Your choice of a digital camera should be based on numerous considerations like image quality of the digital camera, ease of operation, budget, etc. However, the main considerations should be the purpose of your photographing and your level of expertise.

Considerations for buying a digital camera

• To take casual pictures of family and friends - If you need a digital camera by which you can take pictures of your loved ones, then you need not spend heavily on professional high-end digital cameras. You should concentrate on point-and-shoot or snapshot cameras. These cameras give you a professional quality, adjust the focus of your digital photo automatically, and correct any imbalances in light by its autoexposure features. With the memory capacity that new digital snapshot cameras come, it will suffice your requirements and after taking them, you can give it to a professional lab for taking out prints. Alternatively, you can also plug in your digital camera to your laptop via the USB port or FireWire port and transfer all your pictures on the computer's harddisk. Thereafter, you can burn CDs containing your pictures for a permanent storage. You can also give the copies of the CDs to your friends.

• To take pictures for a specific purpose - If you are interested in underwater photography, then you can take underwater digital cameras. For traveling purposes, a compact digital camera or a mini digital camera would be ideal, as it would take very less space in your luggage. For taking pictures in the rain, you could buy a waterproof digital camera.

• To take pictures like a professional - If you are still not a full fledged professional photographer but know much about digital camera technology and how they work, you can certainly go for a Prosumer camera. These digital cameras have large zoom lens with features like barrel distortion and pincushioning. Some models also support image stabilization. You can also record audio and video with these cameras. They also have an LCD or an electronic viewfinder to help you with scene composition. They can save the images in various compression formats like JPEG, TIFF, and RAW format.

• To take professional pictures only since that is your job - If you are a professional photographer, then you should go in for a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera. They are just rightly designed to fulfill your professional requirements and give you great looking digital camera photos. You get a optical viewfinder, which uses a mirror reflected image to give you a more precise control over the scene composition. You can change lenses. The image sensors are also large so that greater sensitivity to light is achieved and thus photos in dim light can be taken with less noise and better clarity. However, you cannot record video with these cameras. These digital cameras are meant for professionals who need high quality stills.

• If you want to make a home digital movie - You should go for a digital camcorder. These digital cameras are aimed at the home segment and allow audio video recording with ease and comfort. They have a built-in microphone and feature ports where external microphone can be fitted. A small LCD allows seeing the video while recording or playback. Modern camcorders give broadcast quality recordings. You can plug in your camcorder to your TV and watch what you had shot. Generally, the codec used in MPEG and so you can transfer your shooting in the harddisk of a computer and alter it with any appropriate video editing software.

• If you want to video conference or chat on the web - Consider a webcam. These digital cameras are attached to your computer and can easily be used for video conferencing or chatting. Advanced models also have microphones and zoom facility. You can capture full motion video with these webcams.

• If you are into television or movie production - You need a full featured, high-end professional video digital camera. These cameras have numerous image sensors, one for each color, to enhance resolution and offer an extremely wide color gamut. They have ports to connect to microphones and other accessories. These are broadcast quality cameras and are very expensive, heavy, and bulky.

• If you already have a 35mm film camera and want to convert it to digital - You should go for professional modular digital camera systems. These are custom built and function very effectively. The back of the 35mm film camera is removed and fitted with a digital unit which has an LCD screen for previewing besides other electronic parts. These are known as 'digital backs' that have an image sensor of high megapixels resolution. You can opt for film backs, winders, lenses, and handgrips, to suit various needs. Being modular, they easily fit with your existing 35mm camera. Advanced cameras come with methods utilizing a rotational scan of a linear sensor.

Read all the reviews and articles before buying

Before making your decision for buying a digital camera, take the trouble to educate yourself about the features of the camera. Moreover, read digital camera reviews and articles, featuring topics like best digital camera, buy digital camera, digital camera buyer guide, digital camera guide, digital camera buying guide, discount digital camera, cheap digital camera, digital camera price, digital camera technology, digital camera rating, compare digital camera, digital camera comparison, underwater digital camera, waterproof digital camera, digital camera accessory, digital camera memory card, digital camera sale, top 10 digital camera, mini digital camera, professional digital camera, digital camera software, compact digital camera, digital camera deal, top digital camera, digital camera wholesale, digital camera best buy, digital camera rating review, best digital camera consumer report, digital camera shop, small digital camera, digital camera case, digital camera store, digital camera refurbished, digital camera driver, digital camera photo, top ten camera digital, digital SLR camera review, and other similar topics. Ultimately, your purpose for photographing and your level of expertise would determine which digital camera you should buy.