Choosing a Digital Camera: Point and Shoot, Prosumer and Professional.

When choosing a digital camera, there are many features to look out for and assess before buying the camera. The individual needs of the beginner, amateur, enthusiast and professional photographer will vary enormously and there are cameras available to suit each group. The digital camera market can be divided into three main groups:

		Point and Shoot digital cameras These form the main bulk of the digital camera market and generally tend to be fully automatic with zoom lenses and built in flash. Some cameras may also offer manual controls and extra long zoom lenses. These digital cameras are mainly aimed at beginners, amateurs, families and they can also be considered for general use.
		Prosumer digital cameras These digital cameras are aimed at enthusiasts or advanced amateurs, semi-professionals and in some cases, as a backup camera for some professionals. Many of these digital cameras have high quality built-in zoom lenses, manual controls, raw uncompressed file format and maybe a hotshoe for external flash. Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras are also available which offer interchangeable lenses, raw format, fast operation and usually higher quality images than point and shoot cameras. A recent addition to this section includes Micro Four Third (M43) cameras which are small mirrorless camera bodies which can accept interchangeable lenses and some digital SLR lenses via an adapter. M43 cameras use the same size sensor as four thirds digital slr cameras. Mirrorless cameras using APS size sensors will also flourish during 2010 with Samsung's NX10 camera & Sony's system to be released late 2010.
		Professional digital cameras Professionals mainly use digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) or medium format cameras. Digital SLRs offer interchangeable lenses, high resolution, raw format, high build quality, hotshoe for external flash/studio work and fast operation. Medium format cameras offer the highest resolution available with interchangeable lenses/film backs, eye/waist level viewfinders, connection for studio flash and many accessories.

Except for medium format cameras, most of the big names in digital imaging such as Nikon, Canon, Olympus & Pentax provide cameras for the point and shoot, prosumer and professional markets. After selecting a digital camera, it is always advisable to handle the camera in a local shop to make sure it meets your requirements in terms of size, speed and general handling.

The next section 'camera features' covers some of the main features to look out for when choosing a digital camera.

The simple guide to choosing a digital camera