Bells and Whistles, Part II

How do you buy gadgets without paying too much for features you don’t need, don’t understand and will never use?

First, pull out a a pencil and a piece of paper. (Okay, Gen X types, open up your laptop. Geez!)

Then:

•Write down what you like about what you already have.

Television, cell phone, camera, stereo system.....it doesn’t matter what you’re thinking of replacing. Price, ease of use, reliabilty size, features. ( If you just hate everything about what you have, hang on, we’ll get to that.)

Let’s take a cell phone as a start. If you’ve never had a cell phone, you’re starting with a relatively clean slate, but still write down what you like about your house phone. Caller ID? Voice mail? Color? Way it fits in your hand?

Computer: Is the screen big and bright? Do the keys have a light touch? Do you like the way the mouse fits your hand? Does your software do what you need it to do, quickly and easily?

Camera: Lightweight, fits well in your hand, good flash attachment, auto exposure, fast shutter speed, both automatic and manual focus.

• Then write down what’s irritating and frustrating about your gadget.

You hate all the wires involved with setting up the sound system and the look of the big, clunky speakers. Your house phone has a tiny handset and little buttons that are hard to punch, and the sound quality is so poor, it’s hard to tell what callers are actually saying. Your computer is slow, you’d like a model that takes up less room on your desk, you need a faster internet browser and you wish the software made filing things like documents and photos easier. You want a digital camera, so you don’t have to buy film, don’t have to wait to e-mail photos, can erase the obvious bad shots instantly.

Now...you can write down what you have, what you need and what you want. Let’s use a camera as an example.

- You have (and are used to) a lightweight camera that fits well in your hand, has a good flash attachment, auto exposure, a fast shutter speed and both automatic and manual focus.
- You would like a digital camera that lets you load photos quickly and easily into your computer, print out photos quickly, store hundreds of pictures on discs and e-mail photos to your friends.

Now....look at this list and write down any questions that come to mind.

- Are you going to need a new printer, or will you be able to print good, sharp photos with your current printer?
- How will you load pictures into your computer? Will you need special cables? Will you need special software?
- How far does your current flash illuminate? How fast is your fastest current shutter speed? How much of a zoom do you have on your current camera? How many photos do you typically take at a family event?

Take ten minutes to write this down and you’ll be far ahead of someone who just walks into a store and says “What do you have?” To start with, you’ll be better able to resist the “That might be nice” syndrome. This is when the salesperson starts pitching feature after expensive feature, and you say “That might be nice,” then find that you’ve just been talked into buying something you’ll never need.

For example:
“You really need a twenty gazooglebyte storage card! It’ll hold 5,000 photos!” Thanks to your “What I’m used to” list you know that even at Christmas, you never take more than four 24-shot rolls of film, so a storage card that holds 200 pictures, twice what you normally shoot, will probably be plenty....and cost a lot less.
“You need a camera with ultra-high megapixel resolution!” I often have to put someone else’s photos on websites and usually my first job is to reduce the resolution. A 5 megapixel (MP) 8 x 10 photo can translate to a 15-20 megabyte file, which can take frustratingly long to download. So I use special software to cut the resolution of these photos to a tenth of their size, but even when I do, they still look great on a computer. (Most computer screens are relatively low resolution.)

What about when you print your pictures? Getting a sharp picture from any kind of printer takes higher resolution, but as a camera salesman admitted,”Unless you’re planning to print poster-sized pictures, 5 or 6 MPs of resolution is plenty.” So it probably makes no sense to pay 20% more for a 8 or 9MP camera.

On the other hand, let’s say that you’re either used to having a 6X zoom lens or you’re always wanted one. That’s something you might well want to pay a bit more for. (Check the optical zoom number; the “digital” zoom of a camera is mostly a matter of resampling pixels.

Software? The camera that comes with the “can make Aunt Minnie look like Madonna” software may be cool, but it also may be complicated to learn. Maybe software that can crop, correct color and brighten dark photos will be all you need. (And will also be all your current computer can handle.)

With your lists, you’ll know what’s worth paying extra for....and what’s not. And you’ll have a much better idea of what questions you need to ask.

Another tip:
Ask to see the owner’s manual of any gadget you’re thinking of buying. If it’s the size of the telephone book and you go cross-eyed trying to read it, look for something simpler.

Finally, once you’ve decided on a make and model that you like, call around and find the best price for your gadget. (I recently bought a digital camera, and the fourth place I checked had it for 30% less than the store where I first saw it.) Electronic stores are especially competitive, but feel free to check the internet (remember to add shipping!) as well as your local big box stores.

So.....get what you need and enough of what you want to keep you happy...without paying for “bells and whistles” that you’ll never use.