Are you thinking of buying a camera? Make sure you know what you’re looking for. Here are five questions to ask the salesman when checking out digital cameras.
What is the sensor size of the camera?
As a first-timer digital camera shopper you can easily be fooled by a salesman who still thinks megapixels means better camera. Don’t fall for that false argument.
For a while, more megapixels were better but then the rest of the camera parts improved: better lenses, better image processing, etc. Then, the resolution (number of megapixels) out-paced what people really need. Simply put, unless you want to create prints that are larger than 4x6, or will be editing photos later, you won’t need anything larger than 5 megapixels.
What you should be asking about though, is the sensor size. And take this as a number one rule; the bigger the sensor, the better the images.
Is the camera good in low light?
A camera gives good photos in low light if it uses a BSI sensor, has a fast aperture of f/2.8 or faster but the best way to get good low light photos is to use a camera with a big sensor. Again, the bigger the better.
What is the camera’s Aperture Range?
Aperture refers to the opening of a lens's diaphragm through which light passes. It is calibrated in f/stops and is generally written as numbers such as 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 and 16. The lower f/stops give more exposure because they represent the larger apertures.
Go for a camera that has smaller aperture numbers such as f/1.8-2.8 and the remember; the smaller the better on both sides of the dash)
What is the optical zoom factor of the camera?
In order to ask this question and actually understand the answer to your question; you need to know the difference between the digital zoom and the optical zoom.
Optical zoom: Also called the focal length. If taking a lot of photos from far away subjects is important to you, be sure that the camera you buy has an optical zoom. An optical zoom is a true zoom lens, like the zoom lens you’d use on a film camera. They produce much better-quality images. You can usually find the optical zoom value written somewhere on the camera in millimeters (mm)
Digital zoom: Also called the magnification. Some cameras offer a digital zoom, which is simply an in-camera image processing. When you use a digital zoom, the camera enlarges the image area at the center of the frame and trims away the outside edges of the picture. The result is the same as when you open an image in your photo-editing program, crop away the edges of the picture, and then enlarge the remaining portion of the photo.
Keep in mind that enlarging the “zoomed” area also enlarges the pixels and reduces the image resolution and the image quality.
Does the camera record HD videos or Full HD?
If you’re looking for a digital camera that records video and the salesman tries to convince you with one that records HD videos or Full HD, ask him/her about the resolution. For some, HD means 720p while Full HD is 1080p. For others a resolution of 1080p is just HD.
