Digital cameras: Choosing and buying the best digital camera Digital Camera jargon buster
Aperture priority
A digital camera with aperture priority is good for portraits
A feature that gives you control over whether the background of your picture is in focus or not.
If you were taking a photograph of someone in Piccadilly Circus in London, for example, you might want the background out of focus so all the signs in the distance don't make the shot too complicated.
You can change this by adjusting the camera's f-value using aperture priority, stepping in closer to the subject and zooming in.
Bridge camera
A bridge camera lies somewhere between a DSLR and a slim point-and-shoot camera. While bridge cameras don't allow you to change lenses and tend to be smaller than DSLRs, they tend to offer superior manual control and often have features like viewfinders, and often have huge zooms of up to 35x.
Read our guide to how to buy the best bridge camera if this sounds like the type of model for you.
Burst mode
This lets you take several pictures quickly in succession until you take your finger off the camera's shutter button - useful when you want to take pictures of fast-moving action.
Compact system camera
This is a loose term to describe any camera which allows you to change the lens, but doesn't feature an internal mirror like a DSLR (see below). The advantage is you can achieve DSLR-style picture quality but with a smaller camera body.
Compact system cameras (CSCs) have been released by Panasonic, Olympus, Nikon, Sony, Samsung and Pentax.
Read our guide to compact system cameras explained for more detail.
Digital single-lens reflex
Digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) let you change the lens to suit the type of picture you’re taking, and inside the camera there's a mirror which flips up to expose the large image sensor.
DSLRs achieve better pictures than slim everyday cameras because of their large sensors and superior lenses, as well as the wealth of manual settings on offer.
You can use the starter lens that comes with the camera for everyday pictures and buy additional lenses for better photographs.
HD video
There are a number of types of HD video, and they tend to reflect the resolution captured in the footage (the level of detail):
- 1080p - this is known as "Full HD". The camera captures 1,080 horizontal lines which are are scanned progressively, or one after another, making the 1080p image more detailed and realistic.
- 1080i - this is not technically Full HD, as the horizontal lines are interlaced rather than progressive, and are not refreshed all at once. The effect can be that fast-moving objects display motion judder.
- 720p - though this is still HD, 720p footage has a lower resolution. You won't capture quite as much detail, though motion tends to be smooth.
Hot shoes are usually found on top-end digital cameras
Hot shoe
This small attachment at the top of some digital cameras is for adding an external flash – useful for illuminating subjects more than a few metres away.
Some cameras also allow you to attach an external microphone or even an external electronic viewfinder via the hot shoe.
Image stabilisation
True image stabilisation involves a small mechanism located around the sensor or within the lens of a camera. This creates a small mechanical adjustment to compensate for trembling hand motions, producing sharper images. We test the effectiveness of image stabilisation systems since some do better jobs than others.
Digital anti-blur or electronic image stabilisation is different. This prevents the likelihood of blurry shots by raising the ISO level (see below) and increasing the shutter speed - the camera takes faster shots (which requires the higher ISO), so blurriness is less likely, but the downside is the picture quality decreases.
ISO
The higher the ISO, the more sensitive a digital camera is to light, helping you achieve blur-free pictures without flash. You have the option to set it manually on all our cameras. However, the higher you set the ISO, the more ‘noise’ you get in your photos. This grainy effect can spoil the level of detail.
Macro mode
Use your camera's macro mode for detailed close-ups
Often indicated by a flower icon, macro mode helps you take highly detailed close-ups with a digital camera.
Megapixels (Mp)
Pixels are tiny dots of colour that make up a digital image – 5Mp is five million pixels, for example. More pixels means more detail in the picture taken, which will allow you to create larger prints.
Memory card
Very few cameras have enough internal memory to save many photos to - you'll need to purchase a separate memory card to save your pics. Almost all cameras use SDHC or older SD memory cards, and an increasing number can use the large SDXC cards which hold a huge amount of space. Generally, a 4GB memory card is a sensible size to go for, though it's worth considering larger cards if you take a lot of HD video or have a high resolution (14Mp or above) camera.
Some Sony cameras take Memory Stick Duo cards instead of or as well as SD memory cards
Noise
The higher you set the ISO on your camera, the more ‘noise’ you get in your photos. This appears as small, coloured speckles and it can detract from picture quality.
Optical zoom
This is the zoom you get with the camera's lens, and it's different to a digital zoom (which is an electronic enlargement that decreases picture quality).
PictBridge
Connect your digital camera to a PictBridge-enabled printer and you can print your photos at home without using a computer. Almost all cameras have a Pictbridge feature.
You can also print on a home printer without a computer if your printer has a memory card slot. Simply insert your camera’s memory card.
Red-eye reduction
In poor light, the pupil of the eye opens wide to allow more light to get to the retina. But this means that when the flash goes off, some of the light is reflected back and gives the appearance of red eyes.
When you use red-eye reduction, the flash goes off before the photo is taken so the subject’s pupils have time to narrow and less light is reflected back from the retina. All the models in our test have flash red-eye reduction.
Scene modes
These are pre-set picture setting bundles specifically designed for capturing certain scenarios. For example, many cameras offer scene modes for sunsets which tend to emphasise reds and yellows. Most cameras offer a sports mode for capturing fast-moving subjects.
For action shots, buy a camera with shutter speed priority
Shutter speed priority mode
This feature is ideal for Saturday morning football when you want to capture fast-moving action or deliberately blur an image to show movement.
A shutter speed of 1/500 will give you a crisp shot of that penalty while 1/30 will show the ball moving in a blur.
White balance
Light always appears white to the naked eye. In fact it takes different colours depending on the source; from household light bulbs to natural daylight. So a photo taken indoors by the light of a standard ceiling bulb may come out with a slight yellowish cast.
Digital cameras have a feature called auto white balance, which ensures the true colours (as our eyes would see them) are shown.
Sometimes the camera struggles, though, especially with close-ups or scenes dominated by a single colour – the sky for example. To counter this, there are manually selectable white-balance settings, such as daylight (for sunny days), cloudy (overcast days), or tungsten (for ordinary household light bulbs).
You can also use custom white balance mode to help achieve the most natural colours. Point the camera at something pure white, like a piece of paper, and the camera will evaluate the light conditions and set its white balance accordingly.
Wide angle
The wide angle on a digital camera lens dictates how much you'll be able to fit into shot. This is worth knowing if you're capturing landscape shots, indoor photos or group photos, since a good wide angle will mean you won't have to stand as far back.
When you see a zoom range stated on a camera (e.g. 25-250mm) the small number is the wide angle. The smaller this is, the wider the angle and the more you can fit into shot.
- Check out our digital camera reviews
- Thinking about a digital SLR? Take a look at our reviews
- For more on using a compact digital camera, see our book Digital Photography Made Easy.
