BUYING DIGITAL CAMERA; ANY IDEAS ON WHICH ONE?

I shall be traveling overseas to Bangkok, Istanbul and possibly Saigon. I have never owned a digital camera but intend to buy before I go in about a month from now. I shall be taking a good deal of tourist traveling photos. There seems to be so much to consider in the way of features, I'm wondering do I have to take a full semester course to understand it all.

If you have any suggestions on which to buy I'd appreciate the input. I'd like to spend about $50 but willing to go up to $300 or more. In other words I'd like to spend the least I can but I truly want a camera that does a lot for me and one that I'd enjoy.

Thanks, Matt.

If you are really serious about the $50 price point you can get some Poloraid kits for about $60-70 and the Agfa photosensor(Get the one with the Optical Zoom) sells at Walmart for about $85 and you can also get the ever popular Xacti kits for around $80....

The Canon A series is also not bad for beginners...

Anyhow for $100 or less (on Amazon) these cameras would be good for a beginner also (Your in luck as I just looked this up);

Lumix FS4 (4X zoom under 100 bucks- this one is from Walmart)
Olympus FE-340 (under 100 bucks and 5X zoom)
Olympus Stylus 840 (Under 100 bucks and 5Xzoom, optical stabilized- it can take MicroSD or XD)
Pentax Optio M50

I personally would go with the Olympus Stylus, Pentax, or a Canon AXXX Model-- Agfa If I really didn't want to spend the cash.

If you are going in the store- Eg; Target or Walmart you need to look in the budget camera shelf (Which are shrink wrapped and not on the camera display table- often it is behind it) for the Xacti/Polariod kits. Stay away from the DIgital Concepts/Sakar and S2 brands unless you really want a very cheap camera.

If you want to spend some more cash the Nikon L100, Nikon P60, Fuji f60fd, Canon SD1100, and Canon SD990 IS
are good choices.

All of the cameras I have listed have Auto Mode in which the camera will select the optimal ISO , Aperture, and Shutter Speed and some have an Easy Mode in which the Camera selects everything but the zoom.

In general you want to get the largest media card available for the camera and for cameras that take AA or AAA Batteries you want high capacity (Look at the mAh rating) rechargeable batteries unless you let the camera sit, in which case you want the slow discharge batteries (Duracell PreCharged, Enloop, ETC) .

I would suggest reading a basic guide to get a basic understanding of photography... The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Photography(Jim Miotke) or Understanding Digital Photography: Techniques for Getting Great Pictures (Bryan Peterson) are good places to start... In fact buy and read the book first before going and buying the camera.

After acquiring the camera and getting a basic primer on photography go out and familiarize yourself with the camera.... You will want to set aside at least an 1 hour twice a week (For at least 3-4 weeks) where you just shoot as many snaps as you can of a few number of subject from different angles, focuses, distances, and compositions. Read a section of the manual with your camera prior to shooting and use the feature that is outlined in it. I would go for at least 30-50 snaps per session.... I would shoot either in the early morning or evening and then download and look at your photos at the end of the day if you took morning shots or the next day. Compare your photos to previous photos that you took but try not to compare your work against others (Yet or even ever).

What this does is gets you used to the way your camera operates and allows you to estimate more accurately the best methods for AF and minimal focal distance/sensitivity settings for your camera. A large factor in getting a good shot is how familiar you are with your own camera. It also allows you to develop composition techniques.

If you then still feel you need a class take one.

Thanks John for all your advise. It goes a long way with me and I shall seriously condiser what you stated. You obviously are a serious camera buff and one who has been around them a lot. But I guess I still want to know why I'd choose one over the other. I mean you are not allowed to view the camera's owner or operating manual until you buy a particular one. That makes it a bit difficult to determine just what tricks and features one has over the other. While price may be somewhat of a factor for me I'd ignore that to a degree if a camera attracted me as a neophyte so much so with usable bells and whistles that I determine, "Wow, I just gotta get that one!"

Most user manuals are online... Several sites http://www.infosyncworld.com/ and http://www.dpreview.com/ and this site, will outline the features and specifications of the camera.

