Arthur H. Bleich

Contributing Editor
Digital Camera Magazine

This holiday season, you can purchase a quality digicam, a great printer, a charger and batteries, a card reader, and even an additional higher capacity memory card- all for between $750 and $1,000. Is that some great news, or what!

But Choosing the right one can be taxing to those "little grey cells," as fictional detective Hercule Poirot is so fond of saying. So if this is going to be your first digital camera purchase, here's how to make a good choice with minimum brain drain.

1. The camera should have at least 1280 x 960 true optical resolution (that's 1.3 MegaPixels). You'll then be able to get prints up to 8 x 10 inches. If this is your first digicam, it's not necessary to go into the 2 MegaPixel range; however I have found one digicam with that resolution that is an excellent buy.

2. There's an old saying: "Familiar things are best." So look for a digicam that operates most like the film camera you're used to. This means fast start-up and fast shot-to-shot time. You'd be surprised at how many digicams are still slugs when it comes to those two features. Instead of improving on them, many manufacturers continue to add useless bells and whistles that you don't need, nor will ever use. Let's face it, are you really going to leave your camera on a tripod anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days while you shoot time lapse photos? That might make a good movie sequence, but with stills all you'll end up with are a lot of similar pictures taken at different times of day.

3. If possible, check out the camera's menus. I recently reviewed a digicam that had menu items festooned around the LCD Monitor is such a disorganized manner that a 747 cockpit instrument layout looked like it'd be a lot easier to learn. Menus should be intuitive and easy to navigate.

4. Cross off any potential digicam that has only an LCD monitor for pre-viewing. They are notorious for washing out in sunlight and you usually have to hold the camera in an uncomfortable position to use them. A well-designed digicam has an optical viewfinder in addition to the LCD monitor for easy, eye-level viewing.

5. Digicams that use standard floppy disks may seem like the ideal way to go (which is why Sony has 30% of the digicam market) but they can't match the speed and resolution of most other digicams. If you are seriously considering buying a digicam of this type, make sure your pictures absolutely have to be on floppies (there's usually no compelling reason).

6. The digicam should come with written documentation. You'd be surpised at how many so-called quality camera manufaturers try to save a few bucks by putting the documentation on CD-ROM. Then, after paying close to a $1,000 for a camera, you have to print out the documentation yourself. (Nikon, take note!)

7. Read a few reviews before you decide. Most web sites where this column appears have thorough and detailed reviews. Many computer magazine reviews of digicams are pretty shallow because the reviewers are not usually experienced photographers and every dumb feature is embraced in "gee whizz" fashion as if it were the greatest thing since sliced bread. Furthermore, unlike the Web, space is always at a premium in printed media.

8. Be prepared to buy a couple of sets of rechargeable NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries and a good charger unless your digicam comes with them or uses Lithium-Ion batteries. Quest and Kodak batteries are very long-lasting, and the Maha C204F charger is an absolute jewel. Two sets of batteries and a charger will set you back about $50 - $70

9. Transferring images to your computer can be a long and tedious process unless both camera and computer have USB. But don't make USB a prime requisite. You can get inexpensive Parallel, SCSI, and USB card readers that let you pop the card right from your camera into the reader. Then you can transfer pictures to your computer in a flash. Sandisk, Lexar, Microtechint, and Norman Camera (for SCSI) all have readers ranging in price from $20 - $120. Consider the acquisition of a card reader to be in the same class as rechargeable batteries.

10. Your pictures will only be as good as the printer they're output on. So plan to buy a decent photo-quality printer. Printers are like the speakers in your stereo system. It does little good to have the finest electronic components pushing sound through a set of tinny tweeters. Take a look at the output from both the Epson 750 ($250) and the HP 970 Cse ($400) to see which you like best. Then take a deep breath, pull out your credit card- and just do it!

If I had to make a hard choice between an expensive digicam without the extra peripherals (batteries, card reader, printer, etc.) and a less expensive digicam with them, I'd go for the lower priced camera with all the goodies.  Why?  Because you'll eventually be buying another camera based on what you've learned from your first digicam. But in the meantime, you'll be getting the most convenience and best output from the digicam you've bought.

There are now some excellent 1.3 MegaPixel digicams beginning as low as $250 that will deliver high quality images. Space doesn't permit listing them here but you'll find discriptions of six holiday gift candidates -five of which are under $400- along with a features comparison chart at the Digital PhotoCorner.

Happy Holidays! My next column will appear in January 2000.

© Arthur H. Bleich 1999, All rights reserved.

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