Choosing The Right Digital Camera
Let’s get something straight right out of the box. If you’re looking to buy a new digital camera, you don’t really have to be an expert in pixels and mega pixels and all that kind of stuff. If you expect to find that kind of deep technical discussion here, you’re in the wrong place.
Actually, there’s a whole lot of stuff you don’t really need to know before tackling the daunting task of choosing the right digital camera for you.
First of all, forget all the high-tech jargon. It’s mostly a lot of sales hype anyway. Choosing a good unit is pretty simple really…pretty much all you have to remember is that the higher the mega pixel rating on the front of the camera, the bigger picture you can make without it breaking up into little chunks (called pixels) and most likely the more cash it’s likely going to pry out of your pocket. Each model has an array of techno-widgets that go by different names but they all have the same basic focus, to help you take a better picture.
I have a quick (and admittedly simplistic) overview of the pixel story. The shot on the left on my web page
http://www.great-nature-photography.com/digital-cameras.html
is one I took with a high pixel rating and the one on the right was with a much lower rating. They’ve been enlarged way beyond what you would normally do, but I do have a point to make here. If you look carefully you can see there’s a terrific difference in the way they look or, in the ‘resolution’. The image on the right has already broken up into small pieces (pixels) (I hope) you can readily see. The picture on the left was magnified several times more than the one on the right which should give you an idea of how big you can enlarge it and still retain a fairly decent result. By the way, these shots are of a very, very small piece of a picture I took of snapdragons in our front yard.
A camera with a 5.0 mega pixel rating or higher can produce a decent 16X20 print but one with a 2.0 mega pixel rating or lower should be restricted to a maximum of 4X6 prints. For the most part, you won’t be happy with pictures any larger than 4X6 from the lower rated camera.
Okay, Let’s Pick A Camera…
Well, I have my favorites and my not-so favorites.
When I looked at all the digital cameras available, I was more than a little astounded at the vast selection of available equipment. It seems that every company that’s ever heard the word “computer” has jumped on the bandwagon. It seems they lay their hands on some lenses, wrap a computerized box around them, added a few techno-widgets and bingo, instant digital camera! What can you say…it’s money in the bank!
Where did I start looking? Well, I went back to my tried and true method of buying a film camera that I talk about later. It’s always worked for me and didn’t let me down this time either.
My personal digital camera finally wound up to be an Olympus C-5050. By the way, in my opinion Olympus didn’t do themselves or their customers any favors by dumping the f1.8 lens on the C-5060.
I chose this camera for the fast f1.8 lens and ease of use. I’m lazy at best and wanted a unit that’s going to do most of the work for me while leaving me with the option of doing what I want to do when I want to do it.
This unit has all the automatic features I’ll ever need but I also have the ability to set up the camera completely manually. I can still do minimum depth-of-field work among other things. I never want to completely lose control to a mindless computer although they do have their uses at times.
The first thing I did after I opened the box was print off the user manual - all 265 pages of it! I figured I had done my duty by it and promptly ignored it.
After very quickly killing my first two sets of “high-capacity” alkaline batteries, I sprung for a couple sets of Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) rechargeables. Not only did they last longer but it was a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing the alkalines every darn time I picked up the camera.
It boils me to have to admit this but I actually had to go back to the user manual. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted and there was also some ’stuff’ on the camera I had no clue about using. The moral of this story is that you’re gonna have to at least have a nodding acquaintance with your user manual. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.
Back to choosing a camera…
Throughout the years I’ve learned that if a camera ‘fit’ my hand it worked well for me. It may sound a little strange at first but just think about it. If you’re handling something that feels awkward, your results are going to look like it. I had a Mamiya RB-67 for a lot of years. It was a big, ungainly unit but it was a good ‘fit’ for me and produced a great image. I also used a Hasselblad for quite a while but I much preferred the Mamiya and it gave me better results than the Hasselblad. (Don’t tell Hasselblad lovers I said this, they’ll kill me!)
So, rule of thumb…if it fits your hand nicely, if the main controls are handy to your fingers, if it has the mega pixel number you want and falls within your budget, you can be pretty confident this will do the job you want it to do. Oh yes, if it’s a brand you’ve never heard of before, be very, very wary. It may work well and it may not. If it doesn’t, there may not be any tech backup for you to be able to access.
