What do I need?

No offence, but obviously you need a camera. For the sake of every dudez and chicks, I recommend that you get yourself a digital camera (no, your Sony Ericsson camera phone doesn’t count, however Cybershot it might be). You can grab one with less than USD 100 (or RM 354, <insert your currency here>).

Why? It is a LOT simpler and LOT less cash-hungry than film cameras. For the film version, you have to buy a canister of film (money), take pictures, send it to your old trusty processing lab (more money), and finally receive your pictures, only to find that half of them aren’t being the way they supposed to be (Hey, where’s Jimmy’s bride’s head?). And the wedding was a WEEK ago. Rinse, lather, repeat (again, more money).

But with the digital version, you buy a memory card ONE TIME (well, at least until it is damaged beyond repair), shoot, shoot, and shoot with all of your heart’s content, check your pictures on-the-fly, delete the ones that you don’t want, and repeat the process. Back home, you can edit them, sprinkle some creativity here and there, and only display the best of the best to everyone.

Get the picture?

You know, there are tens of different brands out there. How do I choose the best?

Frankly speaking, there are NO best brands out there. But the industry giants have excellent marketers, and all put claims that theirs are the best. Well, they should, otherwise they don’t get any sale.

The greatest misconception in digital photography history is this equation:

Higher Megapixels = Better Pictures

Ask any knowledged photographer, and they’ll shrug off the theory. And they are right to do so. Why, you might ask?

Simply put, unless you want to print every single pictures of yours in A1 size (that’s 3 times A4), you are more than good with 3 megapixels camera. A megapixel is roughly the size of picture with 1280 x 800 pixels.

Think of it as this: Why buy Ferrari with 480 km/h top speed, while the highway speed limit is only 110 km/h? (It’s my money! Why do you even care?!)

So, are you saying that Megapixels doesn’t count when buying a camera?

Megapixels DO count. However, it shouldn’t be the determining factor when buying one, unless all other factors are equal point-to-point. Let’s say that the 2 brands C and N have both the same price for a digital camera. And all other factors are completely same (battery type, apertures, frame size, optical zoom, et cetera) with only megapixels differ between the brands. I’d go for the higher one. I don’t have anything else to lose.

It NEVER hurts to have more megapixels, but it isn’t absolutely necessary to have more than you need. If you are tight on budget, a 3 or 4 megapixels will do more than good. A Nikon D2HS (a digital SLR) costs more than USD 4000, but only has 4 megapixels. It is mainly used for sport photography, where high frame per second (fps) is required, hence the name (HS - High Speed).