Is It Time to Buy?
Buying electronics can be very frustrating. After months of agonizing over what to get, you can make a decision and plunk down your money only to find weeks later that a more feature-laden camera has come out for a lower price.
Buying a digital camera is a lot like buying a computer: it's hard to know whether you should buy one now or hold out for a while. Should you pick from the models that are currently on store shelves or wait for technology, which is constantly evolving, to come out with a model that has even more bells and whistles and probably carries a lower price tag as well?
Electronics keep getting cheaper. In 1965, Gordon Moore, who was then research and development director for Fairchild Semiconductor and who later went on to become one of the founders of Intel Corporation, predicted that the density of transistors on a chip would double every two years. As the ability to put more and more transistors on a chip increases, the cost per unit of computing power declines. Today, Moore's Law, as his prediction came to be called, has turned out to be extremely accurate. In the past three decades or so, the number of transistors on a chip has grown from 2,300 to 28 million.
The same expansion of technology applies to digital photography, meaning that if you wait about six months, you'll be able to buy an even better camera for less money. And if you plan to keep up with the rapidly changing digital world of photography, you can count on replacing your camera system every two to three years.
There are a number of reasons for buying a camera right now and not waiting:
Do you have an immediate specific use for a digital camera right now?
Do you need the camera right now to accomplish what you want?
Do have accessories that you can use with the camera, such as an expensive memory card?
When you know exactly what you want to do with a camera, it is the right time to buy. You can always buy an inexpensive camera initially and trade up later. Do not be in a hurry to buy if you are unsure of how you will use the camera. Also, don't buy if you will not have twenty hours to test out the camera immediately after buying it.
