Digital Cameras Buying Guide

Don't be mystified by jargon or fooled by hype. Our comprehensive Buying Guides help you choose the right products.

What you need to know, from the kind of user you are to current technologies:

WHICH KIND OF LENS DO I NEED?

There's a lot of variety in the world of digital camera lenses, from tiny, built-in, fixed focal-length plastic lenses to big, glass, removable zoom lenses with special optical coatings. Each lens type influences the overall design and feature set of the camera that uses it. We've broken digital-camera lenses down into four broad categories so that you can determine which lens type is best for you.

Fixed focal-length lens | Retractable lens zoom | Fixed zoom lens | Interchangeable lens

Fixed focal-length lens

This camera uses a fixed-focal-length lens, but it lets you select macro or landscape focus mode

These lenses offer no optical zoom. Look for autofocus instead of fixed focus, as well as selectable macro and landscape focus modes.

Advantages:
• Allows compact or ultracompact camera designs
• Easy and quick camera operation
• Inexpensive
• Lenses usually offer relatively wide angle of view,
which is good for landscapes and group shots

Disadvantages:
• Can't zoom in close to faraway subjects
• Lens doesn't usually accept converters for different focal lengths or filters
• Usually lowest optical quality available

Retractable lens zoom

When this camera is turned on, its retractable 3x zoom lens extends from the body

These zoom lenses retract into the camera body when the camera is off and extend when it's on.

Best for: snapshot photographer, budget buyer, undecided, gadget lover

Advantages:
• Allows very compact, portable camera design
• Lens is usually protected by a built-in cover

Disadvantages:
• Generally doesn't support lens converters or filters
• Zoom range is often limited to 2x or 3x magnification
• Lens extension may increase camera start-up time
• Limited manual-focus controls through buttons or switches

Fixed zoom lens

You can attach lens converters to most fixed zoom lenses for wide-angle, close-up, or telephoto shooting.

These zoom lenses are fixed to the camera body and do not retract into it when the camera is turned off.

Best for: snapshot photographer, budget buyer, undecided, gadget lover

Advantages:
• Allows very compact, portable camera design
• Lens is usually protected by a built-in cover

Interchangeable lens

You can attach a wide range of lenses to a digital SLR body

Digital SLRs use interchangeable lens systems, which means that you can detach the entire lens from the camera body and replace it with any other compatible lens. If you already own several lenses for a 35mm film camera, you might want to find out if there's a digital SLR body available that's compatible with them.

Best for: serious amateur

Advantages
• Delivers the best quality optics
• Provides the most flexibility to handle a variety of scenes
• Don't have to buy a new camera to upgrade quality of lens

Disadvantages:
• Expensive to implement and buy
• Lenses tend to be big and heavy
• Focal lengths generally differ for the same lens mounted on a film camera, which can be confusing and cause vignetting