When browsing through point and shoot digital cameras, you can get bogged down and confused with all the features, capabilities and technical terms thrown your way. Never fear, Shopaholic is here! There are a few key things to look for when picking out a digital camera. The first and most obvious thing to take note of is its size. As digital cameras are meant to be portable and brought along everywhere, you want a camera that’s small and slim. You want a camera that you can fit easily into your pocket. At the same time, you’ll want to handle the camera and make sure that the buttons are comfortable to use. If you’ve got big hands, a small camera with smaller buttons will get annoying rather quickly.

That’s the easy part. While there might be a dozen technical things to consider when picking out a camera, here are five key things to look at: mega-pixels, the LCD screen size, optical zoom, battery and popular features. With mega-pixels, the more the better. More mega-pixels simply means higher quality pictures. The best cameras out there have over 10 mega-pixels. Olympus is a brand that’s renowned for making high quality digital cameras that produce great photos. The main reason is because Olympus offers a slew of cameras with a large amount of mega-pixels. Some of their best cameras are Olympus 12mp point and shoots. 12 megapixels can produce some of the sharpest, high definition photos you can imagine.

When it comes to screen size, bigger is better. The bigger the screen, the better the viewing capability. Optical zoom is yet another feature to consider. You want a camera with a high optical zoom, 5x and up will usually do the trick. Digital cameras also come with different kinds of batteries. I once had a digital camera that took only alkaline batteries–the one’s you buy at the store. It was a nightmare because alkaline batteries have a much shorter life and I couldn’t recharge my camera. I’d have to buy new batteries. The camera ended up costing me a ton of money in the long run. Luckily, most digital cameras come equipped with lithium-ion or nickel-metal-hydride batteries that can easily be recharged by plugging your camera into an outlet.

If you’re looking for a camera that can take good video, you should also consider the maximum video capture resolution and the maximum frame rate. For both, the higher the number, the better the video quality.

And finally, every camera comes with it’s own slew of camera features that vary from different exposure modes to scene modes to video and audio modes. Picking the right one depends solely on what you’re planning on using it for. There are a million features out there and if you’re into photography, having a variety of the right features will be crucial to your decision. There’s a feature that isolates colours so that it stands out, while the rest of the picture is in black and white. If you’re planning on taking high definition, close up pictures, you’ll need a camera that has a macro mode. There are continuous shooting modes that allow you to take pictures of things in motion. While more features generally means more things you’ll be able to do with your camera, make sure that the camera you choose has exactly the right features that you’ll need.

With that said, if you’re looking for a digital camera the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 is definitely on to check out. It’s been lab tested and rated #1 in PCWorld magazine based on a variety of factors. It has 10.2 megapixels and a 2.7 inch LCD screen. It also has an optical zoom of 5x and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. It’s small, slim and can take great pictures, especially in low-light. The camera can take panorama shots, and its lithium-ion batteries give it a long battery life as well. This camera is best for both the amateur photographer and the casual picture-taker. It’s extremely easy to use and has features that would make even the most seasoned photographer drool.

Did you know?

The word pixel comes from a contraction of the phrase ‘picture element’. Digital pictures are actually made up of tiny squares called pixels and a megapixel is one million pixels. So an Olympus 12mp camera literally has a resolution of 12 million pixels!

-Miljean

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