How to Choose a Camera (2026): Sensors, Megapixels, Terms

如何选购相机（2026版）：传感器、像素与术语指南

The first thing to know about buying a digital camera in 2026 is that it’s virtually impossible to buy a bad one. You probably have a great camera in your hand right now. For many people, a smartphone will suffice, but if you want a camera separate from your phone, read on. 关于在2026年购买数码相机，首先要了解的是：现在几乎不可能买到一台“烂”相机。你手中可能已经有一台很棒的相机了。对许多人来说，智能手机已经足够，但如果你想要一台独立于手机之外的相机，请继续往下读。

The current crop of digital cameras is almost universally fantastic. Everything on the market is capable of capturing great images, provided you learn how to use your camera and understand the basics of photography: composition, light, and timing. That said, you don’t just want a technically good camera—you want the right camera for you. 目前市面上的数码相机普遍表现出色。只要你学会如何使用相机并理解摄影的基本要素——构图、光线和时机，市场上所有的产品都能拍出精美的照片。话虽如此，你需要的不仅仅是一台技术上优秀的相机，而是最适合你的那台。

That camera depends on what you want to photograph, how you want to use it, where you’re going to shoot, and a myriad of other questions that only you can answer. To help you out, I’ll walk through the basics of every major component of a camera you’ll want to know about, breaking down jargon and explaining things on a practical level. 选择哪台相机取决于你想拍什么、如何使用它、拍摄场景在哪里，以及许多只有你自己能回答的问题。为了提供帮助，我将带你了解相机每个主要组件的基础知识，拆解专业术语，并从实用层面进行解释。

Updated August 2026: I’ve updated this guide with specs on new sensors and some additional advice on lenses, and I’ve updated links throughout. 2026年8月更新：我更新了本指南，加入了关于新型传感器的规格说明和一些额外的镜头建议，并更新了全文中的链接。

Table of Contents / 目录

What Kind of Photos Do You Want to Take? / 你想拍什么样的照片？
Glossary of Camera Terms / 相机术语表
Point-and-Shoot vs. Interchangeable Lens / 卡片机 vs. 可换镜头相机
Mirrorless vs. DSLR / 无反相机 vs. 单反相机
Sensor Size and Why It Doesn’t Matter (Much) / 传感器尺寸及其重要性（其实没那么重要）
Megapixels / 像素
Ergonomics and Features / 人体工程学与功能
Which Lenses Should You Buy? / 该买什么镜头？
Bags, Cards, and Accessories / 相机包、存储卡与配件
Now, Go Take Pictures / 现在，去拍照吧

What Kind of Photos Do You Want to Take?

你想拍什么样的照片？

The first step in finding the best camera for you is knowing what you want to do with it, at least somewhat. For example, if you know you’re going to be taking pictures of your kids’ sports games, you’ll want to pay special attention to how good the autofocus is, and how fast it can capture images (measured in frames per second, or fps). If you know you’re also going to want to make videos, make sure you get something with high-quality video features, like 4K 100 fps for slow-motion content and something to eliminate or minimize rolling shutter. If you love astrophotography, you’ll want to note how noisy a sensor might be. 寻找最适合你的相机的第一步，是明确你打算用它做什么。例如，如果你知道自己要拍摄孩子的体育比赛，就需要特别关注自动对焦的性能，以及相机的连拍速度（以每秒帧数 fps 衡量）。如果你还想拍摄视频，请确保选择具备高质量视频功能的机型，例如支持 4K 100fps 的慢动作拍摄，以及能消除或最小化果冻效应（rolling shutter）的功能。如果你热爱天文摄影，则需要关注传感器的噪点表现。

While every camera made today is capable of great images, some are better than others at certain niche tasks like the examples above. Knowing the type of images you want to create will help you narrow down your search. If you’re new to photography and don’t know what you’re going to end up liking, that’s okay—don’t worry about high-end niche features like superfast autofocus. Look instead at entry-level cameras designed for the generalist, which will save you some money as well. Put that money into high-quality lenses. 虽然当今生产的每一台相机都能拍出好照片，但有些机型在上述特定领域表现更佳。明确你想创作的影像类型有助于缩小选择范围。如果你是摄影新手，还不确定自己的喜好，没关系——不必纠结于超高速自动对焦等高端小众功能。转而关注为大众设计的入门级相机，这还能为你省下一笔钱。把这笔钱投入到高质量的镜头上吧。

Glossary of Camera Terms

相机术语表

ISO: ISO dates back to the film days when it was a standardized way of indicating how sensitive a film was to light. It was adopted in digital to maintain similar brightness levels that people were used to in film photography. So setting your digital camera to 100 ISO should give you roughly the same base levels of brightness as 100 film speed. ISO ranges from around 50 to six-digit numbers on some cameras. The lowest ISO on your camera is sometimes called the “base ISO.” This will have the least noise. As you move up in ISO number, the noise increases, but so does the sensitivity to light. The less light you have, the higher the ISO you’ll want to use. ISO（感光度）： ISO 源于胶片时代，是衡量胶片对光敏感程度的标准化方式。数码相机沿用了这一概念，以保持人们在胶片摄影中习惯的亮度水平。因此，将数码相机设置为 ISO 100，其基础亮度水平大致与 ISO 100 的胶片相当。ISO 范围从约 50 到某些相机上的六位数不等。相机上的最低 ISO 有时被称为“原生 ISO”（base ISO），此时噪点最少。随着 ISO 数值增加，噪点会增加，但对光的敏感度也会提高。光线越暗，你越需要使用更高的 ISO。

