I’m a firm believer in the power of choice. Choice in cars, choice in cable providers, choice in which movies I watch, and choice in how I live my life. Freedom of choice is in our constitution and charter of rights. I’m also a firm believer in keeping things simple, and there is such a thing as too much choice. Take digital cameras for instance. As of today, Amazon has 3,859 digital cameras (and accessories) listed ranging in price from $24,995.00 all the way down to $40.99. That’s not choice, that’s a frackin’ nightmare!

Well, were do we go from here? I did promise a SIMPLE guide to digital camera buying, and I meant it. Let’s apply the 90% rule from one of my favorite old science fiction writers Theodore Sturgeon. Theo said (and I loosely quote): “90% of everything is crap”. With that in mind, let’s eliminate all the crap. Let’s only look at the top cameras from whatever category / budget were interested in. In other words, as your reading any camera reviews, don’t bother with a camera if it doesn’t receive at least a 4 or a 5 star review.

Battery consumption is pretty steep with this camera. Turning off the LCD will help, but is a nuisance. In their sales material, Canon likes to suggest that the fact the PowerShot A560 uses AA batteries is a good thing because you can get them anywhere. I think what they really meant to say was that it’s a good thing you can get AA batteries anywhere, because your going to need to buy a lot of them. I’m sure the battery companies don’t mind. The first company to come up with a reliable and low power consumption solar powered digital camera is going to make a fortune. And probably put the Energizer bunny on the unemployment line.

The power saving feature, while a good idea for the L11, was not implemented very well by Nikon. The camera tends to take about a minute to shut off, when it decides it’s no longer being used. During that time, you can’t stop the shutdown, and even powering it back on, is not the most intuitive process.

A typical complaint with pretty much every camera in this price range, and even $100 more, is the big lag time between taking pictures. Primarily caused by the flash recharging, and the camera taking a long time to save the last photo to the memory card. You can get faster memory cards, and stronger batteries, but they won’t make much of a difference. Some of the faster memory cards cost almost as much as the Nikon Coolpix L11. Your better off just getting a better camera.

Once you have your short list of features, it’s time to try a few cameras out. I like to visit the camera store, and take lots of pictures. Go during the off hours, and find a helpful salesperson. Ask question, take pictures, ask more questions. Wash rinse repeat with a couple of cameras, and even a couple of salespersons if necessary. Pretty soon, you’ll know what you like.

If that doesn’t help, I’ve got a short list of great cameras gathered from across the internet updated by the minute (aren’t computers great). That’s bound to eliminate at least 90% of all the crap for you. That’s about as simple as things get. Of course you can’t trust computers for everything, so you’ll still want to try them out for yourself. Happy hunting.