by Shikha

Created on: June 17, 2008

Digital cameras have changed the way people click photographs. You no longer have to worry about shaken pictures, bodies without heads and wasting camera film for your photographic escapades. Because of all these reasons digital cameras make great gifts, for those who just love to click memories or for professionals.

With the deluge of cameras in the market and even more features to consider, buying a camera can be a hard task. But if you take into account a few things you can buy a good gift that will be used for a long time.

WHO IS THE USER?
The first step to buying a digital camera is to figure out the type of user.
For amateurs and for someone who takes pictures only for their album compact cameras offer great value for money. They do not have high end features but take good pictures and are good; they have easy to understand buttons. And they are small enough to fit into hand bags.
Ultra compact cameras are smaller and sexier; and costlier. They are thin and sleek and fit easily into pockets. They can either be only style oriented or can be performance oriented with high mega pixel counts. For people who love new toys and who always want a camera ready.
Digital SLRs are the highest end of digital cameras and are mostly used by pros.

MEGA PIXELS
Mega pixels do not really matter when it is for a casual user. A point difference in value does not make a discernible difference; a photo with 6MP resolution would be hard to tell from a 5MP one. Even 4MP cameras can produce good 8x10 prints. If it is only for emailing then 2MP will suffice.
If resolution is going to be a deciding factor go for 7MP and above. This can be used for taking near professional pictures.

LENS
If the camera is for a serious photographer check if it supports lens converters or interchangeable lens.

ZOOM
Most basic cameras have at least 3x zoom. Those with more than 10x fall under the super zoom category and prices increase. This should be the optical zoom and not digital zoom because digital zoom is just a software function that magnifies an image. This results in lower image quality.
High zoom also has to take care of camera shake which is rectified by the image stabilization feature.

BATTERY
Some cameras may come with rechargeable batteries which are convenient as you can charge them whenever and wherever you want to and will not have to visit a shop to buy batteries.

MEMORY
Photos can be stored on memory cards which can be removed once they are full and replaced with another one. The camera can then be

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