Dicky Tong's Photographic Blog: What camera to buy? - Part 3

The final part of what to look out for when buying a camera is improving your skills. Whilst the best equipment in the world might help get a crisp and sharp image, it doesn't help in terms of composing a photo and some shots I've taken have been taken using just a $300 point and shoot camera. Of course this doesn't mean I'll give up my big Canon camera for wedding jobs but provided you know the limitation of your camera and you are able to overcome them, then I believe anyone can take a great photo. Below is some tips that I believe should help any photographer take much better photos.

Rule of Thirds

Amongst the myraid of information on the internet (including this one), there's only one composition methology that impacts greatly to getting that great photo. The first one that makes a big difference is the "Rule of thirds". By using this "rule", it will improve any photo in any situation.

The basic premise of this rule is that a photo is divided into thirds and the aim is to place the object of focus in 4 intersecting spots. So in simple terms, don't put the object you're photographing in the middle of the photo.

Whilst it's called the "Rule of Thirds", it is like a road rule, it's meant to be broken so don't follow this to the letter of the law. Creativity occurs when the rules are broken.

Below is an image of how this is applied. You'll notice the head of this sculpture is placed on the lower right corner of the frame and by placing it down there, it allows a larger perspective as to the space this sculpture is looking at.

Check your background

The other tip I can provide is to look out in the background of offending objects. Below is a classic example of a photographer not doing their job. In the foreground, we have a car which obviously is what the photographer is taking a photo of for a news article, however in the background, the photographer has failed to notice the "Wrong way go back" sign (albeit blurred).

It may be an oversight from the photographer but if someone wants to communicate a hidden message, this is certainly one way.
















Take more photos

The last piece of advice I'd give to choosing the right camera is to use it and use it often. There's nothing worse than seeing people buy a nice camera and end up gathering dust after the honeymoon period.

What camera to buy? - Part 2

Now that we've worked out one of three items when searching for a camera, we'll move onto the second component when looking for the right camera for you.

Between the camera sensor and the object you are photographing, there is an equally important part of the camera called the lens. In plain English, it's the glass between the sensor and the object.

Why is the lens important?

To harness the good sensor you have chosen in the camera, wouldn't it be logical to have the best lens fitted? Sure, but price generally determine what lens that comes with the camera. This will apply to any kit lens for Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera or a P&S (Point & Shoot) camera.

So what do I need to look out for?

Generally for consumer P&S camera, you're pretty much looking at firstly the range of zoom of the lens, the "speed" of the lens and the brand.

Range of zoom of the lens

Unfortunately for non-camera people, marketers have really dumbed down the effective zoom range of a camera lens to something like 5x, 7x zoom. I really don't like how it's expressed and it gives little meaning to the usefulness of the lens.

The zoom range of a lens is pretty much the zoom at its widest view to the telephoto view. If the lens starts at a relatively telephoto setting at its widest view, then having a 5x zoom would only be useful for taking photos from the sideline of a football game and useless inside a karaoke room packed full of people.

So how is zoom measured in?

Generally how much zoom a lens has depends on the "focal length" of a lens. This length is measured in millimetres. With 35mm SLR cameras, it's a pretty easy thing to work out however with the P&S cameras, it's much more difficult to find out . I recommend visiting the manufacturer's web site and they'll have a 35mm converted focal length range as a universal standard.

Whilst you don't really need to know how focal length is measured, you need to know what the number means. As a general rule, anything <28mm>

Speed?? What are you talking about??

Well, in photography terms, speed talks about how quick the camera can capture an image in a given light condition. The faster the lens, the quicker the shutter can be. This is especially important when you're in a dimly lit room where you're able to take a photo without resorting to a tripod or putting the camera down on a non moveable object.

As the lens goes from wide angle to telephoto angle, the amount of light that the lens can deliver to the sensors changes. Imagine your whole monitor as the amount of light going into a camera sensor. By using the whole screen, you'll invaribly have more light to capture than if you used a smaller bit of the monitor which represents a telephoto condition.

However with more expensive cameras, the amount of light transmitted to the sensor may not change. With fancy glassware inside the lens, this is easily achieved.

OK, get to the point!

The speed of a lens is also known as the aperture. I'll go into more details in another blog but in short, the aperture in the camera is similar to the pupils in the human eye. The larger the pupil, the more light you're able to see.

Aperture is also quantified by a "measure" called F-stop and all you need to remember is that a F-stop of 2.8 is faster than a F-stop of 5.6 or another words, the 2.8 lens will allow more light in to the sensor than 5.6. Great news if you have a 2.8 lens indoors with little light.

Brand

Whilst I'm not one for being a brand snob and could be seen as a marketing ploy, reputable names wouldn't put their names to a lens if it didn't reach a certain level of performance.

Brands such as Leica (Panasonic) and Carl Zeiss (Sony) are generally very very desirable in the SLR world are a good place to begin but do look at the lens and the specifications to make sure it isn't a lens that has a purely marketing flavour to it.

However, this is not to say brands such as Canon, Fujinon and Nikkor doesn't make good lenses for P&S so this is not to say that you shouldn't consider them. In the SLR world, they make sensational lenses but just look out for cheap cameras.