In this article, the travel-picture.ru team will tell you how to choose the right camera for a lover of photography: a mirror or an ordinary "soap box", what optics to choose for professional shooting for your "friend". Basically, we will focus on the question "How to choose a SLR camera", while not forgetting about other types of equipment.
How to choose the right camera in a store? Sooner or later, this question is asked by every tourist going on a trip. However, not everyone knows about the significant differences between different classes of technology and, having decided to purchase their first camera, they face difficulties in choosing. To make it easier for you to choose a regular or mirrored ‘friend’, we’ll tell you about the types of such equipment and what kind of customers they are best suited to.
How to choose the right compact camera?
A large number of people who purchase a digital camera are going to immortalize important moments of life with its help without claims to the excellent quality of photography. Therefore, ordinary digital compact cameras called “soap boxes” are very popular.
Despite the simple name, they have very decent characteristics and take pictures without any problems, worthy of taking a place in your photo album. A matrix of 10-20 megapixels, 3-4x optical zoom, video recording - typical characteristics of a modern soap dish are quite suitable for most people with this choice. In addition, the price of such cameras is not high; for a beginner photographer, this is the best choice.
A novice photographer armed with a compact camera does not have to dive into all the professional basics of photography. When choosing the automatic mode, the camera will do everything for you by itself - you just need to find the frame that interests you and press the button to take a picture. By the way, for the greatest convenience of beginners, there are scene programs - standard sets of settings for shooting popular scenes: landscape, portrait, sports mode, night mode, aperture priority, macro mode, video.
We will not dwell on this issue and this type of camera in more detail, the most important thing that you need to know is the set of functions that you need and the price for your pocket, and the quality of the pictures will be the same with any soapbox.
How to choose a DSLR camera?
How to choose a SLR photo equipment and what parameters to pay attention to, we will tell you in this chapter of our article, so that you make the best choice.
SLR cameras differ from “soap dishes” by design features. The technique acquired this name because the optical scheme of a DSLR camera has a main element - a mirror, with the help of which the light flux from the lens is directed into the viewfinder.
At the moment of shooting, the mirror rises completely, thereby opening the way for light through the fully opened shutter to the matrix - the light-sensitive element.
Advantages of DSLR technology over digital compacts: interchangeable optics, a large-size matrix, a large number of manual settings, instant shooting speed, photographing in RAW format (“raw format of photography” for processing photos on a computer), in general, all that a beginner photographer needs in artistic photography ... Such cameras allow you to take photos of excellent artistic quality even in unpredictable conditions (for example, shooting night landscapes), but for this you need at least a little understanding of the fine settings of SLR cameras.
In principle, semi-professional SLR cameras, like soap dishes, also have an automatic shooting mode, this will allow a beginner to get excellent photos (better than with a soap dish), but will not reveal all the secrets of a SLR camera.
A negative feature of "DSLRs" due to which their mass use is held back is the high price, large dimensions and "good" weight, a beginner has to deal with it for a long time. But if you bought it, then it will be the best choice among all kinds of cameras.
Now let's take a look at the main criteria when choosing a DSLR:
Number of points on the matrix
The more dots on the matrix, the more you can print a photo. For example, if you bought a camera with 20 mega pixels, you can print a photo with a good quality 3 x 6 meter banner. And if you decide to print a 10x15 image, then a camera with only 2 mega pixels will suit you; snapshot 13x18 centimeters - 3.5 mega pixels.
It is worth knowing that the quality of the photo does not depend on the number of mega pixels in the camera! Remember this once and for all and do not listen to nonsense from sellers in your address when choosing a camera in a store, they have completely different goals - quickly sell stale goods, all the information you need is described here!
Which is the best kit, body or kit?
How to choose the right camera and not give extra money? You can save on the choice of accessories. Body is a reflex camera without a lens (body), this choice for a professional who already knows what he needs from such a technique. Kit is a DSLR camera with a standard universal lens, as a rule, not the best image quality, but such lenses for the minimum money solve many problems for beginners.
The travel-picture.ru team advises not to rack your brains when choosing a camera, if you are going to shoot ordinary tourist landscapes or family holidays, then KIT is for you. If you want to do artistic photography, then you definitely need to approach the choice of a lens with all responsibility. But we already talked about which lens to choose is better in the previous article of our heading “all about travel photography”. Looking ahead, let's say one thing that good optics are much more expensive than a camera and the development of the world of electronics does not affect the quality of shooting in any way, no matter what the sellers tell you, everything is decided by optics!
Live View
This mode is specially designed for beginners. The photo can be taken by looking at your camera monitor in real time. In this mode, it will be much easier for a beginner to adjust such parameters of a future picture as ISO or exposure.
