How to Choose the Best Camera?

With so many camera models to choose from, at a bewildering range of prices, where do you start? Well, the way I choose any new toy these days is to start at the end. What do you want it to do? Err . . . take pictures. Yes but what kind of pictures and what are you going to do with them? The other burning question is how much are you prepared to learn? And, of course, how much are you prepared to pay?

As you are reading this and have actually made it to paragraph two, I think we can assume that you are prepared to learn at least a little. So what do you want to do? Do you want something that you can keep in your pocket at all times so you can snap the kids? Do you want a camera that will allow you to take pictures in any lighting conditions from any distance (with the right gadget screwed on the front of course)? Is this going to be a hobby or just some quick snaps?

So to avoid ur best choice turning worst later, click on the following :-

The Learning Curve

SLR or Compact?

Which brand?

How Many Pixels?

The Learning Curve

I haven't seen any cameras on sale in recent years that do not have a fully automatic 'point and shoot' mode, most will automatically switch on the flash for you when it is needed so you may wonder why we need all the other manual and semi automatic modes and an instruction book to make your head spin.

The answer is that, although the camera can produce good exposures most of the time, there are times when, to get the results we want, we have to apply a little know-how and select more appropriate settings than the camera would automatically choose.

Before choosing a camera with lots of knobs and dials it is a good idea to consider whether you are ever going to bother to learn what they are all for. I've been around cameras for many years now, and I'm still learning what all the settings on my latest camera actually do. I never bother to learn how to do something until I need to. So there are certain obscure settings that I have yet to find a use for. Of course it would be nice if we could choose just the buttons we need and have each camera custom made for us but in the real world all we can do is choose the level of control based on how much we think we might want to get involved. Generally speaking an SLR will have more knobs, dials and menus than a compact camera which will give you more control over your pictures but will have a much steeper learning curve.

Which brand?

This, of course, is the big question that you really want an answer to and you know that nobody is going to give you one. If you ask anyone who already has a camera most will support the brand of the camera they have unless they have had some trouble with it, even then people are very forgiving. I think the reason for this is that people think that, if they have made the wrong choice it is because they have somehow failed, and they are not going to admit their failure.

Back in the 1980s I had a camera shop in England and at the time a lot of people, who already owned an SLR, were buying compact cameras 'for the wife'. They would ask me which brand was the best and, if I didn't already know, I would discreetly try to find out which brand of SLR they owned, then I would recommend the same brand of compact camera.

Trying to sell them another brand was like telling them they had made a wrong choice when buying their old camera and was likely to lose me a sale. So I'd better have a really good reason for not recommending the Canon, Olympus, Nikon, Pentax or whatever and I didn't have one. All of the well known brands produce similar cameras at similar prices and, by and large, you get what you pay for.

I will stick my neck out a little bit here and say that in my humble opinion the manufacturers who make the best film cameras the Japanese Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Minolta and the German Contax and Leica seem to make the best digital cameras.

I would not be too happy to put my trust in brands whose traditional expertise is in other fields when there are such good cameras available from the traditional sources. I will probably get a lot of hate mail from people who have bought Sony cameras or Hewlett Packard and are perfectly happy with them.

If I wanted a printer Hewlett Packard would be top of my list and I am a huge fan of Sony video and TV equipment but my first choice for a digital SLR would be one of the names mentioned above.

How Many Pixels?

Until recently the quality of digital cameras was measured by how many pixels they boasted. Now we have cameras that can produce tens of millions and it has ceased to be the only test of quality. In the real world the number of pixels you need depends on how big you want to print your pictures. If you mainly want postcard size or A5 then I would consider 6 million pixels to be perfectly adequate. Even at A4 size I would be hard pushed to tell the difference between my 6.5 million pixel camera and my 10 million pixel camera. Don't forget though that your cropping in the camera may not always be perfect so you may be enlarging only a portion of the image and so only using a portion of the available pixels.

Although an adequate number of pixels is important, the quality of your picture will be greatly affected by the quality of the lens. When Canon updated the EOS 350D (digital rebel) with 8 million pixels to the EOS 400D with 10 million pixels, the general consensus amongst reviewers seemed to be that the money you needed to spend on an upgrade would be better spent on a better quality lens. So the answer to the pixel question is that we seem to have now reached a point where enough is enough.

There is also a school of thought that we have reached the limit of the number of photo sensors that we can fit on a chip and that a greater number will cause the indivdual cells to be too small compared to the space in between them. Usually though, when someone says something like that, the following week the boffins announce a breakthrough which makes it all nonsense.
You may have seen adverts for cameras, costing many thousands, that have 16 or 20 million pixels. These have sensors that are twice the size of those in the consumer cameras, hence the price. To me, the resolution of a 8 or 10 million pixel camera with a decent lens seems good enough for most purposes and on a par with the quality I used to get from a 35mm film camera.
In the past I have spent a lot of time and money in the pursuit of ultimate quality, I have owned a 5x4inch plate camera, a Hassleblad and two Mamiya medium format cameras, every major brand of 35mm camera and in the end, I would be hard pushed to tell you which photo on the wall was taken with which camera. A fellow photographer once observed that photographers tend to smell pictures rather than look at them, by which he meant that they were more interested in the graininess and sharpness of the image than the actual content of the image itself.