When looking at a camera a few things you want to look at;

1. Picture Quality of the camera .
a. You want to look at Noise or Degraded sharpness due to over aggressive noise reduction routines applied in the camera's firmware (Built in software) at the ISO setting (International Standards Organization norm for sensitivity of emulsion based film) you plan to shoot under. Basically ISO 200 or under in sunny outdoor conditions, ISO 200-400 for indoor settings with good light and evening/dusk or extremely overcast conditions, ISO 400+ for night shots or indoor conditions in poorer light. Acceptable noise at higher ISO levels as effects high open you will need to set the aperture and how fast you can set the shutter speed.

b. You want to look at lens aberrations, especially on a fixed lens camera. You want to look for chromatic aberrations along the edges throughout the zoom length of the lens. Chromatic aberrations will appear typically as a purple or green fringes around edges. You also want to look for Optical aberrations throughout the zoom length of the lens. You will tend to find barreling (Edges push out) at the far wide end of the zoom and cushioning (Edges push in) at the telephoto end . Look for vigneting (soft color or dark edges ) along the sides of the photo and soft (Fuzzy detail) places in the corners of the image.

c. You will want to look at sharpness of the photo. Sharpness is both a function of resultion , and how many MP and how well a camera can utilize the MP (each pixel in a camera relates to a photodiode, that sends an electronic impulse when exposed to light, located on a sensor chip) on the sensor and accutance (contrast). High MP cameras with small sensor sizes (More than 7-8 MP and less than 1/16" size) tend to produce more noise at low light levels because each diode is exposed to less light energy. The noise looks like little flecks and they are either removed by the camera's digital procesor or can be removed in software installed on your computer- Removing the noise almost always destroys detail. Sensor with high resolution but low accutance will produce images with lots of detail, but it will look "flatened" and the detail won't be apperent to the eye. The reverse will produce less actual detail but it will be apperent to the eye. Assuming the noise reduction routine did not destroy the detail you may be able to salvage photos with the first problem using an "unsharpening Mask" in your photo editing software- then again do you really want to retouch every photo you take.

d. Color reproduction. This is how well the camera reproduces the colors of the object it is taking photos of. Some cameras will have a mode to saturate colors making them more vivid... some cameras just take more vivid or less vivid colored shots. This can often be corrected in photo editing software.... again do you really want to retouch every photo you take?

2. Lens and aperture

a. You want to look at the zoom ratio of the lens . Optical zoom is true zoom (The image itself is being magnified on the sensor) where as digital zoom increases the size of each pixel and crops the image. Digital zoom actually reduces the resolution of the shot. Optical zoom is great until you exceed the equivalent of 300 mm. Once you exceed 300 mm Image stabilization is required to reduce shake. Over 500 mm equivalent and the camera really needs to be on a tripod. More important than the zoom factor is the adjusted equivalencey (Adjusted for the crop factor) of the lens. The human eye sees at a magnification of around 50 mm equivalncey. Zoom factor is found by taking the telephoto mm (The bigger number) of the lens divided by the widest angel of the zoom lens (The smaller number). A 18-180 mm lens thus would be a 10X zoom as would a 50-500mm lens however the two lenses would produce very different results.

b. Optical stabilization (Sometimes called IS or VR) built into the lens provides a stabilized image in the screen / viewfinder while focusing. Studies tend to suggest that other types of stabilization, such as CCD shift, produce the similar results but optically stabilizing the image helps the shooter focus while taking the shot. Optical stabilization is preferred by most users over other methods.

c. Lens equivalence after adjustment for crop. Sometimes this is called crop factor others call this focal length multiplier. The crop factor relates the focal length of a lens used on a smaller format to a 35 mm lens producing an equivalent angle of view. It is the square root of the ratio of the diagonal measurement of the sensor to the measurement of 35 mm film (43.3 mm). Anyhow the mm equivalence will tell you about what to expect about the angel of view of the camera. Look at both numbers... the lower one is the wide end of the zoom end and the big number is the telephoto end. The telephoto end acts like a telescope to magnify images with the larger the mm equivalent telephoto end number the larger the magnification but smaller actual space you focus on because your angel of view is reduced .... anyhow to break this down (And yes the experts can't agree on these terms and may differ depending on your source) under 20 mm equivalent is considered super wide angel (More than 94 degrees), 20-28 mm equivalent wide angel(94-75 degrees), 28-55 mm is considered standard angel (75-43 degrees), 55 mm- 200 mm equivalent is telephoto (43-12 degrees), and 200+ mm equivalent is considered super telephoto (less than 12 degrees).

