Purchasing cameras and decision making
We have a lot of people ask advice on cameras and camera gear. Most people know us as avid, passionate photographers, and there is a hope that some degree of decision making and technological thought has gone into our choices. We can live in hope... A friend recently asked me what system to get - Canon or Nikon and I had to reply.
Nikon
I am a Nikon fan, and have been for about er, well a lot of years now. I think the buttons are where they are meant to be, they all work the way they are designed to, and with some skill can be operated on a very professional level. Even the 'prosumer' type cameras can fool some people. All Nikon lenses fit all Nikon cameras ever made, which put me off canon early on (rightly or wrongly, I'll explain in a bit). I simply couldn't imagine forking out the extra cash each time I bought a camera to get new lenses. I am cheap that way.
Lenses > all
One thing we were taught in photo school is that a camera is a box with a lens in front of it. You have have the latest camera that can make coffee and see through skirts while recording your gps location digitally, your images are going to look rotten with a plastic lens in front of it. Likewise if you have a 1400 quid pro lens, and put a plastic filter on it, save yourself some money and trade it for a 100 quid cheapo.
Megapixels
If you are planning to print A3's and have a trained eye, you'll be able to tell the difference between 6 and 10 mp, if comparing like with like. If not you don't need the 'my-MP-is-bigger-than-yours' debate. Photographing parties to load into facebook for your friends all over the world to see doesn't require it. Even printing a nice A4 only takes about a 6-8 mb jpeg file. My own camera takes 75mb raw files and 12mb jpegs compressed (32 MB uncompressed) which I can honestly say I have never used to the full rez. I have taken the big jpegs and given them to clients (who paid for them) as they wanted to make brochures, but most of the time its overkill. It's a trick of the manufacturers and marketing to think you are actually getting more and therefore have to pay more. I love seeing people bragging about their 12MP snappy cameras and how they love the pics they have of their babies and when they pull out a stack of 5x7's....it's like all the flashes going off in the opening of the Olympics in the stadium - all the battery companies are laughing to the bank as there isn't a flash that is not dangerous to humans that could possibly light that place up enough for you to get your shot. Most of the time you are going to get the back of the person's head in front of you, or the first 4 if its a strong flash and you dump the batteries. The lighting comes from the floodlights, not the flash. Most of the time the 12MP camera you bought will have the card dropped off at the local chemist and printed 5x7, if that. It's like buying a flash Audi to go to the school run a mile away; you look cool, but are you getting the full potential of your purchase?
CCD
The digital camera's film is now the sensor, the better and more sensitive the sensor the better the subtlety and range of shooting you can do. Most newer cameras can do pretty amazing stuff, and the better cameras do a whole hell of a lot better than any film camera I ever used over the last 16 years professionally. Look for CCD sensor reviews and comparisons and without going into all the math and EV values and ranges of wavelength etc, look for ratings from a lot of people. I have tested a few and the Nikon's are good, Fuji makes excellent ones and canon sensors are impeccable. My camera sensor is about 2 years old and it goes from 100 - 1600 ISO, which is good. I have never turned the flash on to shoot with and it takes from internal dingy pubs with available tungsten light, to outdoors in the glaciers at high altitudes with blinding sun. Some of the more modern ones are amazing, with ISO's going up to 16,000. I can't really get my head around that, and am pretty sure I am not going to be going somewhere that dark without a flash (and probably a weapon of some sort).
Canon
Canon's do rock. If you have used them a lot in digital format and know where the buttons all go and do and have the cash to drop on lenses, they have some amazing kits. The auto focus is 100 times better than most anything, due to them mainly being sports gear and the refinement canon has spent on the lens mechanisms over the years. The sensors are very good and a lot of the very top pros use them religiously. I am not totally against them, just never felt comfortable dropping 5-6k on a camera I mightn't like to use that much, or need to take a course in. I would easily drop the 4k on the new Nikon body in a heartbeat if my wife wouldn't divorce me. Enough ranting, this guy does great reviews: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikkor.htm
Advice
Always watch out for the lenses, and forget all the extras they throw in. Camera body and lens are most important and not in that order. I have a body that was 1400 wholesale, but I have about 4200 in my two main lenses. Look for a low f stop and if it is a zoom a low f-stop range (expensive), or no range at all (big expensive). Cheap lenses mean you wont be able to shot zoomed in on a friend in the pub or at twilight and get the shot. The lovely 18-55 that is a f4 is actually a f8 at 55, which is 400% less light getting to the sensor. What I would do: Buy a good body off someone with a good rating on e-bay. You can get some screaming deals for cameras that are a year old and haven't been used. (dealers who bought too much stock). Go and hold the cameras before you buy them online and ignore the sales guy. The heavier the camera the better in general. More durable and better built. Same for lenses, more glass == better made. Plastic in cameras sucks. Don't go for too big a range in zoom and go for the lowest f-stop range your money can buy. Don't buy anything other than the camera manufacturer's brand. Nikon for Nikon, Canon for Canon etc . Some of the other lenses are good like sigmas, but you can get caught out. I hope this helps you and anyone else interested. ** ps ** I carry a fine pix f800 snappy in my bag for backup. Cost about $200 at the time and it is 6 MP and the sensor rocks. It fits in your hand and I have shot with it on a shoot in Vietnam when my main camera ran out of batteries. It did the job. Don't think you have to spend a lot if you don't want to. The camera is only a tool, its the person behind it that is crucial to the images that come out.
