Choosing a Digital Camera

With Christmas fast approaching many are starting to think about gift buying. Digital cameras have continued to fall in price so it’s highly likely that a few of these will find their way into some Christmas stockings this year. But what are the features that you should look out for when shopping for a digital camera?

You probably know that a good quality lens is as important in a digital camera as it is in analogue ones. You may also know a bit about megapixels and how the quality of digital images depends on resolution and the number of digital dots, or pixels, in the picture.

Image stabilisation technology is something to look for. This is the way that modern digital cameras can compensate for wobbly hands and the need for high exposure times in low light conditions.

Another useful feature is auto face detection with auto focus. Facial recognition technology is great for point and shoot photographers. Ideal for anyone who likes a point and click camera.

A good zoom is another feature to look out for. Some cameras have a digital zoom and others have an optical. Optical is generally much sharper than digital zoom which will simply make the digital image larger and more grainy.

Battery life is another important feature to consider. Rechargeable batteries are the way to go as they save money in the long term.

Look out for additional features like the ability to change lenses, image effects and built in image editing capabilities.

It’s also worth looking at the software applications that come bundled with the package. Most of todays digital cameras come with a suite of applications for the processing of digital images on a computer.

Something extra to consider when buying a new camera is some affordable camera insurance. Small, lightweight modern cameras are easily lost, damaged or even stolen so its worth spending a little money to get yourself a quick replacement if the worst should happen.

In addition you may like to consider gadget insurance to protect valuable portable devices including laptop insurance for valuable laptop computers.

JVC has launched its first pocket flash memory camera, the new PICSIO GC-FM1. Combining true eight-megapixel stills and 1080p Full HD video it also offers image stabilisation for minimising camera shake, even when the 4X digital zoom is used, JVC claims. Videos are recorded in the widely-used MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format and stored as .MOV files for easy sharing without the need for time-consuming and potentially damaging conversion. Storage is on SD/SDHC memory cards. To suit individual shooting situations, PICSIO provides four video and still recording modes. About the size of a mobile phone the PICSIO is available in three colours – Black Ice, Blue Steel and Purple Passion and comes with a funky-looking geometric pattern and jewel-like appearance.

I’m going to break this to you straight away. The Sony Handycam CX520 starts at around £1000. That’s for the 32GB SSD model. If you want the 64GB version, you’d better be prepared to part with another £200 or so. When I saw this thing on paper, I couldn’t quite see what all the fuss was about but as soon as I got the thing in my hand it was obvious I was playing with a top quality HD camcorder. What impressed me most about this machine is that the 3-way image stabilisation actually works staggeringly well. You can shake the thing pretty vigorously and the picture barely wobbles. The quality of the optics also sound pretty spectacular and it’s got all the touches you’d want like GPS and touchscreen too. A little surprised that it only records interlaced images before upgrading them though. One wonders how much more you’d have to pay for professional video cameras, if any at all, but ignore that thought and you’ll be really pleased with this one. Looking forward to a full review. SonyStyle

The Samsung PL series is all about making digital photography fun, easy and fairly cheap, and what the Korean tech overlord has done today is to add on a little functionality to that list.

PL70 The PL70 comes with a 12.2-megapixel sensor, capturing stills and 720p HD video through a wide-angle 28mm lens with 5x optical zoom and displaying them for your pleasure on the 3-inch, 230K colour, LCD screen on the back. It measures 95.8mm × 59.5mm × 23.9mm, comes in black, silver, red or pink and gives you 11 scene modes to play with as well as an intelligent auto mode that will make the choice for you. Naturally, there’s image stabilisation, whether you’re in optical or digital zoom modes, and it comes with all the usual beauty shot, smile shot, face detection, blink detection and self portrait modes that most good compacts have these days to help you get the results you’re after. A very reasonable £199 from August. PL55 Essentially the same beast as its bigger brother here but no HD video shooting mode. You can still capture moving footage but only in 640 x 480 MPEGS rather than the H.264 encoding on the PL70.

That brings the price down to £149 but you also switch to a standard, non-wide, 35mm lens and a smaller 2.7-inch LCD and I’m not sure that’s worth the saving. However, if you are on a budget, you can pick up this 97mm x 59mm x 24.5mm model in either black, silver, red or blue from next month. ES17

The baby of today’s three is the £89 Samsung ES17. Just face detection and beauty shot to play with but a reasonable enough 12.2-megapixel sensor and 3x optical zoom. There’s still image stabilisation, not that you’ll really need it at that magnification, and although you’ll get more functionality on a cameraphone these days, they ES17 will probably still give you a better picture. You get what you pay for. Samsung

Looking alarmingly like the Curve 8900, albeit slightly bigger and heavier, RIM’s latest device the BlackBerry Tour 9630 lords it over its slimmer sister by including 3G connectivity. Other features include GPS that will work hand-in-hand with the pre-installed BlackBerry maps and a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and image stabilisation. The 2.4-inch screen has a resolution of 480×360. There are no release details yet for poor old Blighty but the model does support GSM, so you never know. In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with the Curve 8900:

I don’t know about you but I was blown away by the beautiful shots of the Olympus EP-1 we saw yesterday. So, today is the number crunching now that the official release is out. There’s a 12.3-megapixel Live MOS sensor within that exquisite frame with an ISO range of 100-6400, and it’s not just there were it sounds like a proper DSLR. It shoots RAW footage, if you desire, onto SDHC cards and features both in-body dust reduction and image stabilisation. It’ll rattle off shots at an impressive 3fps using an 11-point AF system through live view onto a 3-inch, 230,000-dot LCD on the back. All very healthy stuff. It records HD video at 720p and 30fps and despite its antiquated look you do get all manner of HDMI and USB ports. I’m very impressed to note the presence of microphones in the plural which makes stereo sound recording possible unlike most DSLRs which only offer mono. So, the big question is – how much do you reckon this all costs? What would you pay for style, size and supreme functionality? Well, you can pick up the body and the zoom lens for £699, the body and the fixed wide angle for £749 or the lot for £849, and all of it here. There’s also an optional flash which’ll bump it up too. Take a look at the detailed spec sheet for the bits and pieces you’re looking for but, if you ask me, it’s very good deal – provided it actually takes good photos, of course. i, stereo recording, WAV files, ,slot, HDMI out and 720p video recording at 30fps, n,, , AVI Motion JPEG(30fps) to 2GB, Olympus