Without naming names, this is a quick and dirty buyer’s guide to digital cameras.

There are a lot of manufacturers…some you’ve heard of, others you haven’t. There are four or five big names and a lot of little guys nipping at their market share. The makers of digital cameras have, for the past few years, been heavily pushing megapixels. Pick up any ad and it’s largest feature other than the camera itself or photos it has taken, is how many millions of pixels it produces. In smaller type, farther down the page, you’ll see information the optical and digital zoom.

I am not writing this post to teach the inner workings of digital cameras or digital photography tips and tricks. I want you give you some information to get you thinking differently about digital cameras so that you are better prepared to make choices when you go to a store or online to buy your next digital camera.

Whatever your purpose for the camera, ALWAYS look at OPTICAL ZOOM first before the number of megapixels, or the brand name, or features, or anything else about the camera. Optical zoom is the thing that is going to get you the sharpest, closest pictures possible. The number of megapixels indicates the size of the photo. If the optical zoom is low, the photo will still be large, but you’re going to be limited in how well you can pull in distant objects or how close you can get to a subject.

Ignore “digital zoom” and turn it off if you can. It does nothing useful for the photograph. Some ads tell you optical first, some tell you optical second. The ads to immediately put down are the ones that talk about combined zoom only. They’re trying to sell you digital zoom and you should walk away.

As far as the rest, try to get a case that’s going to be functional, a sturdy tripod, an extra memory card, and extra batteries.