Choosing your first camera

This post will tell you what to look for in a digital camera and what to avoid. It is based on the experience I have gained from buying and using half a dozen digital cameras over the last 7-8 years and over 30 years of photography using conventional film cameras.
The best cameras are digital SLRs. They have the biggest sensors and lots of accessories to help you take photographs in almost any situation.
I don't have one! I would like to, but I can't afford to buy one yet. The price is dropping rapidly and I hope to buy one within a year, or two, but they are still expensive and I can't justify the cost.
I assume that you are reading my post, because you want to get into digital photography, but need some help. In that case feel free to ask me questions, but do not go out and buy a digital SLR. In fact don't buy any camera just yet.
Ask yourself the following questions first:

• What will I photograph?
• When will I take photos?
• How big do I want to print my pictures?
• What can I afford?

If you are going to take photographs for the family album a simple camera with a flash may be suitable. It's worth trying to find one with an optical zoom lense, if you can. Avoid cameras made by electronics companies, unless they are associated with a traditional camera or lens company.

e.g. Sony and Carl Zeiss, Samsung and Schneider, Panasonic and Leica, HP and Pentax

Something like this:

Amazon's blurb says that it has:

• 4 million effective pixels, usually this is quoted as 4 megapixel, or 4.0mp. More is better, but 4.0mp should produce at least an A4, or letter, sized photographic quality print;
• 3 x optical zoom, just what the doctor ordered. Ignore anything about digital zoom, I'll cover that in a later post. Optical zoom is what you need to get closer to the action, so bigger is better;
• Special scene settings these allow you to quickly optimise the camera for portrait, sports photo, landscape or night scenes;
• Movie mode is not as good as a proper video camera, but it's OK if you just want something to email or view on your PC.
• 12MB internal memory, might be useful as a last resort, but you still need a memory card!

What it doesn't say is:

• The batteries supplied with it will not last very long, so make sure that you buy more. I recommend buying a charger and rechargeable Ni-MH batteries like these:

The camera only takes 2 batteries, so you can still use the camera while you're charging batteries.

• There are many different types of memory for cameras, make sure that you buy the correct type and size. The types are not interchangeable and many cameras cannot use the largest available cards. This camera uses XD cards like:

It's better to buy 2-3 cards of 256, or 512, mb than to buy the largest card you can afford. That way if the card is damaged, or lost, you won't lose all of your images.

You should be able to connect the camera directly to your PC, but a card reader is handy. Especially if both sets of batteries are flat.

Although I have said that bigger is better, don't go over the top and if possible try to get your hands on a camera before you buy. If you don't have a camera shop locally, look for a review on http://www.dpreview.com/.

If you have any questions about anything in this blog please ask and I'll try to answer.