A guide to choosing new digital cameras

New digital cameras come onto the market every year. To decide which to buy, you have to first know how you will use it. This article is about the three main types of digital camera available, some from laptop retailers and others from suppliers of online electricals.

Point and shoot digital camera

Even these simple easy-to-use cameras can be attached to a laptop with a camera software to download photographs quickly and cheaply. These cameras fit easily into a pocket, so they may be carried everywhere, switched on and used at will. Digital camera retailers Camera retailers all stock point and shoot digital cameras, and so do many supermarkets. They can be bought from High-Street retailers via the internet, for instance from Dixons online shop. This is typical of laptop stores and suppliers of cheap electrical goods, where the technology of digital cameras belongs.

Bridge cameras

When deciding which type of digital cameras to choose from, consider the quality of the picture required including how many pixels per shot (the more pixels, the better). Shots from longer distances require a good zoom lens, which is not available on standard point-and-shoot models but is on a modern bridge camera. Bridge camera features The bridge camera has a zoom lens of as much as 24x magnification, and good optical features for the amateur photographer. It may allow taking short video sequences and comes with PC packages such as CDs for photo processing and photo library cataloguing. They are easily connected to a laptop and offer online manufacturer's support.

DSLR cameras

Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras are the most desirable consumer cameras, and they also used by professional photographers. They offer higher resolution images than other digital cameras and can be used with a range of additional zoom lenses. Special pentaprism system DSLR cameras have a built in mechanical mirror system which directs light from the lens to the viewfinder in the back of the camera. This means that there are more moving parts inside the camera than in simple cheap cameras.

Which digital camera to choose?

(1) The easy-to-use, easy-to-carry, quite high resolution camera is the typical light weight, grey coloured, metal case camera known as point-and-shoot. It fits in the pocket, has built in flash and many automatic or custom-set features. (2) The bridge camera is usually too large to fit in the pocket and will require a carrying bag, but it is not as large as a DSLR camera, and is smaller and lighter to carry. (3) DSLR cameras are more complicated, much more expensive, and need more expertise than the other types of digital camera. They are more delicate and require careful handling, but are more professional.