Buying the right camera
In a completely unrelated post, I received a rather lengthy comment today. I suspect the main purpose of the post was to get a link to his site, but of course, Photocritic uses REL=NOFOLLOW (read why) on all the user-contributed links, so the spamming activity went without any particular merit.
What was insteresting, however, was that this person actually raised an interesting issue and an fascinating question. He says that 75% of people buy the wrong camera for his photography courses…
I am a photography teacher.
I find that 75% of people buy the wrong camera. So just how do they end up in one of my classes with the wrong camera. The short answer is that they bought the most fashionable looking camera without really knowing what to look for in a digital camera.
The questions you should ask the sales person is: how long does the camera take to turn on? How long does the camera take to focus on the subject? And how long does it take to actually take the photo? Turning on the camera can take between 1-5 seconds, focus can take from 0-2 seconds and shutter lag can take up to 1 second.
Why is this important, well try taking a photo of a child blowing out the candles with a camera that takes 2 seconds to focus and 1 second to take the photo and all you will be left with is a child looking away and smouldering candles. This is where the new D70s rise above all the other cameras in its class with instant turn on focus and shutter release.
We highly recommend the D70 to someone who wants a camera to last him or her for many years without the frustration of a slow camera. We are so happy with our D70s we bought four more we highly recommend them to anyone who loves photography and does not want to have to upgrade when they learn more about photography!
Why 75%? Surely, everybody who buys an D-SLR has a camera good enough? Why are you talking about shutter lag and camera turn-on-lag? It’s a long time ago that this was a big issue for digital compact cameras. Sure, there are still crummy cameras out there, but the vast majority of digital compact cameras are not struggling with the problems mentioned here. Granted, most of them aren’t good for a photography course because you don’t have aperture and shutter speed settings, but still…
And finally - Why recommend the Nikon D70 specifically? Do you work for Nikon? I would argue that any digital SLR (even the ages-old Canon EOS 30D, if you can pick it up for cheap off eBay) is more than good enough to use for learning photography. Hell, according to Froogle, you can pick up a digital SLR for about $650 (£350, approx). Furthermore, there isn’t that much difference between the D-SLRs anymore. Of course, the better cameras have more features and are more sturdy, but image quality wise, a 8mpx camera is as good as most other 8mpx cameras - especially in the DSLR world, where you supply your own glass anyway.
So folks, ignore all previous advice, and buy any DSLR (preferably Canon or Nikon, I don’t quite trust the others yet) you want.
… And just because this guy with his spamming managed to raise an interesting issue, I’m going to thank him by linking to his website anyway. Although, strictly speaking, I probably wouldn’t bother with going to any of the courses. If his Photocritic commenting skillz are anything to go by…
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Categories: Buying Advice | Panorama
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This entry is © Haje Jan Kamps / Photocritic.org, and was posted on Saturday, May 13th, 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
#1 - May 15th, 2006 at 08:41
I definitely agree with you regarding dSLR’s. I haven’t seen an appreciable difference in lag speeds and bootup times with anything recent.
Vs. a compact digital camera though? I still haven’t seen one that will just plain take the picture without perceptible lag when you hit the shutter button. If you prefocus, that can help, but it’s still slow. Maybe more frustrating, the feedback on exactly when the picture was taken isn’t great which always leaves me wondering if I got it or not.
I’d love it if there were a fast (response time wise), durable, pocketable camera with a fast, fixed focal length lens (~40-50mm (35mm eqiv)). Haven’t run across one yet though.
#2 - May 15th, 2006 at 12:54
Agreed - I have an EOS 10D, and whilst start-up time is improved in newer models, focus time is down to the lenses, and shutter lag is almost non-existent.
#3 - May 16th, 2006 at 06:16
I have a Sony Cybershot P8, it’s a nice camera and with the underwater housing I can take photo’s while scuba diving and even VGA video (which is a great bonus). The only downside is it does have lag. It takes ages to focus and take the shot and for wildlife it usually uses the wrong shutter speed and gives me a blury photo as the subject moves. I’m currently saving up for a Canon 20D (or whatever is out by Christmas when I should have enough cash).
#4 - May 16th, 2006 at 13:49
Yeah I think these issues are only in the prosumer to fun time areas now, professional cameras seem to just be lovely.
Mine is a prosumer, its a Minolta DiMAGE Z2 (as I’ve probably said before :P) and its really nice, the focus time is average but prefocus is almost instant! Also manual mode is great too.
THe only sort of bugging thing is that even in its full manual mode it still as sort of a lag if not in a “prefocus state” I dunno what its doing, metering or something even though I directly control all the settings.
The image quality is good and I have taken spectacular pictures with it… I’d say its a good learning camera way above P&S, the higher models have image stablization mechanics.
I say all this, because I’m bored :P, actually because I took the time and went to many many review sites including stevesdigitalcams and dpreview and checked out what was what as well as taking the information from my previous P&S purchase and seriously sitting down and thinking out what I wanted.
Never buy something just for astetics or because its currently cheap. Although I lucked out by with a beauty of a sale, anything worth having is worth saving for.
#5 - May 16th, 2006 at 15:00
I’m pretty sure he was talking about digital point-n-shoot cameras, not dSLRs. I have a D70, and it works great, but my wife wants something smaller to carry in her pocket, yet still has a quick response. Finding a compact digital that fits that category is still rather difficult.
#6 - May 29th, 2006 at 22:53
As a serious amateur photographer who owns two digital SLRs, I spent a lot of time last year looking for a decent compact camera for a day-to-day, “carry-around” camera. After a lot of reading reviews and handling cameras in the store I settled on a Canon SD550 as the best compromise in the compact category. Once of the things I really liked was the fast processor that almost completely eliminated both start up and shutter lag. It also has a great lens, and a decent video mode that eliminates the need to carry a camcorder for events like birthdays and school plays. It seems to be pretty durable, and is small and light in your pocket. It also has a neck strap, and is light enough that this is a viable way of keeping the camera handy while walking.
#7 - June 8th, 2007 at 10:06
Thank you, this was incredibly helpful to read. Beginner here, but wanting a decent dSLR camera. I have a compact that i like using and does the job but after reading the article and comments, i’m pretty sure what i want now. =)