Save With Dave

Save With Dave: Digital Still And Video Cameras

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― You want to capture all your family memories on pictures or video, but getting a good camera can break a budget. Here are some ways to get the quality you need without digging too deep into your wallet.

People can be left with sticker shock when they look at the latest digital o video cameras. u there are ways to chip away at some of those high prices.

When you load up on all the latest features you'll have no trouble finding a digital camera costing $500 dollars. But the same display case will have other models in the $180 dollar range. You have to wonder: how much difference will you see in the quality of the pictures they take?

"Normally they would not see a difference because most average consumers go four by six, maybe five by seven. If you were to go eight by ten or larger you would start seeing a visible difference between the two cameras," said Howard Auzenne, Pardee's Cameras.

Howard says it's a similar story with video cameras. Canon has a high-definition model for $1,100. But a standard $300 camera will get the job done for most people.

"If they're just going to point and shoot, do five minutes here, 10 minutes there, then the $300 camera is more than enough," said Auzenne. "They can still burn DVD's, they can still send them to family members and still archive them on their computer at home."

So whether you're taking stills or video, the key is in making sure you don't buy more camera than you need.

"Most people would not need the $1,100. It's way more than they would need [with] features they would never use, so you're basically wasting your money," said Auzenne.

And we are very much against you wasting your money. If you were to buy the standard digital and video cameras we showed you would save about $1,100 over the high-end models and still meet your photo needs.

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