Digital Camera Shopping Guide

Like other popular consumer electronics, digital cameras have an irritating tendency to be cutting edge at the holidays, mid-range by Easter and obsolete by the time you actually take them on vacation. Forget about geek-envy. Unless you're on assignment for National Geographic, most specialized features (and the stratospheric price they command) are not going to make any difference to you.

Types of Digital Cameras
The consumer digital camera market has become notably diverse, ranging from point-and-shoot models with only two buttons (power and shutter) to dizzyingly complex digital-SLR combos meant for semi-professionals and camera gearheads. To save everyone time, let's just focus on what really counts here, and we'll leave the ISO seminar for the salesperson whose commission hangs in the balance.

Key Features
The level of photo resolution and clarity, or megapixels, is very important, but don't let the dizzying specs and flashy in-store resolution demo waylay you. These days, consumer digital cameras start at a whopping five megapixels and go to 10 megapixels (and beyond). More megapixels do not mean better pictures; more megapixels do mean one can blow up or print huge pictures (larger than 8x10) without suffering a serious lose of picture quality. Few people outside professional photographers will push their megapixel limit more than once or twice a year, if ever. As such, five or six megapixels will be more than satisfactory.

Worry less about megapixels and more about zoom. Even if your camera never leaves the living room, you're going to appreciate and cherish every zoom increment you can get — specifically the optical zoom. Optical zoom means actual physical lenses are twirling and shifting inside the camera, and that comforting whizzing sound is what you want to be hearing. Most consumer digital cameras offer between 3x and 4x optical zoom. The jump to 5x zoom and beyond starts to have a big affect on price.

Alternately, digital zoom means the camera is digitally enlarging the image from the upper extent of the optical zoom. Digital zooming means a progressive and sometimes dramatic loss of picture clarity, with disastrous "I-Saw-Bigfoot" photographic consequences when pushed to its max. When shopping, acknowledge but don't labor over digital zoom deliberations, particularly when your salesperson starts pitching absurd 300x digital zoom options. (Think expressionist painting).

A new feature touted as “smart zoom” is moving into the mainstream. While this is still technically digital zoom, it's a modest improvement on the technology, with assorted and complex limitations, best illustrated in detail by a trustworthy salesperson.

The short of it: if you aspire to take pictures more complex and farther away than your pet in the clothes hamper, consider an extended-zoom camera with image stabilization.

Batteries boil down to a case-by-case basis. Infrequent, at-home users will probably opt for a rechargeable lithium-ion battery - cheaper option, long life and doesn't trash the environment. The downside is that these tend to be proprietary, meaning if you want to buy a spare or replacement you have to go through the camera company (ka-ching!) and if the battery dies while you're out and about, you’re done taking pictures for the day. Frequent travelers will want to consider cameras that take AA batteries. A day trip to Venice will expire your proprietary battery in a hurry, at which point you're out of action until you locate an outlet, fish out and untangle the battery charger (that you'll need on your person at all times) and, if you're in a foreign country, a power converter. Rechargeable AA batteries are a potential solution, though this particular niche of the otherwise wildly advancing world of technology is lagging, suffering from a rapidly diminishing half-life and long recharge cycles.

The size of your memory will again depend on your specific needs. Cameras usually come with paltry 10 to 32 megabyte memory cards. Thirty-two megabytes will dry up in about 30 shots or even less, depending on what picture size and resolution you chose. Upgrading memory is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Casual users will never need anything more than 256 or 512 megabytes at the outset. People going on two week vacations with photo-blog aspirations will want a four gigabyte card. Even better, a pair of two gigabyte cards (“Don't put all your eggs in one basket” applies to digital photography in the most profound, potentially heart-breaking way).

As for standard features, these days virtually all digital cameras will have timers, micro and macro settings, high speed shutters, limited audio and video functions, a panorama shooting mode and more. Nonetheless, if you feel that any of these features are critical - or super cool - it would behoove you to independently confirm their inclusion in your model of choice before you head for the checkout line.

How to Choose
Size matters. Ultra-compact cameras fit in your shirt pocket. Giant, digital-SLR combos require their own luggage, and nothing says, “Please pickpocket me” to a European street urchin more than a $2,000 hunk of black plastic swinging around your neck. Weigh your realistic photo quality needs and aim for the smallest package.

Durability, sadly, is still a serious digital camera shortcoming. A three foot fall or even a couple grains of sand slipping into the right (wrong) crevice, and you've got yourself a $300 meat tenderizer. If you're active or clumsy there are a few cameras on the consumer market that claim to endure anything short of intentional violence. Unfortunately, these death-proof cameras tend to reside on the low end of the overall picture quality scale, and they're not lightweight. Consider your needs and limitations carefully here - or learn to juggle.

Finally, the potential decision-maker: the all-important price comparison. With rare exception, shopping online will always get you the best price (since you can easily compare prices offered by many stores), while buying at a small neighborhood photo store may get you the worst price. Certainly, laying hands on your new camera before buying it is essential, but don't slap down your credit card before you check prices online.