What to look for
in cameras
Our experts explain the specs that matter. |
Camera specs |  |
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What to look for |
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Exposure control
Only hobbyists and professionals need to worry about the different methods for handling exposure; point-and-shoots handle exposure automatically and generally deliver an acceptable result. Look for a camera with exposure compensation. This feature is offered by many of the better point-and-shoot cameras, and it will let you fine-tune the auto exposure in tricky lighting situations. If you are a hobbyist or a professional, insist on aperture- and shutter-priority modes as well as full manual exposure, flash compensation for macro photography, a hotshoe for external flash, exposure autobracketing, several metering modes, and a variety of user-selectable light sensitivity settings that start at least as low as ISO 100. A live histogram display of the light values in the image can be indispensable as well. These tools allow you to control the relative sharpness of objects in the scene, how much noise to allow, whether to slightly underexpose or overexpose a shot, and other creative aspects of photography. |
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