Consumers Guide to Digital Cameras

Mt. Gould in Glacier Park, taken with an ancient Canon A40 digital camera.    Photo Use Guidelines

If you’re visiting this page, the odds are good that you are currently shopping around for a digital camera. The odds are also very good that, by now, you are sick and tired about reading about all sorts of crazy terms, have tired eyes due to squinting at images trying to locate imperfections, and are, in general, just sick and tired of the whole “digital camera shopping process.”

Well, if that is you, take heart, as you’ve come to the right place. I’ve bought several digital cameras over the years, have visited countless websites about various digital camera models, and have spent way to much time reading technical and esoteric reviews that, ultimately, proved to be little more than an adventure in wasting time.

You see, the problem with most camera reviews today is that they are, well, too good. All the popular digital camera review sites are geared towards the professional photographer. As such, these reviews analyze virtually every little detail of a camera and the quality of images it produces. And this is good…if you’re a professional photographer or aspire to be one.

But really, is that you? I know it isn’t me. I love photography, but I find trying to be a “professional photographer” takes the fun out of it. Additionally, I’ve probably taken more than 20,000 digital images over the past five years or so. And during that time, I’ve learned a few things about photography…one of which is that photographers love to make even the simple things horribly complex. Even worse, if you spend too much time reading these professional camera reviews, you run the risk of coming away feeling inadequate in someway…almost like that if you don’t have the latest, greatest and most expensive camera gear around, you photographs will not even be accepted by the local landfill.

Perhaps because of photography overload, and the realization that 90% of the photographers in the world today do NOT need the latest and greatest gear, but instead just want a camera that takes quality photographs, I’ve put together this guide to digital cameras.

Let me start out by saying what you will NOT find here. You will NOT find images that a camera takes. You won’t find endless image quality tests that mean nothing to most consumers. You won’t find any of the technical geek-speak found on other camera sites. Indeed, you won’t even find any reviews of cameras here at all.

Instead, what you’ll find is a simple guide that will help steer you towards purchasing the right digital camera for your needs. It will help you think about the features on a camera that you really need, how much you want to spend, and basically a few other tidbits of information that will make sure you get the camera that is right for you…not someone else. And hopefully, with a little luck, you will no longer feel inadequate because you aren’t sporting a fancy, expensive camera that did nothing more for you than leave a big, gaping hole in your bank account.

So, let’s get started.

Next Page : Do You Even Need a Digital Camera?

Top of Page