The major camera companies spend lots of money developing new photo technologies. Although the latest techno-widgets go by different names, they all have the same goal, to make your pictures look as good as possible.
Pretty well every company in the world that has even come close to producing a good digital camera has gotten into the “SLR Wars”.
Single lens reflex cameras dominated the photo market for years until digital technology hit the market. Because of design and price limitations, SLR technology has not been widely available in the non-professional digital cameras until the last year or so.
The furious pace of technological developments has completely overtaken the market and even professional photographers are being boggled trying to keep up.
Remember the old Nikon F2? It was the major link in the Nikon chain of professional cameras for over 10 years! This was pretty much the norm until the computer hit the photographic industry big time.
Changes used to come slowly and deliberately and it wasn’t hard to keep up with the latest and greatest when major new developments came along only two or three times in a decade. The battle now is to produce digital cameras that operate faster, can be sold cheaper and will produce a better picture. Severe competition even exists within the same corporate structure where teams of developers do their utmost to ‘outgun’ other camera designers who work in the same building as they do!
Nikon has a distinct advantage over many of the other manufacturers in that owners of some of the older series of Nikon lenses can use them with the new digital bodies, a tremendous dollar saving to the photographer.
Most of this rapid development is focused on the professional photographer. But, with technology changing as rapidly as it is, a camera technology that sells for several thousands of dollars today will undoubtedly become available to people like you and me in the next couple of years for a whole lot less money.
One of the hardest jobs a new camera buyer will have is determine which of the new techno-widgets does the best job and is the best value.
One thing to keep in mind about camera features?they all have the same job and that’s to help you take a better photo.
Picture this if you will. If you lined up 10 cameras from different manufacturers, each with similar basic features, took the same picture with each, I think even the camera manufacturers would have a tough time picking out which of the resulting photos came from their units.
Getting feedback from all kinds of users is one very excellent use of newsgroups. Serious photographers, amateur and professional both, love to talk about their latest ‘toys’. This is a good way to spend time and a good place to ask questions and (sometimes) get intelligent answers.
Don’t wait until you’ve made the investment to start doing your homework.
Another rule of thumb, if you’re happy with a particular brand name already, my suggestion is to stick with it. You’ll probably be more satisfied in the long run.
Now, having said all that, there are currently five search engine ‘favorite’ companies among the people looking for information on the Internet, Sony, Canon, Olympus, Kodak and Nikon in this order of popularity. Of this group, Sony is the only one with no prior experience in camera building before digital.
Understanding how to set your camera’s resolution is absolutely vital. There’s no shortcut and there’s no way around it. This is the core of taking a good, reproducible photograph. If, for instance, your camera is set for 240X360, you can forget making any kind of decent print above a ‘thumbnail’ size.
The low-end cameras are not a bargain if you’re looking for good photo reproduction. Labs are constantly arguing with customers who submit low resolution digital images from a cheap camera for printing and then aren’t happy with the results. They simply don’t understand why the pictures from their brand new digital camera are so lousy. Lenses and the type of digital image recording technology are also critical factors.
I won’t get into the technical details of why but I will suggest you consider spending in the $250 to $400 range if you want something that will satisfy you.
Let’s spend a few minutes on lenses. Pretty well all of the digital cameras these days have a form of zoom lens. Most of the higher-end cameras have the capability for the user to add either an external telephoto or wide-angle lens. Depending on the type of photography you want to do will determine whether or not this is of value to you.
One thing to watch out for. The higher end cameras have very good glass lenses. It’s part of what you’re paying for. The lower-end units have progressively less expensive lenses and consequently, a lower image definition.
There are both optical and digital zoom capabilities on digital cameras. The term “optical zoom” simply means you’re using the glass lenses to do the magnification. “Digital zoom” on the other hand simply increases the size of the pixels to make the image larger. For reasons of image clarity, the optical zoom is a far better way to go.
