How to Buy a Digital Camera - Point and Shoot, Entry Level DSLR or Professional Medium Format Digital Camera Back
Cameras used to be long term investments before the digital age, now people change them as rapidly as they replace last year’s computer. New features, more mega pixels, better color, smaller size - there are many reasons to upgrade. Film is mostly used for fine art or disposable cameras now in the USA, most purchases today are digital. What kind of camera is right for you, and will help you take the pictures that meet your vision? We will discuss point and shoot, entry level DSLRs with interchangeable lenses, and professional cameras. At the end of this article are links to websites reviewing specific camera brands and models. My personal favorite brand of camera is Canon, followed by Nikon then Sony.
Point and Shoot
This is the type of camera that does most of the thinking and decision making for you. If you want your pictures taking to be easy, with little fuss, choose this type of camera. However, don’t be surprised if about 20% of your pictures look like crap. Some picture taking situations are complex and too difficult for the computer in the point and shoot camera to understand. So if you want your more difficult pictures to turn out well, you will need to read books or magazines about photography, or take a class, and learn how to use a DSLR (digital single lens reflex, one that has interchangeable lenses) camera that allows you to make more decisions.
Features to look for in a point and shoot camera include:
- Small enough to take with you
- Allows you to turn off automatic functions, and take some control. Specifically allows you to take camera off of program mode, and use shutter priority, aperture priority, and / or manual mode.
- High quality optics
- Wide optical zoom range
- Fast auto focus
- Allows you to use flash or turn it off at will, even outdoors
- Strong flash
- Red eye reduction
- Tripod mount
- Five or more mega pixels
- Rechargeable battery, long battery life
Many point and shoot cameras advertise wide zoom ranges, but in reality they are talking about “digital zoom”. This means that the camera just takes the center portion of the image and crops it to make it appear closer. Results? The resolution of your image will go down, and your picture will be less sharp and more noisy and grainy. Make sure when you read about the zoom range of a point and shoot camera that they are talking about optical zoom – the actual lens – and not digital zoom.
Higher end point and shoot cameras have several shooting modes, program mode, shutter priority, aperture priority, and / or manual mode. These modes allow you to make some or all of the decisions about your picture’s exposure, and using them will help you learn how cameras work. Buying a point and shoot camera that has various shooting modes is a good way to make the transition to a more professional SLR system.
You also want to be able to turn on or turn off your flash at will. Why? Let’s say you want to take a picture of fireworks over a lake at night, with your camera on a tripod. Your camera in program mode will check the light level, see that it is dark, and turn on the flash for the exposure. However, this will cause the area within 15 or 20 feet of the camera to be brightly lit, and the rest of the picture dark! With the flash on, the shutter will close before the fireworks finish their display. With the flash turned off and the camera in shutter priority or manual mode, you can set your camera on a tripod, leave the shutter open for 3-10 seconds, and capture the fireworks and their reflection in the lake.
Entry Level Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) Cameras
Entry level SLR cameras all have a smaller than “full frame” sensor. This means that the sensor that captures the image is not as large as a 35mm negative frame, so the picture is cropped. How much smaller the sensor is compared to full frame is called the “lens factor” and it is described as a number such as 1.5. It also means that wide angle lenses are not as wide as they would be on a full frame camera. For example, a 28 mm lens that would take in a wide angle view on a film camera or a full frame digital body would act like a slightly wider than normal lens on an entry level camera. Camera manufacturers have a solution available, making lenses that are “ultra wide” and only work with cameras with a lens factor. These might be 12mm or 14mm lenses that would show darkness around the edges of the picture with a full frame camera. Be careful how much money you invest in the ultra wide lenses, because if you upgrade to a full frame DSLR these lenses will not work.
Features to Look For In an Entry Level DSLR
- Lens or sensor stabilization or vibration reduction method available (reduces blur in hand held pictures)
- Largest, brightest LCD screen on the back of the camera
- Highest mega pixels you can afford
- Good sensor cleaning method
- Widest ISO range (the sensitivity of the sensor to light)
- Standard user modes program mode, shutter priority, aperture priority, and manual mode, as well as Bulb (aperture stays open as long as the shutter button is depressed)
- Timed shutter will stay open up to at least 30 seconds
- Fastest shutter speed of at least 1/2000 of a second
- Ability to shoot in RAW and JPEG capture or both at the same time
- Accurate light metering system
- Fast, wide area auto focus sensors
- Shoots at least 3 frames per second
- clear, bright viewfinder
- Rugged body
Fuzzy, blurred pictures are always a disappointment, unless that is what you are trying to get! These most often are the result of using hand held telephoto lenses at slow shutter speeds, or normal lenses in low light or close up situations. No matter how hard you try to remain motionless, your body is in constant motion from your breathing, heartbeat, the wind, etc. Canon makes optical image stabilizer lenses to reduce camera shake. Nikon calls their lenses vibration reduction or VR lenses. Other camera makers put shake reduction in the sensor or camera body. Make sure the camera system you are buying has a good method of reducing camera shake or vibration. Read the reviews in photography magazines or on the websites listed below, and find a camera system that meets your needs.
