It’s not long now until Christmas and many people that I talk to at the weekends at my stall on Northcote Road are beginning to use the P word (presents that is). A number of those people are talking specifically about buying a camera for themselves or someone they know.

Here are my 9 top tips:

1. Determine what you need
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the choice and ending up buying cameras that are beyond what you really need. Some questions to ask yourself before you go shopping:
What do you need the camera for?
What type of photography will you be doing? (portraits, landscapes, macro, sports)
What conditions will you be photographing in? (indoors, outdoors, low light, bright light)
Will you mostly stay in auto mode or do you want to learn the art of photography?
What experience level do you have with cameras?
What type of features are you looking for? (long zoom, image stabilization, large LCD display etc)
How important is size and portability to you?
What is your budget?
Ask yourself these questions before you go to buy a camera and you’ll be in a much better position to make a decision when you see what’s on offer. You’ll probably find the sales person asks you these question anyway – so to have thought about it before hand will help them help you get the right digital camera.

2. Megapixels are NOT everything
One of the features that you’ll see used to sell digital cameras is how many megapixels a digital camera has.
In the early days of digital photography the megapixel rating of cameras was actually quite important as most cameras were at the lower end of today’s range and even a 1 megapixel increase was significant.
These days, with most new cameras coming out with at least 5 megapixels, it isn’t so crucial. In fact at the upper end of the range it can actually be a disadvantage to have images that are so large that they take up enormous amounts of space on memory cards and computers.
One of the main questions to ask when it comes to megapixels is ‘Will you be printing shots’? If so – how large will you be going with them? If you’re only printing images at a normal size then anything over 4 or so megapixels will be fine. If you’re going to start blowing your images up you might want to pay the extra money for something at the upper end of what’s on offer.

3. What extras will you get with your purchase?
Keep in mind as you look at cameras that the price quoted may not be the total outlay that you need to make as there are a variety of other extras that you might want (or need) to fork out for including:
Camera Case
Memory Cards
Spare Batteries/Recharger
Lenses (if you are getting a DSLR)
Filters (and other lens attachments)
Tripods/Monopods
External Flashes
Reflectors
Some retailers will bundle such extras with cameras or will at least give a discount when buying more than one item at once. Keep in mind though that what they offer in bundles might not meet you needs. For example it’s common to get a 16 or 32 megabyte memory card with cameras – however these days you’ll probably want something at least 1 gigabyte or even two).

4. Do you already own any compatible gear?
One way to save yourself some cash is if you have accessories from previous digital cameras that are compatible with your new one.
For example memory cards, batteries, lenses (remember that many film camera lenses are actually compatible with digital SLRs from the same manufacturers), flashes, filters etc.

5. DSLR or Point and Shoot?
While digital SLRs are getting more affordable they are not for everyone. Keep in mind that they are usually bigger, heavier, harder to keep clean (if you’re changing lenses) and can be more complicated to operate than point and shoot. Remember ‘grab shots’ are much easier to take with a compact camera that you can whip out of your pocket and take quickly. I take a compact camera on holiday with me as I find I can take much more natural pictures of my children, not to mention that my family also needs a break from “all of Daddy’s camera gear”

6. Optical Zooms are much better quality than Digital zooms.
Not all ‘zooms’ are created equal.
I would highly recommend that you only take into consideration the ‘optical zoom’ when making a decision about which camera to buy. Digital zooms simply enlarge the pixels in your shot which does make your subject look bigger, but it also makes it look more pixelated and your picture ‘noisier’
If you’re looking for a zoom lens make sure it’s an optical zoom (most modern cameras have them of at least 3x in length – ie they’ll make your subject three times as big – with an increasing array of ’super zooms’ at up to 12x Optical Zoom).

7. Read reviews
Before buying a digital camera take the time to do a little research. Don’t JUST rely upon the advice of the helpful sales person (who may or may not know anything about cameras and who may or may not have sales incentives for the camera they are recommending).
Read some reviews in digital camera magazines or online to help you narrow down the field. There are some great websites around that give expert and user reviews on virtually every camera on the market.

8. Hands On Experience
Once you’ve narrowed down your search to a handful of cameras head into your local digital camera shop and ask to see and play with them. There’s nothing like having the camera in your hands to work out whether it suits your needs.
When I shop for a camera I generally use the web to find reviews, then I head into a street in my city with 4 camera shops side by side and I go from shop to shop asking for recommendations and seeing the cameras live in the flash. In doing this I generally find the same camera or two are recommended in most shops and I get to see them demonstrated by different people (this gives a more well rounded demo). I also get to play with it and get a feel for which one I could see myself using.

9. Negotiate
After you’ve selected the right digital camera it’s time to find the best price.
Once again, start online and do some searches to find the most competitive prices on the models you’re interested in. With this information you’re in a good position to be able to negotiate in person with local stores and/or with online stores. Retail stores will negotiate on price and will often throw in freebies. Online stores are more difficult – most bigger ones don’t give you the ability to negotiate but smaller ones often will if you email them.
Don’t forget to ask for free or discounted bonuses including camera cases, memory cards, extra batteries, filters, free prints, cases etc. Some stores will also consider giving you a trade in on older gear.

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