Buy a digital camera in 15 minutes

Posted on 10 Mar 2009 at 11:08

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How much?

You're probably wondering why you would pay more for a bigger or more advanced camera. Better image quality is one reason. Image quality is a complex issue, governed by a range of influences. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about them here, as we've rooted out the weaker models and recommended only those cameras with the best image quality in their field. Of course, you may still be wondering how much variety there is between the best and the worst. The answer depends on shooting conditions and what you intend to do with your photos.

All the cameras we recommend will take excellent pictures when there's plenty of light available, such as in daylight. There is a difference in image quality between Pentax's £80 M50 and Nikon's £750 D90, but it's not as big as the price gap suggests. However, while you'll spot the difference easily when comparing A4 enlargements, it will be less apparent if you downsize the images to one megapixel before uploading them to a photo-sharing website. In fact, it may be hard to tell such small pictures from these two cameras apart.

It's a whole other story when there's not much light available, such as when shooting indoors without the flash. Indeed, the difference in image quality will be massive. The 'How low can you go?' box above indicates what you can expect from various types of camera in low-light conditions.

While a bigger zoom will lead to a trade-off in a camera's size or image quality, it can also boost the subjective quality of photos. Ultra-zoom cameras capture faraway subjects in stunning detail, which is useful for nature or sports photography, holidays and just about every other photo opportunity (except when shooting indoors, in normal-sized rooms). A camera with a bigger zoom could be more useful to you, in practical terms, than one with better image quality.

Back to the features

While size, zoom range and image quality are our three primary concerns, there are certainly a few other things to consider. One feature some people value highly is manual control over the exposure and focus. Most people prefer to use their camera's automatic settings all the time, but sometimes it can be useful to adjust settings manually - perhaps in tricky lighting, such as very dim light or when there's a strong backlight. In short, if you want to add some artistic flair to your photos, you should go for manual controls. Casual snappers needn't bother.

Manual settings also allow you to play with depth-of-field effects whereby the whole frame, or one object in the frame, is in focus. Experienced photographers may use manual settings pretty much constantly, particularly when using an SLR camera that makes these settings easy to access.

Manual exposure and focus is standard across our ultra-zoom and SLR recommendations. The exception is Kodak's budget Z8612 IS model, which lacks manual focus. That's why our flowchart doesn't ask about manual controls on the way to recommending these cameras. If you gravitate towards compact cameras, you'll need to decide whether to pay more for manual controls or, in one instance, to choose them instead of high-definition (HD) video capture.

The final question in our flowchart asks whether or not you need a viewfinder. People who wear glasses will often struggle with LCD screens, because they must repeatedly wear and remove their glasses as they glance between the screen and the scene. Sadly, optical viewfinders are rare among compact digital cameras. We haven't seen a premium compact camera with a viewfinder that we'd recommend - Canon's G10 IS comes closest - but the two listed Canon models are solid choices for those who need a compact camera with a viewfinder. Ultra-zoom and SLR cameras have viewfinders - again, the exception is Kodak's budget Z8612 IS model.