Aperture: The size of the opening inside your lens. The wider the aperture, the more light will enter the lens. Small apertures are sometimes called “fast,” as in an f/1.2 lens is fast. Narrow apertures (f/8 or f/16) mean less light enters the lens. Aperture affects depth of field (how much of the picture is in focus), so the wider the aperture, the less of the image that will be in focus, and you will create the popular “bokeh” blur effect. 光圈（Aperture）： 镜头内部开口的大小。光圈越大，进入镜头的光线就越多。大光圈有时被称为“大光圈镜头”（fast lens），例如 f/1.2 的镜头。小光圈（如 f/8 或 f/16）意味着进入镜头的光线较少。光圈会影响景深（画面中清晰的范围），光圈越大，清晰的范围越小，从而产生流行的“焦外虚化”（bokeh）效果。

Shutter Speed: This previously referred to the mirror lifting up to expose the film or digital sensor to light. With mirrorless cameras, it has lost that meaning, but still refers to how long the sensor is exposed to light. It’s written in fractions of a second, like 1/125s, up to whole seconds, depending on your camera. The longer the shutter is open, the more light is let in. This means that anything moving while the shutter is open will become blurry—for example, water flowing over rocks takes on a smooth appearance. 快门速度（Shutter Speed）： 过去指反光板抬起以使胶片或传感器曝光的过程。在无反相机中，这一物理含义已消失，但仍指传感器暴露在光线下的时长。它以秒的分数表示，如 1/125秒，甚至长达数秒，具体取决于相机。快门开启时间越长，进入的光线越多。这意味着快门开启时任何移动的物体都会变得模糊——例如，流过岩石的水会呈现出丝滑的效果。

Exposure: Exposure is how light or dark your image is. If your image is too dark, the photo is called underexposed. If it’s too bright, it’s overexposed. Exposure is controlled by using the previous three tools—ISO, aperture, and shutter speed—balanced to get the exposure you want. 曝光（Exposure）： 曝光指图像的明暗程度。如果图像太暗，称为曝光不足；如果太亮，则称为曝光过度。曝光通过平衡上述三个工具（ISO、光圈和快门速度）来控制，以获得你想要的画面效果。

White Balance: This refers to the color of light. Your eyes are good at adjusting to different lights, but your camera is not. This is why sometimes your night shots have a very yellow-orange cast. White balance can be used to get around this by telling the camera the temperature of the light you’re shooting under. Many people use the auto setting for white balance, which is generally pretty good. I prefer always shooting at 5,500 degrees Kelvin (sunlight) and adjusting white balance as needed in software. 白平衡（White Balance）： 指光的颜色。人眼擅长适应不同的光线，但相机不行。这就是为什么有时你的夜景照片会带有明显的黄橙色色偏。白平衡可以通过告诉相机拍摄环境的光线色温来解决这个问题。许多人使用自动白平衡设置，通常效果不错。我个人倾向于始终以 5500K（日光）拍摄，并在后期软件中根据需要调整白平衡。

Exposure Compensation: This is a way to tell your camera to under- or overexpose the image. It’s useful in automated shooting modes. It’s measured in “stops” of light (it’s working like an extra aperture), with positive numbers generating a brighter image and negative numbers giving you a darker image. 曝光补偿（Exposure Compensation）： 这是一种告诉相机增加或减少曝光的方法，在自动拍摄模式下非常有用。它以“档”（stops）为单位（作用类似于额外的光圈调节），正值会使图像更亮，负值则使图像更暗。

RAW: This is a generic name for a type of image file that is just, well, raw data. You need RAW processing software like Adobe Lightroom, Capture One, or Darktable to view RAW images, but RAW files can be edited much more extensively than JPEGs. I strongly recommend shooting in RAW. It gives you greater editing control over your photos. RAW格式： 这是对一种图像文件的统称，简单来说就是原始数据。你需要使用 Adobe Lightroom、Capture One 或 Darktable 等 RAW 处理软件来查看 RAW 图像，但 RAW 文件比 JPEG 文件拥有大得多的编辑空间。我强烈建议使用 RAW 格式拍摄，它能让你对照片拥有更强的后期控制力。

Aspect Ratio: This is the ratio of the width to the height. It’s usually 3:2, occasionally 4:3, and sometimes 16:9. Some cameras allow you to choose between these and perhaps more. Just remember that if you plan to print at a specific size, you may have to crop depending on the aspect ratio. 长宽比（Aspect Ratio）： 指图像宽度与高度的比例。通常为 3:2，偶尔为 4:3，有时为 16:9。一些相机允许你在这些比例甚至更多选项中进行选择。请记住，如果你计划以特定尺寸打印，可能需要根据长宽比进行裁剪。