Photography

Photography is the process of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a film or electronic sensor. Lightsilver halide based chemical or electronic medium during a timed exposure, usually through a photographic lens in a device known as a camera that also stores the resulting information chemically or electronically. Photography has many uses for both business and pleasure. It is often the basis of advertising and in fashion print. Photography can also be viewed as a commercial and artistic endeavor.







The word "photography" comes from the French photographie which is based on the Greek wordsphos ("light"), and γραφίς graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφή graphê ("representation by means of lines" or "drawing"), together meaning "drawing with light." Traditionally, the product of photography has been called a photograph, commonly shortened to photo.

Uses of photography

Photography gained the interest of many scientists and artists from its inception. Scientists have used photography to record and study movements, such as Eadweard Muybridge's study of human and animal locomotion in 1887. Artists are equally interested by these aspects but also try to explore avenues other than the photo-mechanical representation of reality, such as the pictorialist movement. Military, police, and security forces use photography for surveillance, recognition and data storage. Photography is used to preserve memories of favorite times, to capture special moments, to tell stories, to send messages, and as a source of entertainment.

Commercial advertising relies heavily on photography and has contributed greatly to its development.


Photography, like other graphic testimonies, can be used for a variety of purposes. The following are some of the most common uses.

The photograph by VIVERO, C. 212, D. 4. shows how these small picture frames were used like the old cameos, carried regularly in a bag or on the clothes.

Photography Types:-

There's a wide world of different kinds of photography to be found on the Web. Photographic work can be divided into dozens of categories, many with lots of sub-categories. The following list describes some common types of photography.

Aerial		From a plane, helicopter, balloon or other airborne device.
Adventure, Action		Adventure sports, daring feats, etc.
Amateur		Any type of photography practiced by non-professionals.
Animal, Pet		Pets and their relationships with humans. Note that the human content is often as important as the animal.
Architecture, Real Estate		The art of making property appear attractive. Often involves panoramic photography.
Artistic		Photography in which creative composition is the goal.
Astrophotography		Space photography, through a telescope.
Aura		A controversial type of photography which some claim can photograph a person's aura.
Black & White		Not simply photography without colour, black and white photography explores shapes, tones and textures. Shadows and highlights become much more important.
Camera Phone		"Convenience" photography using a mobile phone's built-in camera. While not the best quality, camera phones have opened a new world of spontaneous, on-the-spot photo opportunities.
Commercial		Product shots, advertising, etc.
Digiscoping		Photography through a telescope or binoculars.
Documentary		Journalism, Events, Historical, Political, etc.
Event		Concerts, Parties, Festivals, etc.
Forensic		Police and legal photography.
Infrared		Photography in which the recording medium is sensitive to infrared light rather than the normal visible light spectrum.
Large Format		For use on posters, billboards, etc.
Kirlian		A type of contact print photography in which an object touching a photographic plate is connected to a high voltage source, creating an aura-like image. Often confused with aura photography.
Macro		The art of photographing very small and/or close-up objects.
Medical		Specialized photography for clinical purposes, i.e. to help reveal and diagnose illness.
Microscopic		Any technique for photographing objects too small to be visible to humans.
Modeling		Photographing objects to be converted into 3D models.
Nature		Landscapes, animals, plants, sea, etc.
Night		Any technique used to capture images at night. Often includes infrared photography.
Panoramic		Views of wide areas, up to complete 360° panoramas.
Paranormal		Ghosts, unexplained phenomena, etc.
People		Candid, Family, Fashion, Glamour, Passports & Visas, Portrait, Pregnancy, School, Sports, Wedding
Pinhole		Uses the most basic type of camera possible — a box with a tiny hole to let light in.
Scenic		Landscape, Cityscape
Satellite		Views of Earth from orbit.
Scientific		Any specialized photography used for scientific endeavour, e.g. electron microscopy photographs, medical photography, astrophotography, etc.
Sports		The specialized art of shooting people engaged in sports, games and adventure activities.
Stereoscopic (3-D)		Involves taking two photos simultaneously to simulate 3-D vision.
Stock		Photographs taken for distribution to other people, for use in their projects. These photos tend to be quite generic, e.g. people working, landscapes, places, etc.
Travel		Photography to showcase locations, illustrate travel literature, etc.
Ultraviolet		Photography in which the recording medium is sensitive to ultraviolet light rather than the normal visible light spectrum.
Underwater		Any type of photography taken under water with a water-tight camera housing.
Urban, Industrial		Emphasizing urban environments.
Time-lapse		Photographs with a very long exposure, used to illustrate something happening over time. A popular example is a street at night with car lights blurred into long lines.

Fine art photography

Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography. Photojournalism is to promote an editorial point of view. Commecial photography's main focus being to sell a product or service.

