As a news photographer, people always asked me “which camera should I buy”. My response depended on what the person wanted. Often, they didn’t know what they wanted themselves until I focused in on a few areas (pun intended!) and asked a few questions.

Question one to ask yourself: Do you want to learn about photography, or do you just want a camera to do everything for you? Many people just want a camera to whip out and snap that candid picture when something happens. Others may want to actually learn about the various controls and adjustments that most modern cameras offer. If you want to learn about photography, and are serious about knowing the full scope of the art of photography, I would recommend a single lens reflex camera with interchangeable lens capability, or at least a fixed lens model with a wide-ranging zoom and ability to set it manually. For the casual photographer, a ‘point-and-shoot’ model is just fine, with a good set of automatic features such as focus and exposure, or `program` settings, so you can just turn it on and snap away.

Question two: What will you be photographing most of the time? If you only bring out your camera at family get-togethers, or when the grandchildren come to visit, then a price-conscious camera is all you’ll need. If you will be spending your time travelling, you may want a camera with a wider range of lens capability (wide angle & telephoto) to capture whatever you find along the way. Wide angles will be great for giving you a strong foreground while maximizing the amount of scenery in the background. Telephotos will allow you to zoom in on a distant object. Many point and shoots now have a great optical range. If most of your work is inside (real estate for instance), a camera with a wider angle lens will be more important than telephoto.

Question three: What are you going to do with the photos? This question has to do with how many mega-pixels you need to shell out for. Mega-pixels are a measure of how much information the camera is capable of recording, and therefore, the quality of the final photograph. Most newer cameras are at least 8 to 10 mega-pixels, with many much higher than that. That’s great, but the thing to realize for single lens reflex cameras is the higher the resolution, the higher the price tag. Usually point-and-shoots are more reasonably priced, and again, for casual shooters a point-and-shoot is fine, and you can find reasonably priced cameras with lots of resolution. If you aren’t going to enlarge your pictures past 8×10, you won’t need high mega-pixels (6 to 8 is fine). Same goes for photos that will only be on your computer, or to send to friends by email. However, if your ultimate goal is to sell your photos, you’ll want to consider a single lens reflex camera with more than 10 megapixels.

Question four: How will you treat your camera? As a professional photographer, I often had two or three cameras around their neck, especially at sporting events. They`d bang into each other and jump around as I ran down the field to follow the action. They would be outside in the blazing summer heat and in the worst blizzards you can imagine (and people think a photographer’s job is glamorous!). So, they had to be professional quality to withstand that abuse and range of conditions. And they did. But they cost more too! Seriously, most people won’t be exposing their equipment to that, but if you are routinely taking pictures in a wide range of conditions, really cheap cameras probably won’t stand up, and in my experience, will die at the most inconvenient time!

Question five: Do you want a new camera or are you willing to look at used (and how much money do you want to spend)? Several questions, but they are all related. If you have an unlimited budget, then please buy new. You get the warranty and you can be assured that most of the time, everything will work out of the box. However, especially with SLR’s, buying a camera body plus several lenses can run up the cost quite quickly. In my opinion, it is safer to buy a new body, but OK to buy used lenses if price is an issue. Most of the time, it’s the camera that will screw up, not the lens (unless it’s been dropped). There are a lot of places to find used equipment, ranging from camera stores (great because they usually try it out and stand behind what they sell), to Ebay (which offers a limited amount of buyer peace of mind), to Kijiji, Craigs List and newspaper classifieds, none of which offer guarantees, but where you can at least look at the equipment before you buy. Ask a few questions about the history of the equipment. Like a car, if a little old lady just brought it out at the church picnic, that’s better than the war photographer who just got back from the latest skirmish. As always, it’s buyer beware with used stuff.