Read more about the project: 101 tips to make you a better photographer.

Tip #1 of 101: What camera should I buy to get the best quality photos?

Tip related to: Photography Equipments
Photography skill required: Beginners
Camera feature required: Any camera, useful even if you take photos using your mobile phone

I will start this series with the first question that a lot of people ask me…
What camera should I buy to get the best quality photos?

The answer in one line is:
Buy the best equipment that you can afford.

All cameras and camera phones are not made equal. The quality of your photo always depends on the quality of the equipment you use to take the photos.

The camera phone will never be able to take photos of the same quality as a compact cameras and a compact cameras will never be able to take photos of the same quality as an SLR and so on.

Similarly, for camera phones, a Nokia 2630 will never be able to take the photos of the same quality as Nokia N82 and so on…

So, if you want to feel good about your photos, buy the best camera that you can afford.

Best does not mean the costliest. It means the best value for money.

The first thing that you should do when buying a camera is…
Ignore the mega pixel count in the camera.

All the marketing hype around us makes us believe that a 12 mega pixel camera is better than a 6 mega pixel camera.

This is a blatant lie.

If all things remain the same, then a 12 mega pixel camera is better than a 6 mega pixel camera only in producing larger sized prints.

The extra mega pixel in the camera has zero affect on the quality of the photo or colors or exposure etc.

In fact, as any expert would agree, if the sensor size is the same, then more mega pixels in your camera means worse quality of photo.

Let me explain how, then I will take you to the links where you can read more about it and see photo samples to prove my point.

Usually, for a generation of camera, the sensor size is fixed for all resolutions. This is to make sure that they can adjust it in the small size of the camera body.

If the size of the sensor remains the same, then a 12 mega pixel sensor will have twice the pixels of a 6 mega pixel camera.

It would also mean that the size of each individual pixel in a 12 mega pixel sensor would be half of the size of the pixels in the 6 mega pixels sensor.

Smaller pixel size means, less ability to capture light and hence, worse photos.

Check out this link here and here and here to read more about it.

So, what should you check when you are buying a new camera.

1. If your budget is limited, go for less mega pixels.
   • 6 mega pixels is good enough to give you an A4 sized prints. You do not need more than that.
   • Cameras with lesser mega pixels have a lower cost of ownership too because it means you need less hard disk space, less RAM on your computer, smaller sized memory card in your camera etc.
2. Check for optical zooms. More is better.
3. Ignore digital zoom. Digital zoom is just another marketing hype.
4. Make sure that camera has shooting modes like Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority etc. Although this might not sound useful if you are not familiar with it, but in the future tips, I will tell you how you can use these options to take pro-quality photos of special things like water falls, moving traffic, close up of objects etc.
5. If you can afford it, buy an SLR. It will produce 10 times better photos as compared to a compact or a mega zoom camera. Specially if you take photos in low lights like indoors, or in the evening or nights etc. Bad part… it does not make videos and movies.
6. If you are planning to buy an SLR, you can compromise on the camera body but do not compromise on the lens. The lens is your long term investment and will usually work with all future camera bodies. You will have to replace your camera body every few years.
7. Always read the reviews from experts for the camera before buying it.
8. Check out the sample photos at 100% resolution from these cameras
9. A good place to study the camera is DPReview and Google :).
   You can also find video reviews of your camera if you search on Youtube. I personally like it because I can actually see how the camera is handled and how it looks before buying it.
10. Always check for bargain prices at Ebay India after you have discussed with your local camera stores. A lot of my friends have been using it and they get great discounts there. As of today, you get 10% cash back if you buy using ICICI Bank credit cards.

I think that is it for today.

My next tip will be about how to lock the focus of your camera to get sharper photos of the main subject.
This is a fundamental skill of photography and helps you compose better photos.

If you want to be informed when I write the next tip, just enter your email id in the subscription box at the top right and I will send you an email whenever I write something.

If you have any questions or want to share your photos or want tips on some specific topic, post them in the comments section below.

Take care,
Gunjan