Dear Kevin
Before you buy any cameras,
FIRST you should ask yourself what kind of application do you have and what you would like to do with it?Then you have to think how much your
maximum budgetfor it. Because any camera specially the digital one has many
hidden costs such as:
1- A
memory card with higher capacity such as 256MB, 512MB, or 1 gig.
2- A
card reader3- A
case4-If that camera comes with
battery charger then it would be nice, otherwise you have to buy it separately
When you add the costs of above items then might be beyond of your budget.
Now you decide everything. Then
where you go to buy?As you mention you do
NOT buy a camera from Argos, or those supermarket that sell everything!! You should buy it from a camera shop who is specialised in handeling them.
I am sure, there are so many of them in your area.
Before you go and buy, you should find the
BEST ONE. So go to the following sites and check them out by looking at their full review and even they have facility to compare them side by side. These following website are EXCELLENT in explaining all of the details to you:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/http://www.dpreview.comhttp://www.dcviews.com/Then you should find the
righ price. In order to DO that you have to know that
ALL of the main photography stores MATCH the prices either with internet shops or in a raduis of few miles around thei shops, and so on. The reason is because they want to compete.
For finding the right prices there are few sites that you could check with them as all of them have a search engines:
http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/http://www.ciao.co.uk/http://www.warehouseexpress.com/Then after you find the cheapest price from 2 or 3 places on the internet,
print them out for your documentation to show the sales person.
(
Do not forget, before you show the printout to them, ask about the availibility of the camera, otherwise they would lie to you that they do NOT have them once they hear your cheap price !!)
The last not least
TIME of buying is very important.
You might ask HOW?Do NOT forget these main photography shops in order to compete with the intenet sites, and because they have a huge overhead expenses,
THEY DO EVERYTHING when there is not many customers around in a shop !!!!!!!!!!!!
SO, the best time to buy would be
Sunday morning whenthere is anybody around and the chief of store needs to sell million £/$ at the end of that day.HOPE all of these info help you to find the best deal of century for you.
Good luck
PS-
(I do NOT mind to know what did you buy at the end once you bought the right one)
Looking forward to hear from you.