One last note - if you run across the “best deal in town” on a very low-priced name brand camera, check to make sure it isn’t badly out-dated. Buying well-priced clearance stock is okay if it isn’t too old. In this computer age, pretty well anything over a year old is considered ‘old technology’. As new technologies are developed the price keeps going down so you could actually be money ahead by investing in the ‘latest and greatest’.
Always keep in mind the old adage that ‘you usually get what you pay for.
If you go to a ‘box’ store looking for the best price, don’t expect service. The folks there simply don’t know what they’re selling. Their job is to move as much merchandise as they can as quickly as possible. It’s not to give you advice.
Go to the Internet to get the latest data directly from the manufacturers. It changes very, very quickly. When you do this, try to climb through all the sales hype to get to the ‘meat’ of what the cameras are all about. Newsgroups can also a very excellent source of advice for ‘newbies’.
Most people will be very happy to give you their personal opinion of what you should buy. Just remember, they won’t usually tell you what the downside to their purchase is. They don’t want to look less than ‘expert’ in your eyes. Do your own homework. This is an investment you probably won’t repeat for several years.
A specialty camera store on the other hand gives the buyer both service and product and usually very well. Keep in mind that the specialty store personnel are quite often very highly trained and will probably be well prepared to help you find the best equipment for you and will also give you a ‘leg-up’ in getting started using it.
We need to spend a couple of moments on storage media. Whatever size media card you stick in your camera will determine the number of pictures you can take and store. It’s like a roll of film, the bigger the roll the more pictures you can take. Digital images are no different. The greater the number of available megabytes (Mb), the higher the number of pictures you can take.
A word of caution - never, never, never leave your media card in a photo lab. The incidence of loss is high and most labs won’t replace lost cards. Quite frankly, I don’t blame them. Far, far too many false claims have been made and labs now refuse to take any responsibility for your memory cards.
That’s it for now. Keep your film dry your lenses clean!
Gordon
-
Canon EOS Rebel XTi (Magic Lantern Guide) (Magic Lantern Guide)
List Price: ?14.99
Amazon Price: ?8.99
Used Price: ?5.52
Nikon N75 35mm SLR Camera (Body Only)
The NIKON N75 is a lightweight AF SLR camera loaded with advanced features and innovations to make photography simple for beginners and experienced photographers alike. The N75 is an excellent choice for portraits, sports action, nature photography and many other applications. Exposure Bracketing and Exposure Compensation modes Built-in Speedlight and Advanced Flash System Diopter adjustment Up to 1.5 fps in Continuous mode Power - (2) 3V CR2 lithium batteries Size - 3.6H x 5.2W x 2.6D; weighs about 13.4 ounces
Used Price: $150.00
Customer Review: Value for money
Hello?!!! Why would anyone bother to buy a film camera, in these days of raging digital slr fever? In fact, why bother with an auto-focus film SLR at all, when you can buy manual focus Nikon SLRs and go fully retro if you’re really nostalgic for those “good-ole” noisy, fiddly, bulky SLR days? Let me tell you why. It makes sense. At least from a serious hobby photographer like myself. I have a digital slr and a couple of manual focus Nikon cameras. My dslr is my main camera. But I still love to shoot film. I still love to make a fuss just to create one picture, wait for it to be developed and printed. I like shopping for various film ISOs, load film, hear the whir of the film advance mechanism. I am one of those nuts who love to unroll a developed negative and still be fascinated with the organic, almost magical nature of it all! Now I choose the Nikon F75/N75 because I wanted the convenience of automation while still shooting film. F100s, even F80s are still very expensive for me, not to mention F5s and F6s. The other choices were N55, N60, N65 but going through their individual reviews, I know I wont be satisfied with them. I therefore got myself an N75 with databack and MB-18 battery grip. This is a fantastic combination! Reviews about it correctly state that this is a beginner’s camera with option for more advanced photographers. When you know nothing of photography principles but savvy enough to know that an SLR is superior to a point and shoot, this is for you. Once you gain some skills in photography, this camera will open up options that will test your knowledge. Here are the things I like about the N75: 1. CenterWeighted (CW) metering in Manual Mode. Some reviews mention this as a disadvantage, prefering CW metering as an option available in any mode. What is CW metering anyway? Does the intended target of this camera care? If you dont know what the heck it is, you’ll thank Nikon for putting CW in Manual Mode only! Because you will only use Manual mode anyway when you want to be creative about your exposure- overriding the meter, using off-camera flash, etc-which means you know your photography. In all other modes the camera uses the reliable Matrix meter. With a little insight you can even override that using the easy-to-use exposure compensation! 