3 posts tagged “cameras”
- "What do you shoot with?"
- "Are you Canon or Nikon?"
- "Have you tried the latest version of PS?"
- "What printer did you use to make these prints?"
- If you already have a camera that can make a good enough file stop reading magazines that are just trying to make you want to buy new equipment; instead visit a gallery or museum and get inspired. I have a decent camera but I refuse to buy into the idea that I need to buy something twice as expensive again to be taken seriously. There is no camera in the world that will make me a better photographer; I can only achieve that through applying myself to my work.
- Avoid conversations about gear; seak out conversations about art and artists.
- Spend as little time in PhotoShop as you can get away with. Avoid 'playing' with an image in PhotoShop. Instead look at the original file, previsualize what you would like the resulting file to look like, and work out the shortest route from one to the other.
- Stop studying lighting plans, HDR tutorials and ways to make your digital images look like they came out of a Lomo. Instead, study the history of photography, its movements, key players and iconic images.
- Don't be ashamed of shooting digital when everyone tells you that the 'real art' is made using film (or visa versa). It is a pissing match that has no point or end.
This week I stumbled across two amazing web apps that just might help me in my struggle to be free of virtual clutter and organizing some of my real-life treasures. The first is Library Thing. I'm probably the last person who collects books to have come across Library Thing. I used to carry my list of photo books around with me in a spreadsheet on my pda but I wasn't very good at keeping it up to date mainly because the resulting list was not very attractive or dynamic. Then I used a propriety piece of software but it was installed on one of my laptops and, of course, that machine was never the one I was using when I wanted to enter new books.
Library Thing allows me to reference and maintain my photo book collection data anywhere I have access to the net. Currently, I only entered about 50 of my books that I could remember off the top of my head but data entry could not have been easier; it connects to Amazon or the Library of Congress so searching to find your books is super easy. You can tag your books like Flickr objects and add your own data and reviews as well as reference material available on the web. A collection of under 200 books is free. Larger collections cost $10 a year or $25 for lifetime access. I'm going to try to find time to list more of my photo books this weekend. If it lives up to the promise and buzz it has, Library Thing will be well worth the $25.
Squirl is a similar kind of application to Library Thing except that it is for cataloging collections. Creating an account and a collection for my cameras was, again, super easy. I uploaded pictures of cameras directly from my flickr account and post details about a small part of my accidental camera collection. Again, collections under 200 items are free; more than that and you have to pay. As I don't own more than 200 cameras (yet) this restriction shouldn't be a problem. Squirl, like Library Thing, is in beta but it doesn't seem quite as robust as Library Thing yet (try searching in groups or deleting items in your catalog but not in a collection to see what I mean) but it does seem robust enough. There are also export tools for both applications if you're worried about backing up your hard-entered data or for moving it elsewhere in the future. Also, there is a social aspect to both applications although I'm not sure that is too appealing to me.
Time will tell if these applications remain useful to me after the novelty factor has worn off but so far, the indications are that these applications will be useful. Perhaps they might be useful for you too.
If you're known as the camera nerd among your circle of friends they might ask you what camera to buy next. Recently, a friend has being passing my name to his friends and students as a resource to answer this question for them too. It's kind of a tricky situation to be in; if I ignore these emails I start to get pinged to see if I've come up with an answer yet. I wonder if I could go into business as a personal camera shopper?
My latest inquiry was from someone wanting to "move up" from a Superzoom digicam to a DSLR without losing any reach and without spending more than a $1000. Here was my advice. If you think I missed anything please leave me a comment or email:
So it seems that you are looking for a Digital SLR (DSLR). It also seems that you are looking for a long lens as well as a more general lens. $1000 for these pieces of kit is doable but you may want to change one or more elements of your initial purchase at a later date (e.g. buy these lenses now, to be getting on with, then upgrade later.)
Choosing a DSLR has as much to do with deciding which brand and system you are going to buy into as much as a specific camera model. Over time I have spent much more on lenses and accessories than I have on any one camera. My personal preference is Canon lenses so I carry a Canon DSLR these days but that is a personal decision.
