Which Digital Camera Should I Buy?

The first thing we need to do is decide which camera to buy. There are several questions you need to ask yourself:

-How much money do I want to spend?
-There are many cameras in many different price ranges. Decide your budget and look at cameras that fall into your price range.

-What will I be taking pictures of?
-Kids or Pets?-make sure the camera has image stabilizing capabilities, and a fast shutter.
-Landscapes?-make sure the camera has a landscape auto mode, or a wide angle lens.
-Action?-make sure the camera has a fast shutter and find out how many frames per second it can shoot.
-Groups?-make sure the camera has an auto mode and maybe even face detection.

-Where will I be taking the camera?
-If you do a lot of traveling or driving your children to games or dance, you will want a small point and click. You don’t want to be burdened with a camera hanging off your shoulder and bonking your kids in the head.

-How much room do I have to store the camera, and accessories when I travel?
-If you are the average traveler and not on a photo shoot, you will love the ease of a small point and click camera. You can fit them just about anywhere, (including your bra sometimes, I’ve done it!!).

-Will I be blowing up the prints over 16x20, or will I be using the pictures in scrapbooks and photo albums?
-For a long time I had a 3 megapixel camera. It worked just fine for the pictures I used because I never blew up a picture larger than 8x10. It was a Canon (I personally would never buy anything else than a Canon), so it still took great pictures, even after my children beat it up!! They don’t even make camera’s with that small amount of pixels anymore, so don’t worry about that too much.

If you will be cropping and zooming in on the pictures you take I think it’s more important to find a camera that has a great focusing lens. You will get sharper images that way.

-Do I want total control over the shutter, aperture, ISO etc., or do I just want to see and click?
-If you are not planning on becoming a pro photographer, you don’t need a DSLR, (the kind of camera you can manually adjust all of the settings). The point and click cameras have great options in the menu’s to control all sorts of things.
-If you do want more control and more depth and sharpness, I would go to a full sized camera. The Canon Rebel is a great camera to buy if you want more control and it is affordable.


I own a Canon Elph for my small point and shoot, and because I am a professional photographer, I also own a Canon 30D.

After you ask yourself these questions, I would take what you have learned about yourself and go to a “REAL” camera store to talk to someone that really know’s what they are talking about.

The “BIG” superstore associates don’t know anything close to what these guys know.

Make sure you get a memory card that is big enough to capture a whole events pictures. I would make sure you can store at least 500 pictures on a memory card at one time. Ask the salesperson which card you should buy. The cards that come with the camera are usually not big enough.

Also, make sure you get a tri-pod, even if it’s a cheap one. You never know when you will want a picture of yourself and need to use the timer or a slow shutter speed on your camera to capture that awesome sunset.

After you have chosen your camera and accessories, come back and I will walk you through using the menu and taking your first great pictures!! Good Luck!!

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