d. Actual focal length of the lens. There are three things that effect depth of field; actual focal length (effects distribution of the DOF and is not part of the classic DOF calculation but has a real impact on the end result), aperture, and distance from the subject. Depth of field refers to the range of area that appears acceptably sharp in front of and behind the focused object. If more objects in the background or foreground of the focal plane appear sharp, then the Depth of Field is called deep. If the background and foreground are blurred then it is shallow. Anyhow the actual focal length distribution (front/rear) percents are roughly 10 mm 30/70, 20 mm 40/60, 50 mm 45/55, 100 mm 48/52 , 200 mm 51/49 , and 400 mm 50/50. Longer focal lengths also appear to have a shallower depth of field because they flatten perspective rendering the background much larger relative to the foreground due to magnification. Larger lenses, AKA those found on a SLR or full sized bridge camera/superzoom, will appear shallower than for compact digital cameras, because the larger camera require a longer focal length to achieve the same field of view. What I am telling you is that cameras with smaller sensors and thus smaller lenses will give you less control over DOF. AKA if DOF is important to you then a 15 X zoom camera with a 1/2.5" sensor is going to appear deeper than the DOF of 2/3" sensor with a 15X zoom because the actual focal length is larger.

e. Minimum focal distance (Especially in Macro Mode). This is usually included in the specs and is the min distance you have to be from your subject to achieve sharp focus. The closer you can get to the object the better you can fill the frame with the small object. Smaller is better. Something to keep in mind is that as you increase the focal length of your lens the Minimum Focal distance of the lens increases. Many of the higher end cameras have super macro modes that allow you to shoot at 1 cm or less. Many specs will tell you the min focal length at the full wide end/macro mode but will bury in the very back of the manual or just not tell you the min focal length at full telephoto (because it will be anywhere from 18 inches to 3.5+ feet).

f. Aperture size and number of stops. The aperture is the opening in the lens that allows light to enter the camera and its size, range, and control of it is extremely important. Aperture effects; exposure (larger apertures allow faster shutter speeds), aberrations (If the stop is too large you get aberrations which effects quality), vignetting (Larger stops cause the intensity reaching the sensor to fall off toward the edges of the picture effecting photo quality), and depth of field (Larger f numbers producer deeper DOF). The aperture size is expressed by the f number which is the ratio of focal length to effective aperture diameter. The smaller the f number the larger the opening - It is counter intuitive. Each lens has a number of stops relating to f numbers the lens can be set to. The more stops the more control you have. Many specs will tell you the aperture range at the wide end of the lens but fail to tell you the range at the telephoto end (Mostly cause it stinks on cheaper cameras) and you may need to physically grab a camera and fully extend the lens and see what the f number range is in aperture priority mode.

g. Lens construction, design, and quality. Some of the bottom budget cameras actually use plastic instead of glass for their lenses. Plastic doesn't have the same light diffraction qualities of glass resulting in degraded performance (Aberrations and Focal ability). The same is true with lenses with lower quality glass. The design of the lens is also very important. With cheaper lenses with greater range between wide and telephoto focal lengths their tends to be aberrations and smaller aperture sizes (Larger F numbers)... This effects both picture quality and how fast the shutter speed can be set to archive proper exposure. The other thing you want to look at is how fast the lens focuses. The focus speed of the lens effects shutter lag (We will talk about that next- Lag is a function of how fast the camera Auto Meters, Auto Focuses, Fastest shutter speed for proper exposure, in some cases the mechanical speed of the shutter mechanism itself, and cycle time).

3. Camera speed is how fast the camera can take photos and is a factor of several things;

a. How fast the camera sets Auto Exposure and Auto Focus. This is achieved by depressing the shutter button half way. It is a combination of how fast the camera can auto meter to determine the proper aperture , ISO, and shutter speed functions plus auto focus the lens and make those adjustments. Auto Exposure/Metering and Auto Focus greatly effect camera performance with more than just speed.

b. Shutter release speed- This is both how fast the shutter can operate and how fast you can take a properly exposed photo under the conditions you are shooting under. Aperture, ISO, and shutter speed all effect this.

c. Cycle time is how long it takes for the image to be transfered to memory-buffer or storage media and the camera is ready to take the next shot. Internal memory, processor, file size, media card type all effect this.

