Choosing the best camera for your needs
• There are two main kinds of cameras. "Point-and-shoot" models are less expensive and more compact; they are ideal for everyday photography and will yield better-looking photos than your mobile phone will. Digital single lens reflex (d-SLR) cameras are bigger and pricier, but take higher quality photos at faster speeds (so you don't miss that magic moment), offer more manual photography features and support interchangeable lenses, too. Some "tweener" cameras borrow from both categories -- they're small, like a point-and-shoot, but offer d-SLR-like image quality and interchangeable lenses.
• Many Canadians are bogged down with how many megapixels the camera has, but that really isn't an important consideration these days. Why? Because even a camera with five megapixels is ample for four-by-six-inch photos. More megapixels only matter if you want to enlarge a photo to, say, a poster-size print, or if you want to crop a photo on your computer (for example, to isolate your child in his hockey team photo), and enlarge that image.
Look for optical zoom and image stabilization features
• More important considerations when buying a digital camera include the size of the sensor (the bigger, the better); optical zoom (to get closer to the subject without moving); the quality of processor (speed and performance); and image stabilization (to compensate for a shaky hand). Most digital cameras today can also shoot high-definition video.
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