Top 6 reasons NOT to buy a digital camera – and my favorite workarounds if you get one anyway!

1.       You must wait several seconds after turning on the camera before you can take the first picture, and there’s a long lag time from the moment you press the shutter until the picture actually snaps.
Workaround – Get the camera out of the case a few seconds early. Turn it on and gently press the shutter release to get the circuits ready for use.

2.       Flash guns are small and weak, so your flash range is limited. The electronic flash on a $200 camera is about as powerful as the flash in a disposable camera costing less than $10. It’s difficult to add a bigger flash gun, and small cameras with built-in flash cause a lot of red eyes.
Workaround – Stand closer to the subject. Don’t zoom in too much (your zoom lens usually loses some of its effective speed as you go toward the telephoto end of the range, and you usually stand farther back when you’re using the tele settings.) You can also use an auxiliary flashgun with a built-in slave trigger to boost your range to as much as 60 feet.

3.       Batteries are extremely critical. You MUST use rechargeable NiMH batteries, using regular AA alkalines only in an emergency. Often you’ll pick up a digital camera and have it die after only a few shots, because you forgot to recharge the batteries.
Workaround – Have at least one extra set of batteries on hand. Keep some lithium batteries on hand in the bottom of your case. They have a very long shelf life. If you haven’t charged up your batteries in a month or so, give them a charge.

4.       You can’t shoot quickly, except with some expensive models.
Workaround – press the shutter release down halfway. That will pre-focus the camera, so two-thirds of the delay is taken care of. Turn off the red-eye reduction mode of the flash system, that makes for a delay when taking photos indoors. Set your camera to its “burst” mode or “final five” mode.

5.       Most cameras won’t take good sports pictures indoors. Again, there are some expensive models – with very expensive lenses – that perform admirably under these conditions.
Workaround – Set the film speed of your camera to its highest speed, even though it increases the number of artifacts in the image. Choose Aperture Priority Mode and set the lens wide-open. Pre-focus the camera where you expect the action to be. Snap the shutter just before the subject reaches the decisive moment. For example, start pressing the shutter just before a basketball player reaches the peak of his or her jump.

6.       If you bump up the "film speed" you lose quality. More than you’d lose by going to a 400 speed film in a 35mm camera.
Workaround – slow film speed equivalents and a tripod let you make available light photos with extraordinary detail.