Monday, February 25, 2013

Digital Camera: What to Look for in a Point-And-Shoot

There are two types of Digital Cameras available today: Single-lens-reflex (SLR) and Point-and-Shoot. DSLR cameras tends to gave higher quality images, hence the price that can range from US$1000-US$3000. A decent Point-and-Shoot digital camera can give you almost the same quality pictures for under US$500.

With almost countless point-and-shoot digital compact cameras available on the market today, it seems an impossible task to find the right digital camera that will give you the absolute best quality images at an acceptable price tag. As such, I've compiled this article hoping to be able to give you some real-world tips on choosing the right digital point-and-shoot camera.

With over 10 years experience I've learned to look for these features in a point-and-shoot.

Focus: Since almost all point-and-shoot cameras rely on auto focus, this feature has to be of the highest standards. The software needs to be able to recognize the image in question and focus on the subject, not the background. Some point-and-shoot cameras require more manual intervention for this function to work properly, so I'd look for a digital camera with enhanced auto features. This brings me to the next important feature.

Auto Mode: The whole idea of a point-and-shoot camera is the ability to point the camera at the object in question and shoot high quality focused images without too much fuss. The Nikon COOLPIX L810 for ex. takes brilliant pictures, but requires the right manual settings. For me that kind of defeats the object.

Light Sensor: The size of the light sensor is important; the bigger, the better. After all, if the camera cannot correctly sense the incoming light then the pictures will be too dark, or too light. Photography relies heavily on light and no amount of Photoshop can beat a picture that was taken in the right light, with the right light settings.

Megapixels: More is not always better, but too little can be an obstacle. More megapixels can sometimes ad to noise and too little will give you a less than sharp image, especially in poor light. Personally, I would never go below 10 megapixels and found that 14MP is ideal. At 14 megapixels you strike a nice balance between noise and image clarity.

Zoom: Beware of digital zoom. In essence, you're just cropping the picture. Rather go for optical zoom. Personally, I'd never go below 12x optical zoom or the pictures just appear too distant. Recently, Super-Zoom digital cameras have become more affordable going up to 36x optical zoom. Very important to have a good image stabilizer at these extremes or you'd never be able to take a clear picture.

A few other features are also important, but these ones are crucial. I came across 2 point-and-shoot cameras that has a lot of these features present, but is also affordable. The Canon PowerShot SX30 is and the Nikon Coolpix L810.

The Canon has 35x optical zoom and takes brilliant pictures, but requires a good understanding of the manual settings.

The Nikon has only 26x zoom, but the auto settings are brilliant.

I did reviews on both these Digital Compact point-and-shoot cameras. Follow the links in the resource box to read the Nikon review.

My name is Sean Rooney and I've been reviewing digital cameras for over 10 years now. In my experience I have found that sticking to the well known digital camera brands such as Sony, Nikon and Canon has proved to be the right decision.

Go to my website for the full Nikon L810 review: http://www.nikonl810review.com/

Follow this link to see how the Nikon L810 performs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_H_Rooney
http://EzineArticles.com/?Digital-Camera:-What-to-Look-for-in-a-Point-And-Shoot&id=6568659

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