It was my first year of college and the first few months out on my own. I wanted to buy a new camera to document all of my new beginnings and I wanted this camera to be a nice one. That part was clear… affordable, but nice… like really nice. Actually maybe even not affordable, but definitely nice (please forgive my seventeen-year-old self for being so shallow.)

  Digital cameras had just boomed into mainstream culture 2 to 3 years prior and I was ready to make the cross over from film.

  My venture led me to Circuit City, an electronic store that closed its doors in 2009. I spent well over $100 on a very bulky point-and-shoot with a whopping 1.5 megapixels and a display screen almost an entire inch wide. I was proud.

  Although, too proud. I was an art major and extremely broke. Therefore I could never afford to keep my prized possession stocked with fresh double A’s. And by the time my income improved, my lofty purchase was antiquated. 

  These days, for that same price, you can find a digital camera with 16 megapixels, a 3-inch display, 34x zoom, and lithium ion batteries that last for ages.

  Camera manufacturers are constantly improving their technology to try to stay ahead of their competitors. Some of these “improvements” could be considered pointless to the general public when all they really care about is getting a good image, but a few of the newer features are actually pretty cool and worth looking into.

  When buying your next digital camera, it’s important to keep in mind not only what works for you, but also what types of technology are on the brink of being released in the near future. 

   The point is that you want your purchase to be one that’ll make you happy for a long time, and not one that you’ll be wishing you could trade-in within a couple of months.