Choosing a Digital Camera

This article has been put together to help you choose the right digital camera type. Today there are many different types of digital camera's on the market but generally speaking they can be broken down into four distinct categories. The category’s are listed as follows--

Ultra compact digital camera

The ultra compact digital camera style proves to be a very popular choice today as they are small, lightweight, easy to use and nice and convenient to carry. Due to the recent advancements in photographic technology these cameras are now more than capable of taking decent quality images. Choosing a ultra compact digital camera would be likely to cost around £ 80-£180 ($100-$270) depending on the make and required pixel quality. Pixel quality relates to the amount of colored dots, or pixels that are used to make up your digital image. Digital cameras today generally have a range starting at 7 Mega pixels, which is fine for an ultra compact camera, but you can purchase as high as 20 Mega pixels, more suitable to the very high end digital cameras.

Compact digital camera

The next camera category would be the compact camera, which is perhaps the most well known type, and certainly the most popular type of digital camera that is chosen today. These consumer-level digital cameras are as the name suggests compact, easily portable and perfect for standard point-and-shoot type photography. It is common-place to find that these digital camera’s have standard features that include automatic and varying scene picture modes with an option to switch over to semi-automatic or fully manual controls if desired. If you were to choose a digital camera in this bracket expect to pay £100- £300 ($150-$450) depending on the functionality and pixel count.

Advanced digital camera (otherwise known as a Prosumer)

This camera type is also known in the industry as a "Prosumer"" as it sits between the skill level of a professional and consumer level photographer. Often they resemble an SLR type professional camera (see description below). Prosumer cameras have the option to attach (or are supplied with) high quality lenses and include a greater selection of settings enabling improved flexibility with many manual adjustments for both indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. A large selection of add-ons, such as filters are also available. Choosing a digital camera in this bracket is likely to cost between £200-£600 ($310-$900) depending on the type and pixel resolution that is required.

Digital SLR

The top of the camera tree is the Digital SLR camera (DSL R or Digital single lens reflex cameras) which is used by professionals and keen photographers. You will find that Digital SLR's have by far the best quality optics, superior high resolution images and many interchangeable add-on's to help improve the images further or to provide better creativity for art works. DSLR's camera's function automatically but also have a wide range of manual options providing the user with full control of the picture image. If you were to choose a digital SLR camera today, expect to pay around £400-£3,000 ($650-$5000) depending on the quality of the manufacturer and the lenses they supply.