What should I look for when shopping for a camera?
I am a college student look for a mid-range camera, what qualities should i look for?
For starters, and/or the casual user, here are just a few qualities to look for in a camera: 1) for great resolution, of your pictures, it should have a minimum 5 megapixels (mp). This is very good for most users. 2) 3x-4x (or higher), optical zoom is good, don't worry about digital zoom. 3) I like to stick with AA batteries, rechargeable or regular. Lithium battery are good, but not easy to find if you're on vacation and need batteries at a convienence store or can recharge quickly. 4) I see that many digital cameras are doing away with the optical viewfinder (the old fashioned way of looking through the viewfinder to take a picture), and strickly having just the LCD screen to compose a shot to take. I, personally still like the optical viewfinder to really focus on a particular subject, or use on a really sunny day where it's hard to see your subject(s) on the screen, or just to save battery power on my camera. These are just a few things to consider when shopping for a digital camera.
I like Canon and Sony, in that order. Nothing against other brands, just personal preference and experience of these brands. I'm sure you'll be able to find these 4 qualities in the other brands that will fit your budget.
You'll need a digital/memory card to capture your pictures onto, and these two brands uses different kinds. Canon (and I know Kodak. Not sure what Nikon, Olympus, Fuji or other brands use), uses a SD/MMC card, which I find is cheaper than a memory stick used by Sony. (Which by the way, is used just for Sony cameras).
Here is a link to the top ConsumerReports.org picks and reviews on Yahoo! Tech: http://tech.yahoo.com/rc/digital-cameras...
I have the Canon A620, and love it!
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