Choosing a camera
I hear from my students, questions about what type of digital camera to buy. When buying a camera, especially for the first time, money is the main concern for some students - for others status is the main need.
My solution, take a look at the type of photographs you want to take. Are you just taking snapshots of family and friends? What about school projects? How much control over the way the camera takes an image do you want to have? Do you want to do night or low light photography? And there are several other questions I can think of to ask yourself about taking images before you spend your money on a camera.
I have several cameras that I use depending on the project I might be working on at the time. For instance, I have a Mamiya c330 twin lens reflex film based camera. The reason I bought this camera was that I had tried a Yashica during my grad studies and fell in love with the square image format. The proportions reminded me of my Dad's old family photos.
A friend, Hanna, suggested the Mamiya c330 because it was the only twin lens reflex made that had interchangeable lenses. It took a while to save the money, but I purchased one for my birthday from a photographer on ebay. I have never been sorry. The lens is sharp and crisp. This camera has taught me so much just with the standard 80 mm lens. It can do very up close macro work as well as normal scene work. I always carry a Sekonic meter with me for light measurement. However, this camera is not a travel camera. It is heavy! So I use it primarily for staged or studio work. It is incredible for portriature.
I also have a 4x5 format pinhole camera from Zero Image. I use it primarily for landscape and prop work. It is hand crafted - simple design that lets me do wonderful moody black and white imagery. I can use either 4x5 cut film in carriers or my Polaroid 545 Pro for instant imaging. It is great fun to work with.
My husband finally talked me into getting my first digital camera for our summer vacation. I have quite a few cameras collected over the years. Some I have bought - some given to me as gifts. Not one of them is a digital. I really like my film mainly for the quality and the art of learning to see light.
So I had to think about what I wanted in a digital camera. Yes, I thought about cost. But if I wanted to save money I would use my Canon WP-1. It is small, water-resistant, can do close ups as well as normal scenery. I will take it with me for the kayak trip. But it would be nice to have a digital backup for the convenience of immediate image feedback. For the digital, one of the big considerations was size. I wanted to enjoy my vacation and document it without carrying a lot of equipment. I also thought about what will I do with it after the vacation. A scouting camera would be nice to have to record a location for later imagery with my Mamiya or pinhole cameras.
A small compact digital would be ideal. I wanted a 6 to 8 mexapixel quality. But I also wanted more control than just automatic. I am used to working with apeture and shutter priorty controls from my old Canon AE-1 35 mm. It allows me to take quick images based on my in camera metering system. So the new digital had to have control options; like manual focus, apeture, shutter, and manual priorty, custom white balance, etc. I wanted a choice of ISO options. I also like to shoot in low light or night situations, so a noise reduction option is critical. As to file formats, I wanted more flexibility than just the compressed jpeg format. I wanted the ability to work with RAW and TIFF image formats. These are formats with out any compression which always loses pixel information. Most of the new digitals have the ability to do movies which is not the highest on my list of features but if it is there I want it to be QuickTime compatible because I use a Mac computer platform for editing.
My first look at cameras were at the name brands of Canon and Nikon. Both have really sharp lens systems. The Canon Powershot series is rather nice with 7+megapixels. But the Canon compact range digitals have a clunky interface in my opinion and are too automatic driven. The Nikon Coolpix cameras also have some nice choices with 7+megapixels. What I am not fond of with the Nikons is their habit of being very proprietory with their formats. These cameras are priced between $300 to $350. Both cameras use the CCD chips which have more trouble with low light and night scenes. There is a lot more noise artifacts in the digital data.
I broadened my scope to other brands. One is the new Leica compact digitals. A Leica lens is legendary for crisp sharp images. And they are SO ELEGANT AND COOOL! I have always wanted a Leica. But the Leica D-LUX2 price point is around $800. A bit too much for me.
Both Sony, Kodak and Fuji have some very creative compact cameras. The new Fuji Finepix E900 boasts a 9+ megapixel amd a RAW image format. But the RAW image format is not supported by PhotoShop CS2. So you get the ability to create with a RAW format but no way to manipulate it unless you convert it to TIF image format first. Price range from $320 to $450.
I finally stumbled on to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1. It looks just like the Leica Leica D-LUX2! It has a Leica DC lens and a metal body. The menus and interface are easy to learn and quick to use. It has 8+ megapixel quality. Shoots RAW and TIFF image formats in addition to JPEG. The RAW image format can in brought into Photoshop CS2 for manipulation. It has 3 image ratios - 3:4, 4:3, and 16:9 which is great for panoramics or viewing on HDTV. Manual and AutoFocus options are present as well as an image stabilization feature. The image stabilization is great for low light situations like museums where flash and tripods are not allowed. The retail price is $599 but I got mine at Amazon for $470. B&H Photo and Video also has them for that price. These are two vendors I trust.
A note to be careful when you buy online. Some digital camera vendors will display very low prices for the cameras and then try to sell you the memory cards and extra batteries at inflated prices. When you tell them you want only the camera they will tell you that they are out of stock and call back in 2-3 weeks. It is a scam.
If you are looking to buy a camera, first think about what you are going to do with it. What type of images you want to make. Then match the features of the camera to fit your function. Do you homework and investigate the options. There are a lot of sites out there that have real world reviews and forums on the various cameras. Just to mention few, Image-resource and DPReview for starters. Image-resource has a little product advisor that will help you decide the kind of camera you might be looking for as well as in-depth reviews. DPReview also has buying guides and comparison charts. My philosophy is to buy the best tool with the features that assist me to make images at a cost I can afford.