d. Total Lag Time is how long it takes the camera to snap a shot from a full depress of the shutter button. Total lag time IS NOT always (or really ever) equal to the AE/AF and shutter release speed. Look for reviews that test and publish all three times.

e. FPS tends to relate to how many shots and full resolution a camera can take in continuous/burst shooting mode. It is measure of frames per second the camera can snap shots at the same focus and exposure setting. It is a combination of many things including buffer size, shutter design, and sensor design. The larger the number the faster the camera can take shots. Entry level SLrs can shoot at 2.5 FPS-- keep that in mind while comparing.

d. Sports-Continuous, High Speed Continuous, Action Continuous/ETC mode FPS- Every camera maker uses a different name for this but it is essentially the same thing. The camera reduces the MP of the photo and stores it in internal memory buffer and shoots at the same focus and exposure for a set number of frames or until the shutter button is released. It will range from 7 FPS to 120 FPS depending on the camera and resolution. When comparing make sure you look at resolution versus speed. The Ricoh CX1 can shoot at 120 FPS but at a very low resolution. You will get x shots at that resolution as long as the shutter is held down and then the camera will stop taking photos and save the buffer to the media card. The higher number at higher resolution is better.

e. Startup time is the time it takes for the camera to power on and be ready to take photos from off. Turning the camera off between shots/group of shots increases the effective amount of shots you can get with the battery as you aren't powering the camera while it is turned off. Most SLRs have a start up speed of less than .30 seconds where as most compacts have a start up time of 2.5 seconds or greater. The lower the number the better it is if you plan to turn the camera off between groups of shots.


4. Power Source and Battery life

a. Does it take standard batteries or a custom rechargeable battery. Some cameras have a built in battery that is non-removable (I absolutely don't recommend these if you plan on taking many shots at one time) but rechargeable through USB. Standard AA or AAA batteries are universally available (If you are in an urban area), and are very transportable (Several sets will easily fit in your camera case/suitcase, jacket pocket, backpack) but not all batteries are the same - you must look at the capacity in mAh and how fast the battery self discharges. Generic AA or AAA batteries may only lead to 12-20 shots from the camera before complete discharge. If you are going to use rechargeable standard batteries use NiMh (Instead of NiCd) and look for the highest capacity if you will shoot soon after charging but if you will let them sit before charging you want a slow self discharge battery. If you use non-rechargeable batteries then Lithium batteries perform the best - I have had personally had good luck with Duracell Brand 2650 mAh rechargeable, Energizer brand 2450 mAh rechargeable, Duracell Precharged, Energizer Lithium, and Panasonic Alkaline batteries.

b. What is the expected life of the battery. Keep in mind how you use your camera and under what conditions you shoot in will alter the battery life. Anyhow you have Estimated, Lab Test, and Field Test values to look at in reviews. The Specs and Manual will list either the Estimated or Lab test values... Look at how they performed the test for the lab test. Now ask yourself is this how I will use my camera. A better indicator is the filed test results from reviews. A good example; Canon lists the battery life of 200 shots per set of batteries for its A590 camera- In real life conditions most users are only getting 120 shots per set of quality Alkaline batteries and less than 20 with generic Heavy-Duty Alkaline Batteries. Anyhow longer field test values in reviews is better.

5. Physical design of the camera

a. Ruggedness is very important. It is a factor of the quality and materials used in the camera. Metal and composite will be more durable than just plastic. More metal will however lead to a heavier camera. This is very important if you drop the camera and will effect weather or not it will break.

b. Form Factor- This relates to the physical dimensions and weight of the camera. Do you want the camera to fit in your shirt pocket, jacket pocket, back of the back pack, or in its own case/hung around your neck. I personally have bigger hands with longer fingers and have difficulty handling slim design cameras (In my case a small SLR like a Nikon D40, Pentax K2000, Olympus Evolt, or Canon Rebel will fit in my palm and I can wrap my fingers all the way to the top of the camera body). In most of the slim models I have to push the shutter button with the edge of my finger nail and holding them for extended periods of time cramps my hand. The Canon Powershot A series/Afga Photosensor/Nikon P60, is the form factor for a compact camera that I prefer. You will need to physically go to the store and see how the camera fits your own hand to measure this ( I can completely wrap my hand around these cameras and they all have side grips which my index finger can go across the top of to the shutter button and my thumb can reach the mode wheel while holding the camera) . Heavier superzooms tend to be easier to hold with less shake, which is also important.

