Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great day. This week I want to talk about purchasing a new camera and what is the most important thing the camera must have for you to buy it. The deal breaker thing. The make or break item that you must have to purchase the camera. I got this idea partially because I just bought a new camera and because of a podcast that I listen to that just explored the subject. The pod cast is the Digital Story by Derrick Story. He does a weekly podcast and has over 1000 of them. The podcast that I piggybacked off of  was The Most Important New Camera Feature. This is a great podcast and he did a poll of the most important items when buying a new camera. Please visit and listen to his podcast I think you will enjoy it like I do. So when I went to get a new or a (new to me) camera I had to figure out what were the things that were deal breakers for me. Now you know me and I have different camera systems for different things. I have my travel kit and I have my EDC camera (Every Day Carry) camera. I think that I may have different answers for different situations. If you have only one system it may be very easy to come up with your must haves. But everyone is different. So I will go over the obvious things that people look at when making a choice of a new camera.

Megapixels. For years the industry has been pushing Megapixels. Camera companies have been having megapixel wars for years. For some this may be the deal breaker. The more megapixels the better some may say. If your style of photography needs to really crop in like maybe wildlife or sports photography this may be the deal breaker. In the early days of digital more it did mean better. But now most cameras at any megapixel can give you great photo's and quality ones to boot. For me Megapixels was never a deciding feature and in my camera's now 26 megapixels is the highest I have. Where 40 and 60 are the norm what I have is very small.

Camera Size. Some want bigger and some want smaller. Depending on what type of photography again. Larger lenses a larger camera kind of balances out the weight. But if you're using smaller lenses or doing photography that you want to be nimble and mobile and able to walk a lot a smaller camera might be what you need. For me I like the smaller cameras . It can be very high on my must have items. When I was purchasing my travel and EDC camera's it was very high on my must have's. It was the reason that I got my Sony Crop sensor camera was for the size when traveling in my van the MAV (Max's Adventure Van) the smaller the better. And my EDC camera is was high on the list but not the highest.

Camera Loyalty .  This is a biggie for some folks. You have Canon folks and Nikon folks and they shouldn't even think of another camera. Even saying the other company's name is forbidden. LOL But there is something to it. You get used to the buttons and dials because they don't change much from model to model. The menu's is another big reason . You know where all the items are and they are familiar. And no one likes change. But the biggest reason may be the lenses you already have. Thats one reason I picked Sony for my Travel Camera. I already had quite a few lenses that can be used on the new camera so sticking with my camera brand was a choice I picked. I was looking at Fuji but Sony won out because of the lenses I already had.

High ISO Performance. This is another item that camera companies tend to push and in the early days of digital you could get some really noisy photos in low light. But sensors have come a long way . They do make sensors that are fantastic in low light. If you are in to low light photography like astro photography or shooting in low light situations this may be your must have.

View Finder vs Back Screen. If you're like me a view finder is a must have and the primary reason I replaced my EDC camera. My old one didn't have a View Finder and I needed one. It was the deal breaker. I wanted a compact camera that had a viewfinder and that is what lead me to the Leica I recently purchased. For some people this is a deal breaker. In bright conditions using a back screen can be tough but a viewfinder works all of the time. For me this has become a deal breaker. What about a flippy screen or a fully articulating screen. Me I like the flippy screen and not the fully articulating screen. But for some the fully articulating is a must have maybe because they do video and they can film their selves with the screen turned around.

Camera Stabilization . Modern cameras can be more stable by either using in body stabilization (IBIS) or by using lens stabilization. This is particularly useful if you are into video. I think these would be a must if your camera is mainly a video camera. But for photo's it can be very useful also. For me some sort of stabilization is needed. In my travel camera it is IBIS and in my EDC camera it is lens stabilization.  Some sort is a must for me and most cameras offer this.

These are just a few of things that can be deal breakers. For a lot of people how a camera looks can be very high on the list. Sometimes it just the "Bling" of it. Other times it's how the camera operates. Does it have a retro look? Does it have lots of dials and buttons like analog cameras? Some people like this and others like more of a digital feel. Some folks don't like to use a view finder and only the back screen . It's just how people like to use their camera. It's like asking what is the best camera. There is no correct answer. Everyone is different and everyone likes different things. What are some of your deal breakers? Let me know. Until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link