• Choosing the right model. Which camera is good for me?

As you may noticed today on market there is endless variety of models with tons of features, shapes and sizes. Like it is usual in other electronic purchasing it depends of your budget how much quality you get.

First thing that you should pay attention is number of megapixels (MP). Amount of megapixels is represents resolution of photos that camera is capable to make. Basically higher the resolution pictures are better quality, which means try to get camera as much megapixels as you can afford. Just as point of reference, 3MP camera will give you photos printed in up to 8x10 inches format.

Another important issue is image storage. Common usage of digital camera means that when you make set of pictures you transfer them in you computer at home and select best ones for print. When you are on cruise ship for a week or so you may not have access to your PC. Since cameras have limited amount of memory you may run out of storage space. Most ships (if not all of them) has photo shop facility onboard but charge of their service is not included in fare. So if you plan to use them its good to find out cost of their service up front. They can develop your pictures anytime or store them for you on some other media like CD or removable memory.

Other option is to bring enough memory cards with you on cruise. Simply estimate how much pictures you are planning to take and how much memory they should occupy then buy additional memory cards. Always go with more cards with smaller capacity rather than one big-capacity card. Reason for this if one card gets corrupted or damaged you don't need to lose all your pictures.

Make sure you have always a set with extra (charged) batteries with you. Cruise ship visits a plenty of exotic location where you cannot always easy buy staff like batteries (or you can but on some islands they will cost you much more than you expected).

Battery charger, of course, need to go with you on ship.

Do not buy a camera without optical viewfinder! LCD screens will give you hard time looking at them under the bright sunlight.

Learn how to switch between modes for outdoor and dark (indoor) environment. Wrong mode can dramatically downgrade quality of pictures.

Snorkel lovers for making underwater photos can consider purchasing and waterproof model. From my experience getting one cheap, disposable, waterproof camera for this purpose is enough to do the trick.

You have to agree that cruise experience just isn't complete if it's not followed with adequate photo essay. We hope these guidelines help you about that.

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