Warning: this post might be boring. It will not be snarky. It will not be quippy. It will probably be long. It focuses on a single topic interesting to a minority of humans. Flee, if you wish.
My camera broke some time ago. By “some time ago”, I actually mean something like a year ago. This was a real bummer, because I enjoy taking pictures. A lot. I’m not a professional photographer, and never will be, but photography makes me happy for reasons I’m not fully able to understand. The evidence is here.
When my camera broke, I was on the cusp of gainful employment, and in no position to buy a replacement. However, I’ve been carefully considering the idea for some time, and am finally checking out my options.
Considerations:
- Point and shoot vs. DSLR. My previous model was a point and shoot. It served me very well, and I had no complaints save for one really, really annoying one: shutter speed. It sucks to be taking a photo of something happening temporarily and thinking “take the picture! take the picture! take it nownownownow!!!!!” A DSLR wouldn’t have this problem, and would also have more versatility and the capacity to take higher quality photos. Verdict: I’m going for the upgrade. DSLR it is.
- Brand. Nikon? Canon? Do any other reputable DSLR brands exist? If so, no one I know owns one. I’m pretty comfortable shooting on a Nikon, so I’m leaning in that direction. In fact, my friend Brooke of the Lovely Photos was kind enough to take me on a test run with her Nikon D40 the other day. I was very happy with its performance, as well as the results. For an example, see above.
- Gear. Lenses, lenses, lenses. This is largely where you get the versatility. However, look at this. It’s a pretty picture, but ack! What to buy? What to buy? Also, I think I could offer to trade my firstborn child for some of these lenses, and they’d still want a genetic screening to see if the trade was worthwhile.
- Strategy. Brooke sagely advised me to consider just buying the camera body along with the lens of my choice, unless I’m sure I’d be happy with the basic one that usually comes with it. Yes, this is smart, but it adds another layer of confusion. Would I be happy with the standard lens? If so, that would be fortuitously cheaper. If I evaluate the question and honestly decide “no”, then which of that mountain of options do I want?
As you can see, I have an exciting purchase to make. However, I’m also vastly confused. I’m usually an impulse buyer. When shopping, I enter a store, scan the entire place in 5-10 minutes, and know whether I want anything. Having to consider a bunch of important factors is making me edgy. Someone tell me what to do. Exactly what to do. Please?
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Janna (canadian version) said,
September 23, 2008 @ 7:05 am
You are making the right move going for the DSLR as opposed to the point and shoot. You’ll never go back after :) As for your friends suggestion, buy the body with the lens of choice… I agree with that. I was looking at the D80 last year and the D70 before that and I was never impressed with the kit lens. When you try them in the store, kit lens vs. other lens of your choice – you will probably notice a sharpness difference. That said, the kit lens is not a bad lens – if you want to start with that package. You can upgrade your lenses as you go along and one day you’ll wonder how you collected so many :)
That said, the note that no one seems to have anything other than Canon or Nikon – seemingly true. However, I’ll just comment on some that I know my friends have. The Pentax is actually quite good value for the money. I’ve been impressed with some of the shots I’ve seen from it. The Sony – Hmm – people I know who have it – love it – but I haven’t been personally that impressed by it.
I’m totally hijacking your post – sorry – I didn’t mean to. But camera stuff — I’m a geek and have to comment! I look forward to seeing what you choose!
janna said,
September 23, 2008 @ 10:10 am
You can always count on a fellow JannaBanana for sound advice ;)
I will keep you posted with the final decision. I’m curious about the D60 as well, which I’ve never seen in person. It’s supposedly lighter, which would be a nice bonus.
Time to head to the camera store, and to try hard to not impulse buy! I need an anti-impulse person there with me, perhaps.
Bruce MacQueen said,
September 24, 2008 @ 2:02 am
http://kenrockwell.com/
Hi Janna,
The website above will answer most of your questions. I use Nikon myself and would highly recommend Nikon. The new Nikon D90 also comes with video. I would suggest staying away from the D40 and D60 because your lens choices would be diminished. I had a D200 which was a lot of camera but will worth the price. Read through Rockwells site, he is very good.
Bruce said,
September 24, 2008 @ 10:57 am
Hey:
Kate saw your post and she thought I could make a recommendation. While I can’t recommend a specific camera, because all is relative and one person’s Kodak box camera photo is another’s Ansel Adams masterpiece, I can recommend shopping advise.
My current camera is a Canon PowerShot A610. I got the thing three years ago and it still works great. What led me to this camera was that I was reading someone’s blog site and saw some photos they had posted. I liked the quality of the shots. I then found out that it was a PowerShot A95. So I looked at the reviews at amazon.com and saw that not only did people love their A95, the PowerShot A610 and A620 were the successors to the A95.
So I then googled for reviews on the A610. You’d be amazed by the level of detailed reviews some photography sites go into. They will do all kinds of test photos and post them full size on the internet. They will go into all kinds of crazy details like the appearance of purple fringing, etc.
To sum up, if you see a particular photo on the internet that you like (like on flickr), and it’s an untouched photo (not been worked on with Photoshop, or gone through an HDRI process), find out the model, read some reviews on amazon, and then go google for some dizzying reviews.
If there’s anything specific details to watch out for (outside of liking the quality of the photo), then I’d say look out for whether you want automatic, manual, or some weird combination of the two. My camera is both auto and manual so I can control manual focusing and exposure. Another thing is how good the picture quality is at low lighting, like taking a moody picture in a dark bar, without a flash. Really expensive cameras are great at it, others demand that your hold real still for a few moments during the shot.
Hope that helps.