Digicams: A shopping checklist
This year, fashionable cameras still seem to be the rage, with plenty of vendors rushing out slim pickings that come in a variety of shades. Likewise, the upper-end of the consumer market is seeing affordable digital SLRs (Single Lens Reflex) compete with a crop of 8-megapixel prosumers. Whether you are a snapshooter, a trendsetter, business user, serious amateur, a photographer on a shoestring budget, or better still, undecided, scroll down our digicam shopping checklist to find out what you really want. And if you cannot bear to trudge through all the text, go right to the bottom of each check point to find out what we recommend for the snapshot crowd.
1. Sensor
In the old days, all you needed to do was buy the highest resolution you could afford. If all you intend to do are 4R prints, just pick cameras with resolutions of 4, 5 or 6 megapixels as you won't really need much more than that. Also bear in mind that sensors used on dSLRs are of a different breed. They tend to be of higher quality and exhibit less noise. Therefore, pick a 6-megapixel dSLR over an 8-megapixel prosumer if you're finicky about image quality.
 Go for a 6-megapixel camera if you're undecided.
2. Lens
Optics play a large part in getting great, sharp pictures. Obviously, lenses with larger focal range will allow you greater flexibility in composition. In general, for normal point-and-shoots, settle for nothing less than a 3x optical zoom model. For the big-zoom telephoto buffs, look out for those aperture ratings and image stabilization technologies such as Optical Image Stabilization and AntiShake. Glasses with larger apertures and IS allow you to keep shutter speeds up, reducing the effect of hand shake and, hence, blurry pictures.
Pick a shooter with at least a 3x optical zoom and, preferably, optical image stabilization as well.
3. Digital / combined zoom
While it's true that such "zooms" allow you to get closer to your subject, the quality of your images degrades as the camera's built-in algorithms interpolate the picture to retrieve missing data when reconstructing the image. Admittedly, on small prints, higher-resolution sensors tend to fare better with some amount of digital zoom.
Negligible--don't bother about digital zooms on digital cameras.
4. Hotshoe
If you have an existing external flash unit from an old film SLR and intend to put it to further use, make sure the camera you're buying has a hotshoe that supports some of your external flash's communication protocols. Else you'll find yourself having difficulty getting perfect exposures.
Unless you intend to hook up an external flash, you don't need a hotshoe on your tiny camera--it defeats the whole purpose of looking good anyway.
5. Grip
If you've picked a long telephoto camera, pay particular attention to the grip. If you're not able to get a firm, comfortable hold on your device, don't be surprised to find your photos turning out blurry! We all have different hand sizes and it's best to find a camera with a good hold so your digits will not cramped up just after a few shots.
We suggest heading down to a nearby store and actually feeling how the camera grips in your hands rather than second-guessing from the pictures.
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Sensor
