This week’s Saturday Shout considers the hidden costs of buying a digital camera. Digital Cameras are getting ever cheaper. So cheap, in fact, that you can now buy a 5 megapixel model for £100, a 7 megapixel model for £200, and a DSLR with a lens for £450. But are those prices misleading the consumer? What do you actually get in return for your money? It’s long been an accepted fact in the digital camera industry that you don’t necessarily get everything that you need in the box. You almost always get a memory card that’s far too small, or in the case of digital SLRs, no memory card at all. Often the camera is supplied with completely inadequate batteries (non-rechargeable AA’s that last for a couple of hours spring to mind). And sometimes, a camera manufactuer will even talk about certain functionality in the user guide, but not actually supply the required part in the standard camera kit. An analogy to this situation is buying a car - you wouldn’t expect your new Ford Golf Megane to have no engine or petrol tank, but that’s exactly what a lot of digital cameras are supplied like when you buy one (although it’s obviously a lot easier to fit those parts yourself in a digicam!).

Does this make you hot under the collar, or do you actually prefer to have the choice of buying your own accessories? Which camera manufacturers are the worst offenders? How much is the real cost of buying a digital camera? Shout out now…