Welcome to JimJim's Camera Shoppe!

Buying a digital camera involves a lot of research. At JimJim's, we make it easier with a 7-step guide provided by our friends at digital-photography-school.com.

1- Determine what you need What do you need the camera for? What type of photography will you be doing? (portraits, landscapes, macro, sports) 2- Megapixels are not everything One of the main questions to ask when it comes to megapixels is ‘Will you be printing shots’? If so - how large will you be going with them? If you’re only printing images at a normal size then anything over 4 or so megapixels will be fine. If you’re going to start blowing your images up you might want to pay the extra money for something at the upper end of what’s on offer today. 3- Keep in mind the "extras" Some retailers will bundle such extras with cameras or will at least give a discount when buying more than one item at once. Keep in mind though that what they offer in bundles might not meet you needs.

A scenic landscape picture taken with a digital camera.

Decide whether you are looking for a simple point-and-shoot, or a top-of-the-line DSLR.

4- Do you already own any potentially compatible gear? Talking of extra gear - one way to save yourself some cash is if you have accessories from previous digital cameras that are compatible with your new one. 5- DSLR or Point-And Shoot? While digital SLRs are getting more affordable they are not for everyone. Keep in mind that they are usually bigger, heavier, harder to keep clean (if you’re changing lenses) and can be more complicated to operate than point and shoot. Of course there are some upsides also.

6- Optical zooms are king
When you’re looking at different models of digital cameras you’ll often hear their zooms talked about in two ways. Firstly there’s the ‘optical zoom’ and then there’s the ‘digital zoom’.

I would highly recommend that you only take into consideration the ‘optical zoom’ when making a decision about which camera to buy. Digital zooms simply enlarge the pixels in your shot which does make your subject look bigger, but it also makes it look more pixelated and your picture ‘noisier’ (like when you go up close to your TV).

7- Read reviews
Before buying a digital camera take the time to do a little research. Don’t JUST rely upon the advice of the helpful sales person (who may or may not know anything about cameras and who may or may not have sales incentives for the camera they are recommending).

Read some reviews in digital camera magazines or online to help you narrow down the field. There are some great websites around that give expert and user reviews on virtually every camera on the market - use this wonderful and free resource.

Make the right decision, and you could take beautiful panorama shots, like this one of downtown Chicago.

© Copyright Jimmy Giouzelis 2008