Be informed with your choices and the camera will serve you for quite a while feature wise.
My solution, take a look at the type of photographs you want to take. Are you just taking snapshots of family and friends? What about school projects? How much control over the way the camera takes an image do you want to have? Do you want to do night or low light photography? And there are several other questions I can think of to ask yourself about taking images before you spend your money on a camera.
I have several cameras that I use depending on the project I might be working on at the time. For instance, I have a Mamiya c330 twin lens reflex film based camera. The reason I bought this camera was that I had tried a Yashica during my grad studies and fell in love with the square image format. The proportions reminded me of my Dad's old family photos.
A friend, Hanna, suggested the Mamiya c330 because it was the only twin lens reflex made that had interchangeable lenses. It took a while to save the money, but I purchased one for my birthday from a photographer on ebay. I have never been sorry. The lens is sharp and crisp. This camera has taught me so much just with the standard 80 mm lens. It can do very up close macro work as well as normal scene work. I always carry a Sekonic meter with me for light measurement. However, this camera is not a travel camera. It is heavy! So I use it primarily for staged or studio work. It is incredible for portriature.
I also have a 4x5 format pinhole camera from Zero Image. I use it primarily for landscape and prop work. It is hand crafted - simple design that lets me do wonderful moody black and white imagery. I can use either 4x5 cut film in carriers or my Polaroid 545 Pro for instant imaging. It is great fun to work with.
My husband finally talked me into getting my first digital camera for our summer vacation. I have quite a few cameras collected over the years. Some I have bought - some given to me as gifts. Not one of them is a digital. I really like my film mainly for the quality and the art of learning to see light.
So I had to think about what I wanted in a digital camera. Yes, I thought about cost. But if I wanted to save money I would use my Canon WP-1. It is small, water-resistant, can do close ups as well as normal scenery. I will take it with me for the kayak trip. But it would be nice to have a digital backup for the convenience of immediate image feedback. For the digital, one of the big considerations was size. I wanted to enjoy my vacation and document it without carrying a lot of equipment. I also thought about what will I do with it after the vacation. A scouting camera would be nice to have to record a location for later imagery with my Mamiya or pinhole cameras.
A small compact digital would be ideal. I wanted a 6 to 8 mexapixel quality. But I also wanted more control than just automatic. I am used to working with apeture and shutter priorty controls from my old Canon AE-1 35 mm. It allows me to take quick images based on my in camera metering system. So the new digital had to have control options; like manual focus, apeture, shutter, and manual priorty, custom white balance, etc. I wanted a choice of ISO options. I also like to shoot in low light or night situations, so a noise reduction option is critical. As to file formats, I wanted more flexibility than just the compressed jpeg format. I wanted the ability to work with RAW and TIFF image formats. These are formats with out any compression which always loses pixel information. Most of the new digitals have the ability to do movies which is not the highest on my list of features but if it is there I want it to be QuickTime compatible because I use a Mac computer platform for editing.
My first look at cameras were at the name brands of Canon and Nikon. Both have really sharp lens systems. The Canon Powershot series is rather nice with 7+megapixels. But the Canon compact range digitals have a clunky interface in my opinion and are too automatic driven. The Nikon Coolpix cameras also have some nice choices with 7+megapixels. What I am not fond of with the Nikons is their habit of being very proprietory with their formats. These cameras are priced between $300 to $350. Both cameras use the CCD chips which have more trouble with low light and night scenes. There is a lot more noise artifacts in the digital data.
I broadened my scope to other brands. One is the new Leica compact digitals. A Leica lens is legendary for crisp sharp images. And they are SO ELEGANT AND COOOL! I have always wanted a Leica. But the Leica D-LUX2 price point is around $800. A bit too much for me.
Both Sony, Kodak and Fuji have some very creative compact cameras. The new Fuji Finepix E900 boasts a 9+ megapixel amd a RAW image format. But the RAW image format is not supported by PhotoShop CS2. So you get the ability to create with a RAW format but no way to manipulate it unless you convert it to TIF image format first. Price range from $320 to $450.
I finally stumbled on to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1. It looks just like the Leica Leica D-LUX2! It has a Leica DC lens and a metal body. The menus and interface are easy to learn and quick to use. It has 8+ megapixel quality. Shoots RAW and TIFF image formats in addition to JPEG. The RAW image format can in brought into Photoshop CS2 for manipulation. It has 3 image ratios - 3:4, 4:3, and 16:9 which is great for panoramics or viewing on HDTV. Manual and AutoFocus options are present as well as an image stabilization feature. The image stabilization is great for low light situations like museums where flash and tripods are not allowed. The retail price is $599 but I got mine at Amazon for $470. B&H Photo and Video also has them for that price. These are two vendors I trust.
A note to be careful when you buy online. Some digital camera vendors will display very low prices for the cameras and then try to sell you the memory cards and extra batteries at inflated prices. When you tell them you want only the camera they will tell you that they are out of stock and call back in 2-3 weeks. It is a scam.
If you are looking to buy a camera, first think about what you are going to do with it. What type of images you want to make. Then match the features of the camera to fit your function. Do you homework and investigate the options. There are a lot of sites out there that have real world reviews and forums on the various cameras. Just to mention few, Image-resource and DPReview for starters. Image-resource has a little product advisor that will help you decide the kind of camera you might be looking for as well as in-depth reviews. DPReview also has buying guides and comparison charts. My philosophy is to buy the best tool with the features that assist me to make images at a cost I can afford.
Be informed with your choices and the camera will serve you for quite a while feature wise.
posted by EKibby at 11:29 AM
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