6 Questions to ask yourself before buying a new camera.

My friends and family are always asking me what camera I would recommend them buying, and I just stare at them like dear on headlights, because I know there are a gazillions options out there for digital cameras, and I need to ask a questions about what they want, before I give an answered. So here are the 5 questions I think you should ask yourself before even consider to buy any camera:

1.       What will I want to photograph? If the answer is landscape, portraits, outdoors, indoors and everything in between, you would want to consider a lens with zoom, this will offer you many options, these zoom ranges should work great enough for what ever you plan to do. But if you think you may have special needs like, nature and wild life photography where you need big zoom lenses or real state and indoor photography where you will need wide angle lens, or you just want the best possible optics, an SLR with interchangeable lenses is the best camera to get.

2.       Do I want to make big prints of my photos or just post them on the web and maybe print a couple for an album? this will determine how much resolution you need, 10 mega pixels should be enough for great quality of small to medium prints.

3.       Do I want a camera that fits in my pocket ? One way to think about cameras is to divide them into those that fit in your pocket and those that don't, because those that don't fit in your pocket hang around your neck. The larger cameras may offer more features, but the down side is will you not want to carry them. So what is the point of having an awesome camera you can't take to your camping trip or the playground. There are a few cameras that fall somewhere between the extremes and will fit in a coat pocket or purse.

4.       What brand?  I only buy Canon, but that is a very personal choice, I know nothing about other brands, I only know Canon. I trust the brand and I love their products. 

5.       Where Should I buy my equipment? When buying camera equipment, it’s usually a big mistake to go for the lowest price. All reputable dealers are grouped in a very narrow price range, perhaps within $10 of each others on a $400 camera. This is because the margins are so low, most are selling at just above cost to be competitive. The two stores where I do 90% of my buying are:

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      Low end equipment: Amazon (www.amazon.com)  I love the way they give user reviews and rank sales of all camera equipment. I also love one-click buying because I don’t have to find my wallet.

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      B&H Photo and Video and Adorama are the stores for professionals and they take their reputation very seriously. In the small circle of professionals, bad business practices will kill a company very quickly as word gets around. It is in this discriminating market where B&H thrives. The B&H business is run by people whose religion dictates that they not do business on the Sabbath, so the store won’t even take orders from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. You have to respect this way of doing business and in some cases delay your order by a day. They frequently make up for it by getting things to me long before I expect them and it’s not just me, it’s everyone.

how much $$$ are you willing to spend?. Photography is a very expensive hobby,but there is a lot you can do with a little budget. Just remember, if you have an SLR you can always buy lenses little by little till you build your camera bag and you can also rent professional lenses and cameras if you want to test them before you spend hundreds or thousands of dollars.  http://www.adoramarentals.com

My first love :) Canon F1 from 1971, this was my first camera passed to me by my dad.

This topic has a lot more to it, but I asking yourself these few questions, will help you narrow down your search list and hopefully make a better decision into buying your new camera.  

Good Luck!