What should I look for in a digital camera?

everywhere and want lots of pics you'll have to spend more for a pocket camera - one that's smaller and can hold lots of shots.A professional model will be bigger and even more costly, just because it does so much.How many dotsA cheap digital camera will take photos that look fine if you look at them on screen, send them via e-mail or put them onto a website, but they won't print out very well.That's because every picture you take is made up of lots of coloured dots, called 'pixels'. Look really closely at any of the pics on this page and you'll see them. The more dots, the better the picture looks - but each dot takes up some computer memory. What should I look for in a digital camera?So the more dots you want in your digital photos the more memory you need - and the more your camera will cost.Number of pixelsLook at on screenPrint in a documentPhoto quality printAround 1 million (1M)YesNot very wellDon't even think about it1.3-1.5MYesOKSmall pictures only2MYesGoodReasonable up to 8" by 10"3MYesGoodExcellent even for large printsMore than 3MYesBrilliantGood enough for use by professionalsWhat Can You See?Cheaper digital cameras come with a viewfinder that you look through, just like an ordinary camera. But for a little more money you can get one with a screen in the back. When you take a photo you get to see it on the screen, or you can even use it as a way of lining up your photo before you take it instead of looking through the viewfinder.But the main reason is to have a look at the photo you've just taken - if it wasn't any good then you can get rid of it and take another.Perfect for when Auntie Jane blows her nose at just the wrong time!How many - how fast?Each time you take a photo it gets stored on your camera, and that uses space in the camera's computer memory.Most cameras, apart from budget ones, have a special card that stores the pictures - it might be called 'CompactFlash' or a 'Memory Stick' - and you can bung another one in, like putting a new film into an ordinary camera. But these cards don't come cheap - expect to pay 30 pounds for something to store 36 photos.Some cameras actually use an ordinary floppy disk to store the pictures, so you can just take it out and put it in your PC.But a high quality photo can easily fill a whole disk, so this isn't as convenient as it might sound if you're taking dozens of snaps on a Spanish beach. Power A digital camera needs electricity to run - and that means batteries. A new set of four AA batteries every week can easily add up, so look for a camera that has rechargeable batteries in it, or invest in some separately. When you're taking photos you'll probably turn the camera off when you're not using it, and most will turn off automatically after a short time. But if you're spending a lot of time copying pictures to your PC it's really useful to have a power adaptor so you can plug the camera in - then you won't get annoyed when the batteries die halfway through! Zooming in and other cool stuff Most digital cameras let you zoom in on the action - some do this in the traditional way by moving the lens (it's called 'optical zoom') and some just magnify the image in the camera (this is 'digital zoom'). Digital zoom isn't as good as it can make the image more blurred, so look for optical zoom. Almost all cameras apart from the budget models have a flash too, so you can take photos in poor light. Apart from the top of the range expensive ones they are all fixed focus, so you don't have to worry about blurry pictures of the kids in the sea, and they do things like controlling the exposure and shutter speed automatically. In fact, you'll have to pay a lot more if you're a serious photographer who wants to do that sort of thing for themselves. Price and performance Once you know how much you can afford then you can look around for a camera that does as much of the stuff you want at or under that price. CameraPrice RangePictures you can printNumber of pictures the camera holdsZoom lensBudgetUnder 100 poundsNot really - mostly for looking at on screen16-32NoPoint and ShootAround 150 poundsYes, but not great quality32-64Yes / NoMid End Home UserUnder 300 poundsOK for standard photos64+YesHigh End Home UserOver 300 poundsYes - even large size64+YesAdvanced1000 pounds plusAbsolutely!Could be thousands!Yes