How I chose what compact digital photo camera to buy

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Thursday, March 29. 2007

This article is continuation of Which photocamera will suit my needs article.
However, here, I will tell you how I chose and what my experience was. This is greatly influenced by my shooting style, expectations and knowledge. Your experience might be different.

Feel free to share it in comments to this article.

My first digital camera was Canon Powershot A80.

Here is a story about it.

Goals, previous experience and needs

I have already used analog point & shoot, as well as SLR. With time, I realized that I wanted to shoot more and more, and digital was cheaper way to do this. Also, I wanted to experiment more, and, once again, digital photography was the right choice: price per photo is... hm... none

and the possibility to instantly see results of your experiment was just great.

Also, I wanted to have my camera (almost) always with me. So, size mattered.
I also did not have money for a dSLR.

I decided that my next camera was going to be a compact digital one.

Since I was new to digital world, I had to investigate first.
I already was familiar with photography terms, so I caught up fast.
I read lots of sites and reviews about digital photo cameras. Found out how they work and how they reproduce what we see. What are their technological advantages and disadvantages.
After that I familiarized myself with latest models on the market and their specifications

Important things to you

I had to explain myself which things were important to me and which ones were not. Is zoom important? Is video quality more important than something else? What I could sacrifice and what I could not ...

I wanted to have full manual control, and also Aperture priority and Shutter priority modes (more about this soon, in one of next articles). Number of predefined auto modes was not important.

Megapixels were not something that I worried too much. It was the quality of the picture that was important. I knew that with quality 2MP model I could make nice 4x5 inches (10x15 cm) copies. And new models on the marked were with 4MP or more, so I decided not to worry about number of pixels, but more about their quality. Responsible for this is manufacturer of camera sensor and the in-camera processing (all cameras have software integrated in them which allows signals from sensors to be recorded as digital photo)
Back then, there were not so many manufacturers like today, and there were just two-three of them on the top: Canon, Nikon and Sony. Sure, other brands (like Pentax or Olympus) also had their gems, but only these were worth considering, in my opinion.
"It will be one of those manufacturers" - I said.

I also wanted model which will feel good in my hand. Really small models (like Canon IXUS, also known as PowerShot S series) simply don't fit in that requirement, so they are off, too.

From articles on the web, I knew that with compact digital camera I will have more problems to use higher ISO, than with an analog camera (more about ISO in next articles, but in short: higher ISO value allows you to shoot in darker conditions, but it also adds grainy look to the photo, which usually does not look good). The camera had to behave good at higher ISO values.

Video (and audio) recording was something that I did not care at all.

Choosing the brand and the model

I decided to buy Canon, since it had least noise in photos.
Of all Canon series I decided to go with Powershot A series. If I had little more money, I would probably choose PowerShot G5, but I did not.

Friend of mine had Canon Powershot A70. I tested his camera, and also examined the photos produced by this model.

After that I went to several photo stores and consulted with sellers (you can always tell if someone if below your level or he is just trying to sell you the product). I held in my hands various models and ensured myself that my choice was right

And, few days later, I ordered Canon Powershot A80.

Even before I bought it, I read the whole manual and understood that it will be more than I need. (later I needed more, but this will be represented in next article)

Generally speaking, I could buy camera with more zoom, more MP or better video recording for similar price. But, I wanted quality photo results and I never regretted.

I had great time with this camera. I sold it when I decided to go for dSLR, and current owner uses it without problems.

Check latest models from Canon Powershot A series:

Posted by photography-reviews.com in starters at 06:55
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