Five Quick Holiday Camera Buying Tips

The holiday season is upon us once again. Cameras are usually a very hot item during the holidays and at the top of a lot of people's lists. I've put together a list of five quick tips to make sure holiday camera shoppers don't get taken advantage of.

1. Make sure you're getting what you're supposed to.

It is very important to make sure that you are getting exactly what you intended to buy. If you go to a store and talk to the salesperson about a particular camera model, make sure that is the one you leave with. As retailers run out of their hot advertised deals, some might try to substitute the camera without you knowing for another model. Some people might not realize they got the wrong model, especially if they are buying the camera as a gift and are deal hunting.

Also, make sure the camera you buy comes with all of the manufacturer-provided accessories. Every manufacturer includes things you would expect to get such as computer cables, software, straps, batteries, chargers (if applicable), manuals, and some sort of warranty. Anyone who is trying to sell any of these items separately is most likely trying to scam you. Accessories like memory cards, cases, card readers, additional batteries, etc., are the only things you should expect to buy additionally. If you are unsure, the manufacturer's website usually provides a list of the items that are included with a camera.

2. All memory cards are not created equal.

Memory cards continue to get cheaper and there are usually some really good deals around the holidays. The important thing to keep in mind is a lot of these cheap memory cards are exactly that - cheap! There will be some ridiculous prices on memory cards, but it is extremely important that you look at the read/write speed on the card. Most of these really cheap cards either won't have a speed listed or will be really slow. Personally, I wouldn't buy anything lower than about 9MB/sec (which is usually rated at about 60x). If you're planning to use the card to shoot RAW or a lot of high-speed bursts on a DSLR, then I'd look at something around 20MB/sec or higher (133x). Also, be very careful of generic brands of memory cards.

Another thing to be careful of is the difference between Secure Digital (SD) and Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) cards. To keep it simple, SDHC cards are any SD cards larger than 2GB. All of the new cameras on the market are SDHC compliant, but if your camera is older than about Fall 2006, it probably will not accept an SDHC card. The important thing to note here is if you see an SD card that is 4GB or higher and does not carry the SDHC logo, you are likely to have problems with that card.

Nikon Announces 24.5MP D3X

After much speculation, Nikon has formally unveiled the D3X professional DSLR. The D3X shares the same body and many features as the D3, but has an all new FX-format 24.5MP CMOS chip. The new sensor has an ISO range of 100-1600 (expandable down to ISO 50 or up to ISO 6400), and can fire at 5fps at full resolution or 7fps in the 10MP DX-crop mode. D3X users should expect to get lots new memory with processed 14-bit NEF files weighing in at around 138MB each. Surprisingly, the D3X will be available this month (December 2008) at a not-so-surprising price of $7999.95.

Images of the Week (11/27/08)

Cranberry Sourdough Stuffing Cups

Chilled Citrus Beet Soup

Review: Exploring the Light

Understanding exposure is an extremely vital part of photography but can often be very confusing for beginners. If you or someone you know is looking for a book to provide a little insight into understanding exposure, Rick Sammon's Exploring the Light is an excellent resource.

Exploring the Light starts off with the basics: composition, shutter speed and aperture. There are also quite a few sections on camera settings, modes, metering and operation for digital SLRs. Once you have the basics down, the rest of the book relies on these principals in order to get a better understanding of light and exposure.

Photography Savvy on Twitter

Just a heads up to everyone - Photography Savvy is now on Twitter. You can keep up with all the updates to the site, as well as what I'm currently working on. Feel free to follow along.

Initial Impressions: Leica D-Lux 4

Leica has always been a highly regarded name in photography. The new D-Lux 4 certainly raised some eyebrows when it was announced by offering a short but fast zoom range of 24-60mm f/2.0-2.8. Also, instead of opting for more megapixels, the D-Lux 4 kept the same amount as its predecessor and improved on the quality of pixels.

I've had the chance to shoot with the D-Lux 4 for a couple of days, so continue reading to see if it is truly worthy of the Leica name.

Editor's Note: Initial impressions are not meant of be an exhaustive review but rather my opinions and observations of a camera.

Body

The D-Lux 4 has the same sleek matte black finish of its predecessor, the D-Lux 3. In terms of size, the camera is slightly larger than most compact cameras on the market but definitely smaller than most other cameras in its class, like the Canon Powershot G10. I personally found the size to be absolutely perfect, but I can see it being a little awkward for someone with big hands. There's also the welcome addition of a hot-shoe.

Front of the D-Lux 4

The back of the D-Lux 4 is dominated by the 3-inch LCD display. I know the lack of an optical viewfinder will be a turnoff for some; however, I didn't have a problem seeing the LCD in bright sunlight or dark conditions.

Controls

The top of the camera has a traditional mode dial, which gives you access to the Automatic and Scene modes, PASM, movie mode, and the two custom user settings. The top also has a "focus" button next to the shutter release that allows you to select focus points on the fly.

The lens has two mode switches: one for the different focus modes (AF, AF Macro, and Manual) and another to select between the aspect ratios (4:3, 2:3, 16:9).

The back of the camera is where the bulk of your controls are, with a lot of them based around the joystick "quick selector." At first I thought the quick selector would be a little awkward, but it becomes extremely intuitive after a little use. Moving the stick left or right toggles between your aperture and shutter (or exposure compensation), while moving the stick up and down adjusts those values. Pressing the stick in gives you access to the "Quick Menu," where you can quickly change options such as film mode, metering, focus, white balance, ISO, Intelligent ISO, Intelligent Exposure, and image size.

Back of the D-Lux 4 with Controls

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