How to buy a camera
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
Everything you need to know about buying a camera
Vlad Savov has really done a great job of laying out the pieces of this puzzle you need to think about and in what order.
Ultimately, the number one lesson in photography is that there are always tradeoffs. If you want the best possible image quality, you’ll need specialized and bulky equipment. Should portability be your highest priority, you’ll simply have to accept that some photos and creative ideas will be beyond your reach.
In other words, there is no one camera that’s perfect. This is why I use three: iPhone 4S, Canon S100 (and S95) and Canon 5D (at some point upgraded to the next Canon 5X). Each has its place.
[via Kottke.org]
Hi Richard, Happy new year
I use a Fuji X100 as my portable camera and the 5D Mk II as my studio/work camera.
I think that the Fuji X100 has an incredible image quality, I mean even cleaner ISO than the first 5D.
I think the problem with most people when they want to buy a camera, at least those one want to be real photographers, is that they look for features without any idea of what kind of photography they like. I mean there’s a lot of people with the best tools money can buy but creating soulless photography.
The thing I discover about the X100 is that, because of it’s retro look, people don’t pay too much attention and the camera seems to disappear between you and your subject.
Cybergus: Your comment about the X100′s look allowing it to fall into the background is music to my ears. It’s always been my idea that once we’re comfortable with tools like these they need to fall into the background allowing us to put all of our energy into pointing them in the right direction to record something we find interesting.
The important thing is to find a tool or set of tools that one is comfortable with and allows one to take more pictures and share them in the form one likes. For my wife, the iPhone 4 is that tool. For someone else, a 1DX and a lens collection might be that tool (someone who wants to print large, for instance).
One thing’s for sure, I don’t go on hikes with my 5D, the little S100 (or a Fuji X100) is the right tool for that kind of photography because I’m not attempting to make fine art prints of those images and because weight and bulk is a factor.
I’ve never been bothered by people who buy high end tools before they fully understand how to use them or before they have a real need for them. Some of these folks grow into the tools by using them more because they like learning and messing around with the latest gadgets. I certainly have an element of that in my personality too.
Up on flickr there has always been this bias (seems like jealousy to me) against people who have an expensive cameras kit who don’t shoot in manual mode and take mediocre images. I’ve run into people in the field who have a Canon 5D who have rarely taken it off of Auto or P mode but they seem happy with their images and with the camera so who am I to bust their bubble? I do try to help them get more out of their camera (gently) if asked but if I’m not asked I smile and delight in the fact that the 5D has a nice big user base.
In the end, taking more pictures, for any reason, can lead to better pictures and happier photographers. There are many roads to more pictures…
Happy new year to you too, and I’m delighted to read your comment here this morning.
Hi Richard,
Don’t take me wrong, but I know people, among my friends that are not precisely living “the process to find their niche” or discover their inner photographer. I’m talking more about lazy people who avoid theory and analysis in their exploration (I mean they are humans and humans can do that). When I speak with photography students, some of them too young, I feel admiration because they have no money or very limited tools but they are always willing to really really learn. They go to museums and galleries, they study a lot image theory. They have goals and dreams to move on in photography.
I feel identified with people who have clear of thinking and passion to develop their capacities, even if they are too young.
I don’t waste my time being jealous about others tools, I mean I don’t even have a flickr account anymore. I agree with you on that. What I really don’t like is laziness and how the technology industry is trying to sell you “an airplane to go to the supermarket” or an iPhoneography concept to be some kind of artist, mostly because I respect the work of serious artists and they work very hard to get there.
Finally, I think technology is blurring the line between those serious artists and early adopters of anything that can take pictures. At least for the average people that consumes photography.
Cybergus: what we agree on is the best way forward is to continue to do stuff: take pictures, print them, share them, take more pictures. If in the process one accumulates some nice tools, great. But, they’re not essential. What is essential is the doing.