'The final creative reason for a fine art photograph is the photograph itself. It is not a means to another end except perhaps to please those besides the photographer who beholds it.'

Fine art photography can be used to promote something. They are created most importantly to be true to the artist’s vision of beauty. We can see this by looking at Ansel Adams' work of Yosemite and Yellowstone. He is one of the least disputed fine art photographers of the 20th century. These images were done while he was trying to raise public awareness of these two locations and to have them protected. They were not created in order to raise awareness of anything. They were done simply to be true to the vision of the artist.

Fashion photography

Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashionmagazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Allure. Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by exotic locations and story lines.It is also a form of advertisements for fashion related publcations and events.

Portrait photography

Portrait photography is the art of visually presenting a person or persons in an appealing and presentable manner.

Portrait as a very long history and has been around since the invention of photography..

This category differs from studio photography or photojournalism, which may include people, because its sole purpose is to capture the likeness of a person or a small group of people, typically in a flattering manner. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of photograph is the person's face, although the entire body and the background may be included. Many people enjoy having professionally made family portraits to hang in their homes, or special portraits to commemorate certain events, such as graduations or weddings.

Architectural Photography

Architectural Photography captures the elements and exteriors of buildings and other architectural installations.

Traditionally, professional architecture photographers prefer to use medium or large-format cameras to create their works. This often results in high quality output, which a 35mm camera cannot match.

Cityscape Photography

As the name imply, Cityscape Photography captures the elements of urban dwelling and city environment.

Traditionally, if the shot is taken in the day and under bright sunlight condition, cityscape parameters prefers fast shutter speed and relatively high F-stop value. This results in longer depth of fields or sharper details throughout.

On the other hand, cityscapes taken in the night are usually long exposure shots taken with the help of a tripod for stability.

Nature photography

Photography taken with the emphasis on nature, wildlife, flora and fauna.

Nature Photography is the genre of photography pertaining to the capturing of natural and wildlife scenes.

Advertising Photography

Photos generally done by advertising and design agencies or in-house design team that illustrate a service or product.




Advertising photography is only one of the many disciplines of professional photography. In major markets, New York, Chicago, Los Angles, San Francisco etc., the advertising photographer is truly a specialist. In small markets this type of photography is done by what is called ‘commercial’ photographers who do other types of assignments as well. Most of the photographers who are receiving those profitable advertising assignments have developed a reputation as a creative photographer over long years of training and experience. Advertising photography is not a discipline for the novice.

Aerial Photography

Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or triggered automatically. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, balloons, blimps and dirigibles, rockets, kites, poles and parachutes.

Landscape Photography

Photographic interpretations of the land and its beauty.

Landscape Photography is the genre of photography pertaining to the capturing of sceneries. More often than not , people and animals are seldom shown in a landscape photo. If they do, they are relatively small in terms of scale on the photo.

There are three styles of landscape photography, namely representational, impressionistic and abstract.

Underwater photography

Photographs taken while underwater. It is usually done while scuba diving, snorkeling or swimming. Needs special equipment.

Underwater photography is often a very challenging form of photography which demands a lot from the photographer. It requires highly specialized equipment and techniques and therefore is not within the reach of most photographers

To take underwater scenes, one either gets a amphibious/waterproof camera or enclose the conventional digital or traditional camera into a watertight underwater housing.

Macro photography

Photography where the image is taken close up.

Macro or close up photography usually has limited sharpness other than the main point of focus. That means the depth-of-field (DOF) will be very shallow. The surrounding will usually be very blurring or soft. However, we can take advantage of this to give the subject a stronger focus.

Macro photography often requires macro lens or lense with macro mode. Many macro lens are often optimised for best performance at a magnification scale of 1:1. Some lens can even have higher magnifications than at.

Food Photography

Taking of food in an attractive and appetizing manner.

Food photography is often a type of close up photography. It is usually taken in a appealing and aesthetic manner to entice and make the food like appetizing and delicious. It is thus often used in restuarant and recipe menus.

Just by looking at the photo above, makes me hungry : )

When taking Food Photography, it is advisable to use a tripod to minimize movement. Set parameters for shallow Depth of field will place more focus on the food, by blurring out the surrounding.

Night photography

Photographs taken outdoors between twilight and dusk.

Night photography is one area where you can forget about multi matrix, spot, honeycombs any other metering system!

Why? Because the only good light meter for night photography is your eye and experience. Because we are no longer dealing with daylight, a metered reading can only be used as a "starting point". There are a few factors in night photography that make camera meters unreliable.An important factor in night photography is how the lighting is portrayed in the scene. When portraying rows of street lighting for example, the direct light source itself is being photographed, therefore the lighting being exposed is very bright. An image of a floodlit building on the other hand is an image exposed by reflected

light. This naturally is much weaker and would need a much longer exposure.

In many cases the two examples would be portrayed in the same image, this would lead to extreme contrasts and very difficult exposure metering problems. In a case like this it is always best to expose for the reflected light and ignore any lighting that is portrayed in the image. Doing this will no doubt lead to overexposure of the light fixtures, but this can look quite acceptable in the image.