PROFOTO FORUM

So you’ve decided that you need a dlsr, but which one is the right one for me? Well, only you can answer that question. I will help you try to find the answer since I cannot give you the answer. If a salesperson tries to sell you a camera before asking you questions like:

What is your skill level?
What type of photography or subject matter will you be shooting?
How large are you going to print or will you print?
How often will you shoot?
What is your budget?

These are questions that you have to answer for yourself honestly and realistically. First, I am assuming that you are a beginner if you are reading this post, but if you are a film person transitioning to digital you still may find this somewhat interesting. If not, then just jump to the product reviews. Now the hard part is determining what you will be shooting. What is it that you are interested in? Do you love going to sporting events? Do you enjoy nature? What are you passions that you can incorporate into your new photography passion? It can be any combination of the below:

Portraits
Action/Sports
Landscapes
Night/Low light
Macro/ Close-up

If you are interested in portrait photography, landscape or macro you may not need a camera that shots more than 3 frames per second–frames per second is simply the number of shots you can take continuously in one second. If you are interested in action/sports photography you will want a camera that can shoot 6 frames per second or more with a high burst number. This will help you capture more of the action. A high burst number is the amount of shots you can take continuously until your run out of memory buffer and the camera has to stop to write to the memory card.

If you are into night photography you will want a camera with less noise at higher ISO sensitivity and extended ISO range. ISO sensitivity expresses the speed of photographic negative materials (formerly expressed as ASA). Since digital cameras do not use film but use image sensors instead, the ISO equivalent is usually given. Noise is the digital equivalent of film grain. It can even look like grain, though more often it looks more like ugly speckles or color artifacts. It results from a variety of sources, including sampling errors in pixels, temperature-induced “dark current” in sensor elements, and signal amplification circuits.  A slower ISO will give you less noise and a faster or higher ISO will have much more noise.

Now ask yourself how much do you want to spend? Take into consideration that when purchasing a dslr camera that they do not always include a lens. This is to give you the option of selecting the lens that is proper for whatever application you need it for. However, most cameras have a “kit lens” available as a bundle with the camera body. It is not a bad option for those who want to save a little money and are not sure what they will be shooting. These kit lenses vary tremendously. You can find just about any combination zoom ranges. Figure out your total budget and save 20-25% for accessories that you will need and accessories to take care of your camera. You will need at least one memory card, you will want a UV filter to protect your lens/glass, lens cloth to clean your lens (do not use anything but a lens cloth to clean the smudges off your lens or filter–today’s coatings on lenses and filters are very easily scratched if mishandled), maybe a camera bag to store your new camera, tripod, flash, etc. Now, what is left is what you have to spend on your camera and lens package.

Megapixels is perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts in the digital format for many beginners because they are used to market new cameras. Yes having more megapixels is a good thing, but you must take sensor size into consideration when you think about megapixels. You can get a better image with less megapixels with a larger sensor than you can with a smaller sensor with more megapixels.

I won’t get into technical details on why the larger the sensor the better, but with all things being equal [megapixels] a larger sensor size will have less noise and a greater dynamic range.  The illustration above shows the most common sensor sizes.  The full-frame sensor  is equal to that of a traditional 35mm film camera (e.g. Canon 5d mkII, Canon 1dx, Nikon D700, Nikon D3, etc.)  You will only see full-frame sensors on professional cameras and generally cost prohibitive for most beginners.  APS-C/DX is the most common size for dslr cameras because they usually cost less which means they are much more affordable for beginners.  With an APS-C sensor size camera there is a crop factor when using regular lenses, in other words, non DX or EF-S lens.  So, if you have a zoom lens that is 28mm-135mm on a full frame it will be 45mm-216mm on a DX/APS-C sensor.  Now the final word on megapixels (for now)…  If you’re not printing larger than 16×20 inches then anything with 8 megapixels or will work for you on a dslr camera.

Now that you have a bit of a grasp on megapixels, sensor size, fps, ISO, etc.  There is only one more subject I would like to address that will affect your final choice, lenses.  No matter what camera body you decide on invest in your lens.  The quality of glass in your lens will make the biggest difference in the overall quality of the image.  You will change your camera body and they get cheaper and better with each generation.  You can never keep up with the evolving technology.  It is too cost prohibitive, but your lens will hardly depreciate and in fact the lenses will only get more expensive.  When you buy a camera generally you buy into a system.  After awhile you will have a few lenses for different purposes and you are locked into that brand.  If you buy Canon lenses they only fit Canon cameras and Nikon with Nikon.  But, generally once you buy a specific brand you have a tendency to be loyal, sometimes not by choice, but because you have all the glass and don’t want to go through the hassle of selling them and buying all new glass.  I recommend buying non-DX/ non-APS-C lenses if you are eventually going to go full frame in the future.  If you are going to stay with the DX/APS-C cameras then buy the lenses that are made for them.  You won’t have to do math to figure out the focal length and you will save a lot of money since the glass is smaller and it cost less to produced.

So, after reading this post you’re probably ready to start making a decision on which specific camera you need.  Take a look at the specs on any camera that you’re interested.  Make sure it meets your criteria for what you are shooting and buy the possible set-up (spending at least fifty percent on your lens).  Now you’re probably either confused more or wanting to do some more research on specific brands and models.  In the next post I will do a comparison between the two major brands (Canon and Nikon) and their best selling cameras and their newest.  It’s a highly competitive dslr market and the winner is you the consumer.  I will have more in-depth reviews on the individual cameras at a later date.

I hope you have found this post informative and helpful.  If you have any comments to make it clearer or if I have skipped anything please leave a comment and I will try to address it.  Thank you and happy shooting.