2. Spot meter available only in AutoExposure lock button and must be customized. Again, there are reviews that diss this method, preferring to have spotmeter freely available in all modes. Let me ask you. Do you know what is spot meter? Do you know how to use it? Do you know the zone system? If you don’t and chances are you are one of the intended target of this camera, you will also thank Nikon for putting spot meter this way. You cannot accidentally switch it. You must intentionally and deliberately customize it to use it which means you must know how to use it. If it were freely available in all options and you dont know what it does, you may very well be in for the shock of your life to see severely overblown and under-exposed photos come from your negatives when you shot using spot meter under very common lighting situations. And then you will blame Nikon for making such a crappy camera! 3. Film prewind. People have mixed reaction to this facility. It takes getting used to. Personally I like it. When you use the battery pack and grip MB-18 like I do, it only takes 10 seconds flat to prewind a 36 exposure film. That’s plenty fast enough for me. What’s more, if you accidentally opened the back midroll you would have saved your previous shots since they are already inside the film canister. 4. The camera has a dedicated optional MB-18 battery grip which has its own vertical shutter release and power on switch! I guess there will be no argument here. The convenience of using AA batteries over exhorbitantly priced, one-use lithiums is obvious. You will be pleased with the ease with which to take pictures when holding the camera vertically. 5. It has 12 custom functions. For that time when you know a bit more than a beginner and want a taste of a little adventure in your photography. Go to spot meter, CW meter, multiple exposures. Heck go and bracket your exposures! You already know these stuff, right? When you feel you need instant access to these advanced options then perhaps you can invest in more expensive cameras. 6. It comes with a model which have data back. Here is another much maligned facility. Some folks say those tiny date imprints are unprofessional and distract from the subject. I dont know about you. But I am not shooting for museum galleries or for national geographic magazine or any news agency. I am shooting pictures for much more special clients: my family and friends. I am really pleased to be able to imprint dates in pictures since for me they add points of interest when we later look at them in our favorite chair or pillow. 7. The sound of shutter release is subdued. Motor whir which advances film is also quiet. I just love it. Now some of the things I consider areas for improvement- bearing in mind this is just a beginner-to-serious amateur camera: 1. A brighter viewfinder screen. 2. Option to switch on grid lines (like that in the N80.) 3. Ability to meter with manual focus lenses. then again, what beginner has them? A little faster continuous mode would be really nice like 2-3 frames per second instead of 1.5 fps and a slightly stronger builtin flash would be good. Although this is a plastic camera, it is very well built and beautiful to look at. I heartilly recommend the N75/F75 to all amateurs and beginners who are on a tight budget for an AF film SLR yet want the option of more advanced features when knowledge grows. I also recommend getting the MB-18 battery grip. It is not much of an added weight or price. But the convenience and economy it provides is big. There is unique joy in shooting film that digital has not yet replaced and probably never will. The F75/N75 delivers the goods! If you are already adept in photography, have a formidable collection of manual focus lenses and wanted a film AF SLR, go for the F100 and higher. As for me, I am very happy with my N75.
Customer Review: nikon f75
i have had this camera for over 3 years and it ahsnt failed me once. It is light and easy to use, and its “–” speed feature allows me to shoot star trails-thing which I love to do.
JVC 30GB Hard Disk Camcorder 
Powerful 32x Optical Zoom 
It Is quite heavy for a little camera, Approx weight : 252g (without battery or memory card.) Features: 5.Megapixel 8 Megapixel (Ineterpolated) 2.5″ TFT screen 4 x Digital zoom MPEG Video Recording 32MB Built in memory PC camera or digital camera Voice message recorder Auto focus lens Compact flash memory comptibility Mass storage device Direct print USB Connection PictBridge compatible Rechargeable lithium-ion battery Contents Zennox DV10 Case USB cable Video cable Lithium-ion battery CD-ROM User manual