ISO
ISO is the unit of sensitivity for a photo under a given lighting condition. Let's explain with the example of a picture taken at night: in order to see what you are shooting, you need a high light sensitivity (iso) of about 6400 or more. But if you are shooting during the day in good sunlight, you should only set the iso setting to 100.
Manufacturers like to keep silent about what iso your camera supports, cheap cameras can support a minimum iso of 50-70, so when choosing a camera, make sure that the minimum iso is at least 100.
Focal length
The focal length of the lens depends on what you will be shooting the most. For example, a focal length of 8-20mm (fisheye) is very suitable for volumetric art photography. From 18-50mm for architectural photography. From 50-85mm for portraits. All focal lengths over 105mm or more are called landscape lengths and such lenses are called "telephoto" lenses. You need to decide what exactly you will shoot the most and from this already make a start in the store when choosing a lens.
Shooting speed and burst shooting
These parameters are essential for professional photography. With professional equipment, the shooting speed can reach 5-7 frames per second, this helps very well when shooting a moving object, such as lightning.Burst shooting is needed in order to capture any movement, for example, if you jump into a pool at the dacha, then the whole process can be captured using burst shooting on your camera.
Camera battery life
How to choose the right camera with a good battery? Here you should definitely look at the operating time with the display on, manufacturers like to write the battery life without load, but the display, lens focusing, flash and other parameters drain the charge very quickly. It is important to take into account all these parameters and not fall for the tricks of the manufacturer and the seller. For long journeys, we recommend that you buy a removable battery that will last for a long time.
Data transmission interface
It is important that when choosing a camera, there is the interface for transferring your photos that you most often use. Manufacturers most often complete their models with such interfaces as: Bluetooth, WI-FI, USB, HDMI, Memory cards of various types. We advise you to choose a camera in conjunction with a WI-FI interface, this type of interface is now very well developed, and in a cafe you can easily share your creations with your friends.
Ease of use
When choosing a camera, be sure to hold in your hands several models from different manufacturers. Not every model is suitable for nesting in your hand, for example, a model from the manufacturer Canon perfectly suited me, although the quality of the images is like Nikon, but the first one has a much clearer menu. See the accessibility of the camera buttons to your fingers, which should easily navigate in different situations when shooting. And also check the menu, everything should be clear and accessible to you.
Matrix check
Well, here's the main parameter that you definitely need to pay attention to - broken pixels. Broken pixels are a defect of the matrix and in the photograph they are visible as black or white dots at the same place in the photograph.
In order to determine everyday pixels, one should take a series of pictures to warm up the matrix and photograph a black and white background, then look at the obtained pictures on a computer.
There should be no white dots on a black background and vice versa with a white background. The stores have special computer programs for detecting matrix defects, the main thing is to mention to the seller about this point of our article.
Now let's talk about mirrorless cameras ...
Mirrorless cameras
Recently, a third - mirrorless cameras - has been added to the two main classes of cameras, DSLR and compact. These are large compacts with the ability to change lenses, some cameras have even a larger (like a DSLR) matrix. But, in fact, from the point of view of an experienced user, such a camera should not even be considered, this is another commercial move of manufacturers in order to increase sales of "soap boxes", which in their essence they are.
DSLR or compact?
Which camera to choose, SLR or compact? At the first stage, you need to decide on the fact from which type you would like to buy equipment. Both mirrors and compact (soap dishes) have their pros and cons, but you can identify a number of main questions, the answers to which will help you finally decide on the choice of your dream:
- How often will you take pictures?
- Do you want to be well versed in camera settings or shoot in normal standard modes?
- What is more important for you, the size of the camera or the quality of the pictures?
- How much money do you want to shell out?
If you do not take photos very often, do not like to struggle with camera settings, always shoot in standard auto-mode or use ready-made program scenes (portrait, landscape, night mode, etc.), then you should choose such a type as digital compacts. They are small in size, there are many ready-made shooting modes, the quality of their images is quite satisfactory, and they are much cheaper than SLR cameras. This will be the best choice for beginners in their field.
You can get better images with a DSLR, but here you need to understand that a camera is just a working photographic tool and requires some knowledge to use it.
If the camera for you is just photographing some important moments of your life and the size of the camera with the price is important for you, then opt for digital compacts. If you are attracted by photography and you want to achieve results in this direction, then your choice and the choice of the travel-picture.ru team is a reflex camera.
We hope that the issue has been resolved for you and that you have made the right choice towards the best moments in this life captured with a new camera. Be sure to share your impressions and advice in the comments, it will be important for beginners to know not only the point of view expressed in the article, but also your assessment.
