Chuck Gardner's Photography Class
Part Three - Digital Photography Basics
by Chuck Gardner
Deciding which digital camera to buy

Purchasing the most expensive camera with the highest megapixel CCD does not guarantee the best image quality. Each brand of camera has as distinctive imaging quality characterized by sharpness and saturation. There is also a wide variation in the amount of user control over camera functions. The combination of all factors the factors mentioned above, your intended use, and your budget should be used to determine what camera to purchase. There are a number of very good digital camera sites on the Internet which offer reviews and side-by-side comparison of cameras:

Steve's Digicams - http://www.steves-digicams.com

Digital Camera Resource - http://www.dcresource.com

Imaging Resource - http://www.imaging-resource.com

I did extensive research using these sites before selecting a Kodak DC290 as my first digital camera. Although it was only a 2.15 megapixel (1792 x 1200) model the images were sharper overall and had less optical distortion that most of the 3+ and 4 megapixel camera on the market. I was particularly impressed by the rich saturation of the colors; many other brands looked washed-out in comparison. This camera also had other features I deemed important such as external flash sync. and user control over sharpening and other camera functions.

Goto Next Section - Digital Editing >

Goto < Previous Page

Goto Class Outline

Goto super.nova.org my home page.