c. Camera balance is how well the camera can balance in the hand with the zoom at full extension without shaking the end of the lens. This is somewhat subjective... again you will want to handle the camera.

d. Ergonomic design- Did they rubberize the grip- even include a grip? Are buttons and wheels placed so you can hold the camera without hitting the button? Size of the shutter button? Can you easily asses the mode wheel without cramping your hand? Some of this depends on your body size and shape so is subjective. Again you want to handle the camera. What I think is comfortable most likely is not what others would think is comfy.

e. Weatherproof/waterproof. If your camera is going to be used outside in the elements this may appeal to you. Some cameras are waterproof up to 10 feet without a special case (If you are shooting pictures of fish)

f. Size of / maneuverability of the display screen and EVF/Optical view finder. The new thing is larger displays and displays that slide out and angel. The inclusion of EVF/Optical view finders is typically a preference by some folks. Viewfinders tend to be useful when snapping multiple shots in outdoor environments due to glare on the screen. Some camera makers do away with the EVF/OVF altogether.

6. Sensor size and design

a. CMOS or CCD or Proprietary (Live MOS or Super CCD). Traditionally CMOS sensors have had lower power consumption faster processing but able to capture lower detail (This is changing with advances in CMOS technology) where as CCD had higher detail but consumed more power and were slower to process (Again this is changing). Super CCD is a proprietary technology developed by Fuji that combines larger and smaller photodiodes on the sensor in a non-rectangular pattern to both increase photo quality and lower power consumption while Live MOS was developed jointly by Olympus and Panasonic to improve the CMOS technology at the time to match FFT-CCD senors with lower power requirements (Thus improving battery life and enabling Live View on a Consumer grade SLR).

b. Sensor size and aspect ratio. Camera makers can't agree on how to measure this but it is typically speced out in old imperial inch fractions measuring the diagonal of the outer envelope of the sensor and multiplying by 0.66 (engineers found that only 2/3 of the sensor was usable for various reasons). Aspect ratio is the shape of the sensor itself (Hence the shape of the pixels) and is expressed as width:height for example 3:4 (1.33:1) the SD TV/ Computer Monitors/ Three fourths ratio used by Olympus SLR/ most non SLR digital cameras, 3:2 ( 1.5:1) which is what most SLR cameras Shoot (And the dimensions of standard film), or 16:9 (1.78:1) HDTV ratio, 1.37:1 which most closely mimics the human eye. The 4:6 drugstore print matches the 3:2 ratio so there is no distortion nor crop.... Okay now lets talk about MP and Sensor size; in general larger sensors also have larger pixels which give them the potential to produce lower image noise, due to physically larger light cavities in the photodiodes, and have a higher range of tones which the sensor can capture below where a pixel becomes white, but above where texture is indiscernible from background noise (black/dark grey). When you have a 1/2.3" sensor or worse yet a 1/16" sensor (OR SMALLER) and you exceed 7-8 MP you end up with more noise than signal at low light levels (Making ISO 400 and above very noisy or worse yet the camera uses aggressive noise reduction and you loose detail) degrading photo quality. Okay, now this is where it gets fun, if you have the same amount of noise on two different MP cameras with the same sensor size when viewed at 100% crop the sensor with more pixels will PRINT cleaner because the noise gets enlarged less for the higher pixel count , for a given print size, and thus will print as finer looking grain. Okay ready for some more fun? Larger sensors with larger pixels do not have to be enlarged as much in order to achieve the same print size hence a smaller aperture can be used to obtain the same depth of field and sharpness. At 300 DPI (With a 2/3" or larger sensor) you need to print clearly (and this is subjective) 2 MP to print 4X6, 3 MP for 5 X 7, 6 MP for 8 X 10, 14 MP for 11 X 14, and 23 MP for 13 X 20. Anything over 4-6 MP is wasted when posted on the web, shown on a HDTV, or displayed in a digital photo frame because they can not display that resolution. So basically a 8, 10, or 12 MP camera only gives you more room to aggressively crop and a little finer noise when printed but costs you sensitivity to light and increases the signal to noise ratio at the same time making the file size larger. Some cameras , several Fuji models I know for sure have this feature, will display a grayed out section where the print will crop and auto crop your photo for 8 X 10 and 4 X6. A camera shooting video at a 4:3 aspect will distort or crop when you show it on your 16:9 WideScreen TV (AKA it will look bad).

