Camera types: basic pocket, bridge, DSLR. A basic digital camera is fine if all you want to do is take general shots on holidays or of project work - but buy a good make such as Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, Pentax and avoid names like Polaroid. Search internet for reviews. Bridge camera offer you similar technical spec to DSLRs, with RAW imaging as an option. DSLRs can give you great quality and flexibility but require some skill to get the best out of them.
If you want excellence, though, you have to pay for it. That, as you all know, is the way of the world. Regardless of the image sensor size, any camera is only as good as its lens, so a 20MP pocket camera isn't going to take pictures that are twice as good as a 10MP one. In fact I'd go so far as to say that for general use, 10-12 MP is more than adequate. I holidayed in Canada 10 years ago with a then state of the art Olympus 5MP pocket camera and those images are still comparable with any later higher-resolution camera I've subsequently owned, not counting the DSLRs of course. Such small cameras are always limited by their inbuilt processing (saving of images in preset JPG format) plus, nowadays, the rarity of a viewfinder. Screens are very hard to see in sunlight but they do offer a good method of composing a photograph, I believe.
So, I am now on my second DSLR (Nikon, always) and also have a Pentax Optio 10MP and a Panasonic Lumix 16MP, the latter being a particularly slim and well-made camera. The DSLR takes photos in RAW format, allowing me to work with Lightroom and Photoshop to retrieve what might, at first sight, be a lost shot. The results are frankly amazing at times.
You can tell from this that I enjoy photography and have done all my life. The quality of the Nikon DSLR image is simply stunning at 21MP, using a CMOS sensor, superb Nikon lenses and RAW format.
Having bored you all rigid, I will now close by saying that you need to decide your priorities. Don't buy DSLR unless you want sparkling image quality, e.g. for possible publication.
Tony
If you want excellence, though, you have to pay for it. That, as you all know, is the way of the world. Regardless of the image sensor size, any camera is only as good as its lens, so a 20MP pocket camera isn't going to take pictures that are twice as good as a 10MP one. In fact I'd go so far as to say that for general use, 10-12 MP is more than adequate. I holidayed in Canada 10 years ago with a then state of the art Olympus 5MP pocket camera and those images are still comparable with any later higher-resolution camera I've subsequently owned, not counting the DSLRs of course. Such small cameras are always limited by their inbuilt processing (saving of images in preset JPG format) plus, nowadays, the rarity of a viewfinder. Screens are very hard to see in sunlight but they do offer a good method of composing a photograph, I believe.
So, I am now on my second DSLR (Nikon, always) and also have a Pentax Optio 10MP and a Panasonic Lumix 16MP, the latter being a particularly slim and well-made camera. The DSLR takes photos in RAW format, allowing me to work with Lightroom and Photoshop to retrieve what might, at first sight, be a lost shot. The results are frankly amazing at times.
You can tell from this that I enjoy photography and have done all my life. The quality of the Nikon DSLR image is simply stunning at 21MP, using a CMOS sensor, superb Nikon lenses and RAW format.
Having bored you all rigid, I will now close by saying that you need to decide your priorities. Don't buy DSLR unless you want sparkling image quality, e.g. for possible publication.
Tony