The LCD screen on the back of the camera is how you know that you “got it” before you move on to a new photographic situation. If you are outdoors in bright sunlight, a small, dim LCD won’t tell you anything. Get the brightest, largest LCD screen you can find.
Canon’s 1DS Mark III is now 22 mega pixels, the new standard in professional DSLRs. Entry level DSLRs have jumped in resolution, but mostly still range from 6 to 10 mega pixels. Resolution or mega pixels will determine how sharp your picture looks when enlarged. If you plan on making prints that are larger than 11” x 14, or you plan to shoot for publications that need images larger than one full 8 ½” by 11” page, you will need the highest mega pixel camera you can afford. If your pictures will only be for web viewing or 4” x 6” prints, any DSLR will do the job.
Every time you change lenses, there is an opportunity for dust to get on your camera sensor, causing spots to appear on your images. Changing lenses at the beach, outdoors with high winds, or in industrial settings will increase the risk of dirt and dust, and you may have to clean your sensor daily if you change lenses in these environments. Older DSLRs require that you clean the sensor by removing the lens, popping the mirror up, and blowing on the sensor with an air bulb. Every third or fourth time you need to clean the sensor with a special sensor cleaning liquid and flat swabs made for the purpose. Many newer camera bodies have sensors that are self-cleaning. Some camera bodies vibrate the sensor to remove dust. Make sure your camera body has a sensor cleaning method that you are comfortable with, and that will make your pictures clean and spot-free.
ISO is the measurement used to determine how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. It is the replacement term for film’s ASA rating. Usually this number ranges from 100 to 1600, with the lower number being less light sensitive. The higher ISO numbers should be used in low light situations, or with fast shutter speeds when shooting something moving at high speed, such as racing cars or humming bird wings. The higher the ISO number used, the more noisy or grainy looking your images will be, and the color will be flatter and less saturated. Some new entry level DSLRs have higher ISO numbers then 1600, such as 3200. Other camera makers brag that images from their cameras have good color and little noise at ISO settings of 400 or 800.
I once had to shoot Hewlett Packard’s annual stockholder’s meeting with no flash, because they felt that flash disturbs their stockholders. Although there were spotlights on the stage, I still was shooting at ISO ratings of 400, 800 and 1,600, depending on the lens I was using. I was shooting with a Canon 5D with a 70-200 f2.8 lens with the optical image stabilizer feature. At times I was shooting wide open at shutter speeds of 1/60 or 1/125 hand held, which would not have been possible without the optical image stabilizer in the lens and higher ISO settings. The images were sent world-wide while the meeting was still in session, and were published globally in newspapers, magazines and online. Thankfully the Canon 5D has very little noise at high ISO settings, and the pictures were not required for 2 page tabloid size magazine spreads!
Buying a Professional DSLR
The average DSLR camera body will only last a professional for 2-3 years, for the same reason that people upgrade computers every 2-3 years. The technology improves, the cameras have higher resolution, and the cost drops. The Canon 1DS 11 mega pixel camera that sold for $8,000 about three years ago was the best DSLR available. Now the new Canon 1DS Mark III sells for the same $8,000, but is 22 mega pixels, captures millions more colors because it is 14-bit instead of 12-bit, and has better auto focus and other features.
Although that is true, the technology for lenses does not change nearly as rapidly. Sure, there are developments in auto focus and things like optical image stabilizer features, but good glass is good glass. So make sure your investment in a camera brand is one that you can live with through most of your career. I was a Nikon man for the first 20 years of my film-based photography career, and of course when I bought my first digital camera I wanted to take advantage of my investment in Nikon Lenses. However, all of my camera gear was stolen just after the first Canon 1DS full frame camera came out. Nikon would not offer a full frame camera until several years later. After doing my research, I switched to Canon, as I knew that professionals would not be happy with their wide angle lenses having a 1.5 or 1.6 lens factor.