c. MP, which is short for megapixels, is the number of pixels, in millions, for a given maximum resolution. Each pixel relates to a diode on the sensor however MP is very deceptive. The size of the photodiode effects picture quality greatly and this is the kicker.... the pixel count quoted in the specs may not be the number of full-color photodiodes on the sensor. A lot of this has to do with sensor design used which will not be in the specs. The short of it - look at sample pics or snap some in the store and compare detail. Regardless of detail MP provide more MP will increase file size, meaning you will need a larger memory card for the same number of shots, need more server space to upload your photos, and need more hard drive pace to store as many shots.

7. Other Features worth noting

a. AE and AF points. AE are auto exposure metering points and AF is autofocus points. More typically means better, however if the processor does a bad job focusing on the points it is a throw away. I personally don't like Canon's AiAF system and always turn the AF focus to center.

b. Some cameras have different metering options.

c. Number of settings that can be manually controlled. The Canon A series alows you to control most of them as does several Fuji Camera Models.

d. Ease of use of the controls... As said above Canon and Fuji Cameras allow you to manually control most features on many of their cameras, including focus, except that manual focus using a toggle switch or D-Pad is not very useful. If you are manually focusing the best control and accuracy is obtained with a mechanical focus ring (Found on some brands of Fuji and Panasonic cameras- and of course all SLR camera lenses)... Electronically controlled Manual Focus tends to be more work than it is worth.

e. Menu system/User interface. How easy is it to get to the settings. This is quite important as some cameras have really confusing menu systems.

f. Preset scene modes. These are settings that the camera manufacture have programed into the camera that they feel take the best picture under those conditions... Typical are sunset, beach, snow, flowers, foliage, beach, indoors, action, and night. Some cameras have up to 26 preset scenes. This is a matter of how killed you are and setting the appropriate settings yourself and whether or not you liked what the factory programed.

g. Hot Shoe- external flash. Some cameras allow you the ability to add external flashes-some don't. Its a matter of whether you feel the need for external flash or not.

h. Semi Automatic Modes- Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Program mode. Basically the camera allows you to set the aperture and it figures shutter speed and ISO for you or Shutter speed and it figures aperture and ISO mode. Program mode the camera figures the settings you do not set. For example you can set in program mode the ISO not to exceed 200 because you know that 200+ ISO makes unclear photos with your camera.

i. Programmable and adjustable Flash settings- This is a feature in at least some Fuji Models... It allows you to set the flash settings so the flash doesn't burn out all the details.

j. Multi photo modes (Bracketing or Intelligent Selection) . Some cameras will take 2-3 photos in quick secession when you depress the shutter release with slight variations on the settings. Some cameras automatically choose what it is programed to think is the best photo others will show you the photos and you choose. Some Nikon and Fuji models I know have this feature. The Fuji 200 EXR takes two shots per press and combines them. Many Fuji S series cameras allow you to do bracketing in which the camera takes 2-3 shots at once with different settings. Nikon's new cameras will take 3 shots at once and pick the sharpest of the 3.

k. Image Stitching, Auction Mode, Panoramic mode- It all goes by different names but what it allows you to do is stitch multiple photos together in the camera to create one image (I don't find it that useful but if that is what you want- go for it).

l. Video- Digital cameras do okay for short segments of video to post on video sharing sites or displayed on a standard definition TV (Non-HD). They do not take videos as well as camcorders though (One of the reasons is the aspect ratio of the sensor, lens design is another, camcorders use multiple sensors now where as cameras only use 1, length of video, mic design and placement, lens design, I could go on) - If you are serious about video buy a camcorder.

m. In camera editing. Many cameras allow you to crop (some will call the feature trimming), correct red eye, or make color adjustments on the camera itself.

n. Face detection- If you need it. If you are shooting landscapes and buildings do you really care about face detection? You can also AF on a face.

o. Anti Shake- More or less required with more than 3 times zoom. A weighted tripod is required when you exceed the 500 mm equivalent.

Okay with all that said... The best camera for a beginner is a relatively responsive camera with a fixed prime lens or very limited zoom and plenty of semi-auto/manual settings without bells or whistles. I say this because it keeps the photographer focused on composition techniques and style instead of distracting them from focusing on composition.