The brand leaders these days are Nikon and Canon, however, Pentax, Olympus and Sony all make interesting systems and are worth looking into.
Canon - more professionals use Canon than any other brand, however, the cameras and lenses you and I would purchase are a little removed from the professional line. The current entry level Canon is the new digital rebel 400D (aka XTi). It is 10 megapixels and can be bought for around $775. This is the camera I have now but the previous Rebel (the 350D or Xt) is very similar but only has 8 megapixels and can be found for much less (around $600). To be honest, the extra 2 megapixels makes very little difference in the resulting image quality - the reason I chose the 400D over the 350D is the dust reduction system, faster speed and larger buffer - all of which may not be important to you.
The one problem with the Canon Rebels is the kit lens that they come with (kit lens means a lens that is sold with the camera). It is usable but it is not a great lens. The first upgrade lens I bought for my Canon was the 28-105mm f3.5-5.6 USM which is much better lens than the kit lens for around $230. It doesn't have the wide angle of the kit lens so you would still might use the kit lens for wide landscapes and cramped interiors but it has much more reach and better build and optical quality. It makes a great walk about lens for travel, portraits, etc. It is not especially long though. Photographers usually think of long lens being at least 200mm and more usually 300mm.
The Rebels have a "crop factor". This means that their sensors are physically smaller than the equivalent old 35mm film (known as full-frame cameras). This is common to all the cameras I am going to mention. If you are used to 35mm camera focal lengths you have to use a multiplier to get the equivalent focal length on a crop factor (also known as APS sensor) DSLR. The crop factor for Rebels is 1.6x, therefore, a 300mm lens on a Rebel behaves like a 480mm lens. This kind of focal length is great for taking good shots of animals in zoos, aircraft, etc. You can buy a Canon 75-300mm zoom for $160 - it would get you started but it is not a great lens.
One of the problem with long lens is that they exaggerate camera shake which makes them difficult to handhold in anything but ideal lighting. A relatively recent technology that helps to counter this problem is stabalization (IS in Canon terminology, VR in Nikon). This is achieved mechanically by spinning one of the elements in the lens and the gyroscopic effect this creates buffers the shake. Unfortunately this technology cost a small premium e.g. the Canon 70-300mm IS zoom lens costs about $550.
On to Nikon. The entry level Nikons are the 6 megapixel D40 and D50 which can be had for about $550 next up is the D80 which costs over $1000. I'll be honest with you, the Nikons feel more robust in your hand than the entry Canons, however, I know less about their entry level lenses except that choices seem a little more limited than Canon e.g. Nikon have far less stabilized lenses than Canon.
The Olympus DSLRs are well built and very compact. The 2 disadvantages they have over Nikon and Canon, however, are that the image quality isn't quite as good as the sensor is smaller and the lenses are more expensive and hard to find. For these reasons I wouldn't have the Olympus in my short list. Worth looking at, however, are both the Pentax K100D ($590 and 6 megapixels) and the Sony Alpha A100 ($775 and 10 megapixels). What is interesting about both these cameras is that they have image stabilization built in which makes every lens you fit on them stabilized not just premium lenses offered by the manufacturer. They do this by mounting the sensor on a moving chassis in the camera body rather than by spinning any glass in the lens. I don't know much about the lenses offered for these cameras but I have played with both of these models in the store and they seem well built and fun to use; I prefer the Pentax but that's just because Sony is a new player in the DSLR field (they bought out Minolta last year).
So there you go. I like Canon but many people prefer Nikon. If you're looking for bang for your buck Pentax and Sony are well worth checking out. The final choice is obviously yours and I would recommend actually handling all these models in a store if you can because feel and opperation may play a large part in your decision. Your choice may also be affected by how far you envisage going in photography - as I said, you're buying into a brand and system just as much as buying a camera body. Canon and Nikon have more professional options up their lines if you plan on taking your photography further, while Pentax and Sony may be more economical to begin with.