Features to look for in a Professional DSLR
- Everything listed above under “Features to Look For In an Entry Level DSLR”
- Wide range of lenses, with a full line of wide angles, macros, telephotos, super-telephotos, zooms and specialty lenses such as tilt lenses
- The best quality glass in the lenses
- Durability – you will drop it from time to time on the job
- If you shoot sports, action or fashion, you will need fast auto focus and a fast drive with a high number of frames per second available – 6 or 7 frames per second
- You will need to shoot RAW format, make sure that it can, and that you have the software that can read the RAW files. You may need to upgrade your version of PhotoShop
- Full frame sensors are best for many professional applications
- The most mega pixels you can afford. Do not consider anything less than 10 mega pixels if you plan to shoot for publications or need prints 16 x 20 or larger
- A number of on-camera flash options – including TTL options that can use more than one flash
- Rechargeable battery, long battery life
The Canon and Nikon camera lines were built with professionals in mind, and have cameras that will meet your needs. No other brands have the depth in lens selection that these two camera vendors do. If you are considering any other brand, look over the features list carefully and make sure you won’t be sorry five years from now.
Medium Format Digital Backs / Camera systems
The medium format camera brands are now down to just a handful. Back when film was king, every wedding and portrait photographer needed to have a medium format camera so that they could create and sell large prints with no film grain. Now that film grain is no longer an issue, this market has mostly switched to small DSLRs. Thus brands like Bronica, Contax, Pentax and Rolleiflex have ceased production most or all of their medium format lines in the last few years. Most of the medium format business is going to Hasselblad and Mamiya; any other players are producing cameras in very limited quantities.
Now that Canon has release the long awaited 1DS Mark III 22 mega pixel camera body, is there any need for medium format digital systems? For many fashion, sports and action photographers, the answer would be a resounding NO! The lighter weight, broader range of lenses, lower price and faster number of frames exposed per second makes the Mark III the perfect camera for these photographers if they have clients that want large files. However most, but not all medium format digital backs have 16-bit color, and the Canon 1DS Mark III is an improved 14-bit. Nearly all other DSLRs are 12-bit. This means that the medium format backs have millions more colors.
So what about medium format camera backs, such as Leaf, Phase One, Hasselblad and Sinar Bron? These digital backs can now produce files up to 39 mega pixels, but is a 16 mega pixel file from a Leaf or Phase One better than a 16 mega pixel file from a Canon 1 DS Mark II? The short answer is yes, the medium format backs will produce a better file for reproduction.
The first reason is dynamic range. The ability of a digital camera to capture a high contrast scene with very bright highlights and dark shadows is expressed in dynamic range f-stops. When presented with a high contrast scene, such as a dark skinned person against a white building, a camera with a lower dynamic range will either blow out the highlights or create noise and lack detail in the shadows. Most of the Nikons and Canons have a dynamic range of 6 f-stops, while the major producers of medium format digital backs have a dynamic range of 12 f-stops. While a good photographer works to reduce contrast in a scene by softening shadows with reflectors and fill flash, the camera with the wider dynamic range will still produce a better picture with more detail for reproduction.
The second reason is related to the first. Most DSLRs such as Canon or Nikon capture files in 8 or 12 bit format (8-bit for JPEG, 12-bit for RAW), but the medium format backs capture 16-bit files. This means that the 16-bit files will have over 65,536 color values per RGB channel instead of only 256, and that the 16-bit file gives us over 281 trillion possible colors. How will that help a graphic designer, seeing that printed CMYK files are 8-bit files, as are sRGB jpeg files for the web?
As a graphic designer edits an image file, data is lost. For example, as an image is brightened, you can see gaps in the Photoshop historigram. Photoshop works hard to fill in these gaps, but data is lost, and the image quality goes down. If a designer works with a 16-bit image, edits are much less damaging, as there is much more data to work with before there is a visible loss in image quality. When the file is converted to 8-bit for printing, it is a better quality file. See http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/8bit-versus-16bit-difference.html for more info on 16-bit files.
Should you get a medium format digital camera system? Most of the systems from Hasselblad, Leaf and Phase One will cost $24,000 to $45,000 with a camera body and several lenses. If your work is typical of many commercial photographers, you would use a DSLR 80% of the time, and a medium format system 20% of the time. Very high end advertising, car, food and fashion photographers might be the opposite. Any client requiring posters, billboards, signs, two page magazine spreads, wall murals, or other image reproduction larger than 20” x 24 will want a file from a medium format digital system. A typical lease on a system runs $500 to $900 per month, while a day’s rental on a medium format camera body, one lens and a digital back runs $350 to $500 in most major cities. So if you would use the system more than three times a month, it is probably a good investment.
Digital Camera Reviews
Reviews about specific brands and models of cameras can be found at:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.photographyreview.com/
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/
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