Photography deals for UK Consumers

This page offers some help on buying and getting the most from your digital camera and your digital photo collection

Buying a digital camera

Digital cameras are great. With a digital, you get the option to see the picture you've just taken and snap again if you need to, and there's no need to worry about the processing costs, as you can delete any duff pictures, and snap away without worrying about the per-picture cost. There are however, a few things to bear in mind to help make the right choice. If you're looking to buy a digital camera for the first time, here's some general advice:

Firstly, consider what you're actually planning to do with the photos you take - are you planning to store the pictures on your PC, are you planning to put your images on the web, or are you planning to print out your pictures? These decisions may have an effect on your buying choice, as we outline below:

Quality - For printed images, 2 Megapixels is the minimum, and 4 and over, ideal. If you're after quality, go for as high a number of megapixels as possible. Remember that the higher the quality, the more memory each picture uses.

Memory - Go for a camera that supports removable memory card (as opposed to built-in memory). This means that you carry spare memory around with you. The most common format found today is the SD card (about the size of a postage stamp). 256Meg card costs around £30, and holds around 150 images (assuming 3megapixels, high quality with minimal compression). If you're prepared to drop the resolution, you can get considerably more. For more information on memory cards, and some good bargains in low-price cards, see the page at FileSaveAs

Battery - Using the LCD screen on a digital camera EATS batteries... For that reason, choose carefully. A rechargeable battery is the most economic option (much cheaper than replacing AA batteries after a long photo shoot). We recommend getting a camera that supports a removable rechargeable battery, so that you can carry a fully-charged spare around with you. The only downside to this option, is that if your camera battery goes flat when you're without your mains charger and a mains supply. There are a few cameras out now that have a removable rechargeable battery which can be removed and replaced with a couple of normal AA batteries.... The best of all worlds.

Zoom - Go for something with optical zoom - We've found that 3 x optical is pretty much a requirement for general snapping. Forget digital zoom!

Printing - The options open to you for printing, are as follows: