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Affordable Digital Cameras...

Are They Really Right For You?

"Affordable digital cameras need to take into account
several factors IN ADDITION TO JUST PRICE."

A digital camera that is "affordable" (whatever that means) will have a tendency of making your budget happy, but disappointing the photographer in you. People generally establish budgets one of two ways:

  1. Based on finances, a dollar figure (or range) is established and then affordable digital cameras are identified from the universe of all digital cameras.

  2. Digital cameras are examined, touched, played with, and used. Then, an educated guess (a.k.a. "budget") is made for how much camera you want to buy.

In addition to performing the typical investigation, don't overlook the ergonomics of the camera. Work the controls before buying. One of the biggest mistakes made by digital camera buyers is to NOT test the camera as they intend to use it, BEFORE THEY BUY IT.

Are the controls easy to operate? Comfortable? Logically placed (not from the engineer's standpoint, but from yours)? How many buttons or levers need to be simultaneously set before getting the result you want?

One commonly overlooked factor is the size of your hands. No, I don't mean whether they're big enough to get your credit card out. Have you ever seen a professional basketball player handling a small camera with tiny buttons?

OK, true, not many of us have seen pro athletes, but I think you get my point. Just like they shouldn't get a camera with tiny controls, someone with tiny hands may have trouble with a larger and heavier camera.

Also, just because a digital camera is small or doesn't look like it has complicated features, doesn't make it simple to use. Let me emphasize this truism when it comes to choosing digital cameras:

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to camera selection. "Affordable" digital cameras are DRASTICALLY OVER-PRICED
IF THEY DON'T MEET YOUR NEEDS."


If you're upgrading from a less expensive digital camera, don't assume that spending more or having more features will automatically make you happier. Always test out the camera. An affordable digital camera isn't affordable if you wind up not using it!

A new digital camera will probably operate differently than your older model. Does the new camera have controls that are counter-intuitive? If they do, do you really want to consider it, even if it is inexpensive?

Do you change ISO settings frequently? If you do, it's important to find out if the new model you're considering requires navigating through four menus to change the ISO.

Little things like this can frustrate a person enough to not use this "affordable digital camera." Better to find out details like these before rather than after the purchase.

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