Lets talk about cameras...

Being an amateur photographer my friends always asking my about what camera should they buy. Well, to say the true I don’t know. I catch myself asking the same question, over and over, and I never could find an answer.  I’m always buying new cameras, regarding of it, selling, regarding of had sell, etc, etc…

But there are few universal true about cameras. And it is just what I would to talk a bit…

What makes a good camera?

The analogue world has died, long life to digital. So nowadays it is possible to say that a camera is a box with lens, sensor, electronic and battery. Lets go through these points: a good camera is made of a good lens, a good sensor, a good electronic and a good battery. As simple as it looks.

Explaining: Photography is the capture of light into a media to create an image of a reality. Light is physics. If you don’t understand physics you will never master photography. That don’t means you will never take good pictures, it only means that you need to put your money on chance and intuition.  A good photographer controls the light, understanding it. So lets analyse the four elements using this perspective.

Lenses:

Quality, quality, quality. Everything is about quality. If you don’t know how a lens is made just google it, you will find amazing videos from Zeiss, one of the best manufacture of lens in the world. Lens need to be “sharp” and “lighten”. Crazy? Not at all. First rule: How more expansive it is more probable of be a good lens. Do not try to find pearl in a pig’s yard. Lenses have 3 important information about quality: Focal Length, aperture and Image Stabilisation.

Focal Length:  One of the most common formats in camera world is 35mm film cameras. Everything goes around this number. If you ask how many times of zoom a lens have I can give you only one advice: give up. But even like it lets try: You can use a camera to take picture of macro details, landscape, people or tele details. So these are the lenses:

·      A macro lens can have a diversity of focal length but it is created to focus a subject really near the camera.

·      A landscape lens needs to catch everything around, so it is wide.

·      A portrait lens needs to catch a person or part of a person and the photographer usually needs to interact with this person. So it is between a wide and a tele lens.

·      A tele lens is to when you need to take picture of a subject well away from the camera, so it needs to “bring” it to near the camera.

Talking about numbers: a wide lens is until 35mm (in a 35mm body, crazy but it is), a portrait is between 35mm to 120mm and a tele lens is from 80mm until, well, until where it is possible.

Some tricks: tele lens are difficult to hold on hand, so if you just bought that “amazing” 20x zoom camera you will find very difficult to take pictures more than “5x” of zoom (God I hate this definition). Yet, there is no miracle: a lens or is wide, or is middle or is tele. If it does everything it does nothing.

And it is here that the Image Stabilisation comes: they make your soft hand more stable. I will not go in details here, but is it.

Now lets see the aperture. The rule is very, very, very complicated: More light comes through the lens better will be the picture. You see, it is almost rocket science. A number called “f” measures the amount of light that a lens can “catch”: how smaller is this number how better the lens is (and expansive as well). So a lens with f:1.8 is better than a lens with f:4. This number represents the maximum aperture and here is a trick. If we are talking about small cameras or cheap lens they trend to have two numbers, because they are zoom lens. Something like it: f: 3.5/5.6 . That means, when in the widely side the lens is 3.5, but when in “tele” it will be 5.6. Funny, you usually need “more light” when using “tele”, but it is where you get less of it…  

More one role about lens: there are prime lens (lens fixed, that means, with NO ZOOM), and zoom lens. Prime lenses offer a lot better results (sharp images, quality, resolution, etc, etc) than zoom lenses.

Check this link to more information about lens: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lenses.htm

Sensor:

Sensor is the part of the camera where the image is recorded. There are 2 major technologies: CCD (old) and CMOS (new). Rule: new is better, ALWAYS.

What define a good sensor are 2 parameters: Size and ISO. And what about resolution? Well, resolution is to fool people, to the ones that walk in a store and buy the camera with more times of zoom and more megapixels. If you are one of these and thing you are right please stop to read and back to your facebook/instagram  to post some cat pictures. Lets see in details.

Size:

How bigger how better. The most common size of sensors are:

·      Compact (toy cameras, If you want to have something that take “pictures” in your pocket without expand much money or if you know that you have no idea what is, and do not care about, photography),

·      Premium compact (I want something better and still fits in my pocket),

·      Four third (I want better pictures but I have no idea what does photography means)

·      APS-C (I would like to have a good camera because I like photography and maybe I know what I’m doing). Please don’t be that one who thing that it looks professional and is rich and stupid enough to buy something that I don’t know how to use.

·      Full Frame (The shit got serious).

ISO is the ability of “see in the dark”. The rule is: How big is the number how better it is. But there is a catch: sometimes a camera has a high iso (6400 or over) but the quality is a piece of shit… I’ve a lot of cameras in my life and some of them really lie about it. You want to know who lies more? Easy: Bridge cameras (cameras made to catch fool people as they are compact cameras that looks like professional cameras), compact cameras and small brands (I mean anything different of Canon, Nikon, Leica or Hasselblad). The ability of see in low light double at each ISO step… but the number is twice the previous: 100 is double of sensibility to light of 100, 400 is double of 200, 800 is double of 400, 1600 is double of 800 and goes…

Another important detail: in a camera you take the best images around lower ISO. Explaining: Low ISO, low light sensibility so low noise. High iso, high light sensibility and hi noise. It is simple, isn’t?

 Check here for a bit more about sensors: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-sensors.htm

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-exposure.htm

Electronic:

Modern cameras are digital, they convert light into electricity. So here comes the rule of age again: how new how better. There are “processors” inside each camera and how better they are… Well… you got it. Here is another trick: companies’ trend to sell you the most expansive camera to maximize profit, but sometimes they present similar or same results of cheap models. Simple likes it. In DSLR cameras it is well visible. Canon 550D, 600D, 60D and 7D are almost the same camera (all have exactly same CMOS with slight differences in processor) but their cost are very different. Image quality of a 550D is THE SAME of a 600D, of a 60D and of a 7D. Of course, a 7D is a lot better build, etc, etc… But here is one way to buy a good camera without expend too much.

Battery:

            Something that drives me crazy is being without battery in a gadget. A camera is a next step in this problem. I got some good cameras with bad batteries. It is impossible to get honest information about it from the companies or from review sites (they never use enough a camera to see all the problems that it has, so imagine if they will use enough to care about battery). So you should ask onto forums to owners, ask someone who has the camera and MAYBE you can get a real idea. Here again: DSLR cameras are better in battery lasting (since you not a fool and decided to use live view all the time, and if you are please buy something else and leave the good stuff to serious people or review all the photos…).

So the conclusion:

·      Newer is better;

·      Resolution means NOTHING;

·      Bigger is better (Sensor);

·      More light is better (smaller numbers of F in the lens);

·      More light is better (High ISO capability);

·      DSLR are better (if you are a serious enthusiast);

·      Four Third are better (if you wanna take good pictures but has no idea how);

·      Premium Compact are better (if you wanna some good pictures in a camera that still fit in your pocket)

·      Compact are better (if you don’t care about anything that I wrote here)

·      Bridge are a expansive piece of shit but are better if you wanna show that you has no idea what are you doing and want to impress some kind of people and expend money.

A bonus hint: cameras that have a “Manual mode” are better of that without, and cameras with RAW format (it is a file format) are better of that without.

IT is as simple as it looks. ;)