What Camera Should I Use?

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Many people mistakenly believe that to take great photos you need to spend a lot of money on a state of the art camera. But in reality, anyone with the knowledge on what make a good photo can take a great shots with even the simplest of cameras. Still, extra features can help - here are some things to look for in a camera.

• Resolution & Storage - One of the first things people ask about when looking at cameras is the resolution. As it is getting affordable to buy high resolution cameras, it is a trap that some people are buying cameras to give them the highest resolution possible, which may be much greater than they would ever need. The higher the resolution of the photos, the greater the amount of storage that is needed, therefore you need to consider if there is enough storage for your needs. First determine how you are going to use the camera (weekends to year long trips), and how you are going to use the photos (display online to printing posters).

• Zoom - a good zoom feature is great for travelling, as it enables you to get in close from a distance. Sometimes you can not get close enough to something you want to photograph due to obstructions, and sometimes you want to stay back and capture natural behavior without getting involved. There is both optical and digital zoom available. Optical zoom is the best option, it works just like the large zoom lenses on the SLR cameras, providing a closer view of opjects using a combination of lenses. Digtal zoom enables close up images using digital technology and results in the quality of the image decreasing as you zoom further in.

• Wide Angle - wide angle lenses create a feel to a photo, and for landscape photos can capture a much wider range of the view.

• Lens Quality - It may not be the fisrt thing most o fus look fo rin a camera, but the quality of the lens can be very important if you are after quality photographs, particulaly if you are looking to print out large high resolution photos.

• Capture Card Type - there are many capture card types on the market, and each is associated with particular cameras and brands, so often you will not have a choice.

• Batteries - A problem for many digital camera users is batteries going flat. You should alway get a spare batery if available. Recharge batteries are ideal as cameras churn up a lot of power.

• Digital or Film - Digital has the added advantage as as the camera can be used to record notes and captions, copy maps, record video, sounds and voices. In some cases the storage card can also be used to backup important files.

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