The Best Pocket Digital Camera for Beginners, How to Choose It?

Best pocket digital camera — Digital pocket cameras are very practical to carry everywhere and maybe that’s what causes the market segment to be quite large compared to other types of digital cameras.

In addition, digital pocket cameras also offer a pretty good picture quality, of course, the price is also much cheaper compared to digital SLR cameras.

This is very different if we go back to the past where changes and improvements in camera features are so fast and confusing. For this reason, it is appropriate that we look for the best pocket cameras, which have the latest features, at least for the next few years.
 

Choose As Needed

Haven’t had the chance to buy a 12 MP camera, 24 MP came out, haven’t tested the camera with HD movie, 4K movie came out.

Now it can be said, whatever the camera is purchased is almost ‘mature’ regarding technology, we just have to choose which is most suitable for taste and funds. For starters, the most important thing is to recognize your photography needs later.

Try answering the following quiz, at least you can predict what kind of camera you need:

• Will your camera be used as an ordinary documentation tool or to make more artistic photographs? (relation to manual features)
  

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• Do you need a wide lens for a broad impression or do you need a wider zoom lens? (relation to lens focal).
  

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• Are you going to need to take pictures with fast performance, like photographing a child who can’t stand still? (relation to shutter lag performance, autofocus, burst mode, and shot-to-shot).
  

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• Are you the type of adventurer who often shoots outdoors or not? (relation to the camera body, and underwater accessories).
  

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• Do you prefer AA or Lithium batteries?
  

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• Will you often use a pocket camera in the low light, without a flash? (relation to sensor capabilities at high ISO).
  

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• Besides taking pictures, do you also like to take videos? (relation to video resolution).
  

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• Do you need a large size photo for large print or tight crops? (relation to resolution).

Now, after answering the quiz above, maybe you have it easier to imagine your photography needs.

But of course, it is worth remembering that it is impossible that everything we want can be accommodated by one camera, of course, there are things that need to be compromised.

As for tips for choosing the best pocket camera, here are the things that need to be observed:
 

The brand

No need to stick to the brand, basically famous camera manufacturers have the same quality standards, although no doubt big brands have better aftersales service.
 

Lens

The key to the sharpness and photo quality is in the lens, as much as possible look at the results of the photo before buying, see whether the sharpness of the lens that you think is appropriate or not.
 

Zoom

The best compact cameras generally have a 3x optical zoom lens, although now it varies from 4, 5, 6 to 30x zoom. If you do not need to zoom too high, do not force to buy a camera with a large zoom.
 

Mandatory features

Image stabilizer, because the pocket camera is small and lightweight, the risk of shaking when shooting is quite large.
 

Manual mode feature

At a minimum there needs to be an ISO manual, then if there is a manual exposure (shutter priority and aperture priority), thankfully if there is a manual focus as well.
 

How wide do you need?

Generally the best pocket cameras start from a 35 mm lens. If you feel less wide, look for a camera whose lens starts from 30 mm, 28 mm, or even 24 mm that will be useful for prospective creativity and making a broad impression.
 

Resolution

As much as possible avoid resolution too high (above 10 MP), because of the sensor in a small pocket camera. So, if it is crammed with too many pixels, the sensor will not be able to provide a clean photo of noise at high ISO.

As a comparison, the Panasonic Lumix LX7 pocket camera with a resolution of only 10 MP is able to make sharp photo details compared to other pocket cameras with equivalent resolution.
 

The performance of a pocket camera is generally the same

But there is no harm in checking the specifications of the shutter lag again (pauses when pressing the shutter button and the photo is taken), shot-to-shot (waiting time from the first photo to the next photo), burst mode (how many photos can be taken in one second), and start-up/shutdown time (the time required for the camera to be ready to shoot when first turned on).

As for things that are generally relatively the same on all pocket cameras, so there is no need to worry too much about:
 

Autofocus mode

Generally, each camera has the same AF performance (contrast-detect working principle) and the AF modes provided are generally the same (multi-area or center). Some new cameras provide face detection based on face detection (Face detection).
 

Metering mode

Generally the same as choices such as center weight and spot metering.
 

White balance and preset options

Like fluorescent, tungsten, daylight, and others.
 

Basic specifications

Like max/min shutter speed, max/min aperture, max/min ISO, battery capacity, flash power and others (except for a max aperture that is too small it will be troublesome when in low light, try to find an f / 2.8).

Those are some tips that I can present for the guidelines for buying a pocket camera. If there are more funds, you can choose a camera with more and better features, such as a larger LCD size, 4K movie feature, and a metal body wrapped in a camera.

But generally with a budget of 1 to 5 million, pocket cameras can be obtained which are sufficient for everyday photography needs.

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