There are many cameras out there, and so far I've talked mainly about camera features. It's likely that the capabilities of the camera will drive your decision, but there is also the "feel" test. That is, does the camera feel right to you?
I highly recommend holding a camera before you buy. Pick it up, use the LCD for focusing, look through the viewfinder (if the camera has one!), click the shutter. In my experience, camera shops will have demo cameras available to help you get a good feel for the camera. You probably won't be able to pull the photos off of the camera media to check the picture quality, but seeing how the camera feels in your hands can be a big help.
An example from my own experience: when I bought the primary lens for my digital SLR, it's likely that I would have bought the wrong lens (for me) if I hadn't taken the opportunity to use the camera in the camera shop. The lens I was playing with was too big for me to hold steady without a tripod or monopod, and I knew that was the wrong decision for me at the time.
Even a compact camera is worth a quick test drive. Maybe you think that you want a tiny camera - but when you feel it you realize that it is too small for you. The opposite could be true too.
And then there are issues like shutter delay. I mentioned the speed difference between my digital SLR (a Canon EOS 350D) and my baby point-and-shoot (a Canon S400) on the Click, click, click... page of this journal. I didn't go into any details there, just mentioned that my digital SLR is much faster than my point-and-shoot. George White noticed this, and posted these entries in the guestbook:
...effect of the delay between pressing the button and capturing the picture. It is a point well worth bringing out, especially for those of us currently moving from film cameras (where the shutter fires when you press the button) to digital where there is a significant delay.
The difference isn't that much if you have things already focused (by half pressing the shutter release), on your camera its down to 95ms (.095 Sec), on my 2 year older camera its approx double that at 182 ms (Olympus C765). The real difference is from just pressing the button - on my camera its 1.11/1.21 Sec, its 200 - 240 ms for your EOS 350D.So for both cameras the delay can be minimised by half releasing the shutter and having the lens already autofocused.
George is absolutely right that this needs to be considered in your choice of camera. My dad bought a point-and-shoot that had such a long lag that the camera was essentially unusable. If he had tried the camera first (by playing with it in a shop), this problem should have been uncovered then, not after he purchased the camera.
Oh, but you want to buy your camera on the web? That may be the best place to buy from a price standpoint, as I found when I bought my point-and-shoot cameras. In that case, I have a couple of suggestions.
- Buy from a reputable site that has a good return policy and a stellar reputation for customer service.
- If a friend or acquaintance has a camera that interests you, ask if you can hold it to get a feel for it.
- Read reviews to get a general sense of the camera.
For more on shutter delay, here's a link to an article on the Adorama site: Not all digital cameras "think alike".
