I started to use SLRs. Even if you leave the camera on "auto", or adventurously try to tweak one or two settings to see what happens, this is a VERY powerful camera that will get you great results. When I go backpacking or spend a day at the beach, I don't want to take my precious and expensive SLR but I want better image quality than my new pocket-sized Kodak, so I take one of my old FZs. Even the one that is 3 years old takes better pictures than most people's new digital cameras. These FZs are pretty much miniaturized SLRs, and from the very beginning they are the cameras that set the new standards, the cameras that other manufacturers try to copy. You can't go wrong with an FZ.   PRACTICALLY AN SLR Fuji S9000: $369 at Amazon If the Panasonic FZ series is not SLR-like enough for you, give the Fujifilm S9000 a try. The zoom is operated by by turning a ring around the lens, just like on an SLR, rather than by pressing a button like most compact digital cameras. The camera exposes very well and captures rich colors, and image quality is surprisingly high even in low-light. When it comes to color saturation and low-light high-ISO performance, Fuji really is ahead of everyone else, with some technologies that really set their sensors apart, allowing for professional image quality. The camera is also very, very easy to use; While it has all the options and settings of an SLR, you can just leave it on "auto" and get really great pictures. In fact, when you go get passport photos taken at a photo lab, chances are they will use this camera or one of its older versions. This camera also makes for a great camcorder, since it can shoot TV-quality video, and you can zoom in and out smoothly and quietly using the ring-zoom around the lens. AND, unlike pretty much any other "advanced" camera like this, it is powered by AA batteries, so you don't have to worry about what to do when your battery runs out, whether you'll be able to find an electronics store that will sell you a special battery, or having to pay $50 for it. I think that taking AA batteries is a really great feature and brings great peace of mind, and the fact that this terrific camera has this feature earns it a spot on this list, putting it just ahead of competitors like the Panasonic FZ50 and Sony H9. And for just $15, you can get a teleconverter to stick to the front of the lens, which will take the zoom to an amazing 21X!   GREAT AFFORDABLE REAL SLR Canon EOS-350D Digital Rebel XT and Canon 18-55mm lens: $449 at Amazon Ok, tired of all these toys, want to buy a REAL camera? Then get yourself a Digital Rebel Xt. Except possibly for its size, it is vastly superior to any other camera on this page. Why? Where do I begin? Its sensor is much less grainy, takes much better low-light pictures, captures richer colors, and as a much higher dynamic range, than the sensor of any other digital camera on this page. (Dynamic range means how bright or how dark something can be before the camera can make it out. Low dynamic range leads to dark areas being lost in blackness, and to bright things "whited out"). In other words, this sensor is much more like film, superior in every way to the tiny sensors found in smaller digital cameras. Its autofocus system is much more precise, the kind that allows you to take a picture of someone and see the pores on their face, and it focuses much faster - as soon as you press the button halfway. And as soon as you press the button all the way, the picture is taken. No delay. None. So this camera allows you to truly "point and shoot" and actually capture a fleeting moment, unlike smaller digital cameras which do not have near-instantaneous autofocus and which do have some small shutter delay. What else... the battery lasts for hundreds and hundreds of pictures, and if you want to get a battery grip that attaches to the bottom and uses AA batteries to power the camera, you can do that too. This camera is compatible with all the accessories made for professional Canon SLRs for decades, including flashes and lenses. When recommending an entry-level SLR, I recommend this one over the Nikon and Pentax competitors not only because it is cheaper, but because the range of accessories available for it is wider. You can get ANY lens you want for it - from an 8mm fish-eye to a 600-mm supertelephoto. And with those lenses or any other - I personally recommend the Tamron 18-250), you will take pictures sharp enough to go on the cover of a magazine. If you care about image quality, you need an SLR. (And if you ask, what is better about the more expensive SLRs, I'll tell you: Two primary differences is that the nicer SLRs last a lot longer, and take more pictures per second. Neither of those things makes a difference to a non-professional photographer. This camera can probably take about 50,000 pictures before the shutter starts wearing out. Are you going to take 50,000 pictures over the next few years? Probably not. But a full-time professional photographer can take 50,000 pictures a month. I certainly take more than 50,000 pictures a year. So I need a camera that can shoot hundreds of thousands of clicks before the shutter wears out. And since we almost always have our cameras with us, we need a durable metal camera that will last years of abuse, weather, the occasional drop, etc, while the Rebels are not quite so rugged (although they're still more rugged than the other cameras mentioned on this page). And while most professional SLRs can take 6-10 pictures per second, the Rebel can "only" take about 3. Unless you are a professional photographer, whose job it is to look through hundreds of similar pictures to find one that is just perfect, you will probably not be taking 3 pictures per second, let alone ten! So, really, this camera offers the high image quality of SLRs, without the extra performance and durability that would not really make a difference to a non-professional photographer, and while costing less than half as much. A great deal if I ever saw one). And while the 18-55mm lens that comes with it is nice and sharp, it doesn't zoom a whole lot. I would recommend either the Tamron 18-250 or the stabilized Sigma 18-200, which are much more versatile and much more fun. At the very least get an 18-125. These lenses may seem expensive but you will enjoy your camera a lot more when your lens allows you to zoom in closer to the action. I myself have a Tamron 18-250 for walking around, and a stabilized Canon 17-85 for low-light shooting, but I am considering selling them and getting a stabilized 18-200. We'll see. I also have a Sigma 8mm fish-eye for landscapes/panoramas and interiors, and a (fairly huge) stabilized Canon 100-400 for airshows. Just to give you a glimpse of the huge variety of lenses out there that allow you to do different things with you Canon SLR. The variety of other accessories - from remote controls to underwater cases to tripods to viewfinder extentions to weather-proof "raincoats" to tripods and flashes and filters and anything else you can imagine - is pretty much endless.

Well, you have reached the end of my guide to choosing and buying a digital camera. Like I've already said: if you have any questions or comments, suggestions, corrections, need help choosing or using a camera, etc, please feel free to email me! (What other website promises free, attentive, personalized camera/photography email advice?)

Thanks for visiting. Please tell your friends about this site!

Sincerely,

Bernardo Malfitano
Creator and Webmaster