When I first started seriously considering my first digital camera to be used in my photography hobby, my only real concern at that time was how much money it would cost me. I never realized that while a digital camera offered all of the same comforts as my first ‘manual’ camera, a digital camera brought its own ‘flavor’ to one of my favorite hobbies.

As a general rule, the number of things you can do with your digital camera is governed by its size. Because I always wanted to get that perfect shot, I carried, or should I say, ‘hefted,’ an SLR camera. It had all the accessories that I needed. On top of that, if I am going to buy something, I want the item with all of the bells and whistles. My wife, on the other hand, has always used the smaller, lightweight cameras, but for some strange reason, I still had to carry her camera for her.

When I first looked at digital cameras, I had a general idea as to how resolution related to my editing software. After researching my choices a little more, I discovered that I liked being able to take pictures of such high resolution that downloading them and editing them at a later time would be a joy rather than a chore. Think of it like having every paint you can imagine and enough of each paint to do exactly what you want on a canvas that changes its size to accommodate your portrait. The resolution that a potential digital camera offers is your best friend when it comes to deciding how big you want your final print to be to say nothing of your ability to work on cropped portions of your photographs.

While more is not always better, my experience with digital cameras has taught me a small exception to this rule. Larger digital cameras, while heavier, offer more conveniences. Higher amounts of resolution let you take more control with respect to how detailed your final print will be and you have the ability to toss what you do not need without generating unnecessary waste.

I have two other pointers about your first digital camera, but they will be discussed in my next article.