Peter Griffin: Focusing on digital cameras

Digital cameras truly went mainstream this year and as a result they'll be on the wish lists of thousands of Kiwis this Christmas.

It helps that we've learnt the basics of digital technology. We know we can take multiple shots, erasing and re-shooting until we get a result we can live with. We realise the days of dropping a roll of film into the chemist are nearly over - we print our own photos on high-quality printers, give them to print shops on CD or memory card or use internet photo printing bureaus.

If you want a minimum of hassle, stay away from single-lens reflex (SLR) digital cameras which have all sorts of manual settings and usually come in at more than $1000 anyway. For $500 to $1000 you can pick up a compact digital camera that allows you to take great photos and have some fun too. Many high-quality cameras let themselves down because they're too complicated for novice photographers. The menus are too complex or simply getting properly focused shots is tricky. Go for a camera with automatic functions and sensors that will focus the camera for you and determine when you need a flash.

The key attribute of any camera is its megapixel rating, which refers to how many millions of pixels the camera's imaging sensor can produce. The higher the pixel rating, the more information captured in the picture and the better it will look once printed. Steer clear of anything lower than a five-megapixel effective rating.

Check the camera's optical zoom (how much physical movement the lens allows). Optical zoom produces better results than digital zoom. Most cameras support both but a 3x optical zoom is standard on compact digital cameras.

Carefully study the LCD screen on the camera. This is what you'll use to frame pictures so it needs to be big enough to see comfortably and be visible in sunlight.

Check there is a good range of shooting settings such as landscape and macro (close-up).

You want a camera that can take 250-300 shots with the flash off before running flat and one that preferably recharges via a USB cable plugged into your computer.

The size of the memory card can be the deal clincher. If they're offering a 128MB card, ask for a 256MB version. The less you have to worry about running out of storage space for photos, the better shots you'll take.

The main memory card types are Memory Stick, SD card, Compact Flash, xD and Multimedia Card (MMC). 

Photo editing software will come with the camera. If you have an Apple Mac, make sure the software is compatible. None of the editing suites give you the power of a programme like Adobe PhotoShop, but you'll be able to crop and resize pictures, change colour and resolution and add effects and labels.