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Home >> Photography Digital
Photography Recommendations With digital the way it is with constant updates, any article from a specific time period, such as this will be out of date within months of posting. It has been a few years since I wrote my recommendations for film-based systems (no longer posted due to being complete out of date and irrelevant now) and while I coulda/shoulda written a similar article on digital-based systems, whatever I wrote would likely have become outdated within months, if not weeks of posting. However, we seemed to have entered into some maturation of the industry and the time has come to voice some opinions on how to approach building a digital photography kit. Keep in mind that these recommendations are based on my (limited) experience and biases about what I think are important to build a general photography kit. You will find a preponderance of zoom lenses being recommended because I believe in convenience when using 35mm based kits, whether it be film or digital. For the Beginning Photographer Digicams Let me try and make the first part easy for you, buy a Sony W class camera and be done with it (for the second part, I humbly refer you to my eBook on Photography). I own a Sony W1 myself and like it quite a lot. As of this writing, the current equivalent of my W1 is now the W5 that offers the same 5 megapixel resolution, as well as the W7 that offers 7 megapixels. The Sony W series won’t be the smallest digicams around if size matters, but for me, it’s got the right mix of features, conveniences, and compromises that make the series of cameras what I have recommended to everyone that’s asked me. A couple of coworkers purchased the W1 and W7 for big vacation trips and are very pleased with the cameras and I know a few others have referred to my review of the W1 to help them with their own purchases. If you need a really thin and small camera, take a look at the Sony DSC-T7. The W series will force you to use Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick instead of the more commonly used Compact Flash or Secure Digital formats, but the cost from third-party brands, San Disk and Lexar, are competitive with the other card formats. It is theoretically nice to be able to have a set of the same flash cards for all your cameras, present and future, but I only have one 512 MB San Disk Memory Stick myself and find it more than large enough for my usage. With the W1 and W5, you’ll be able to take more than 200 photos with one 512 MB stick at the highest resolution setting. 512 MB Memory Sticks can be bought for under CAN $100 nowadays. Batteries for the W series camera are the ubiquitous AA cells and the cameras come with two rechargeable Sony Ni-MH cells and a charger. Just buy another set and you’ll be fine for most day-to-day usage. In a worse case scenario you can pop into just about any convenience store and buy regular alkaline cells, although, the power-hungry camera will deplete them fairly quickly. If you need to use regular batteries, try and find Energizer lithium cells, as these seem to last a long time with plenty of juice for flash usage.
While the Sony W series are “just” digicams, they provide enough flexibility and user options that the cameras can grow with you as a photographer. Unlike some digicams, the W series offer some modest manual adjustment of shutter speeds and aperture values. A live histogram feature allows you to fine tune the exposure to get the results you want and not what the camera decides based on its auto-exposure settings. This manual control and histogram view is very handy because the W1 only captures JPEG files and not RAW files that can be edited in post-production to correct exposure and white balance errors. The W series also offer up to ISO 400 for sensor sensitivity. This feature comes in handy when photographing in low light environments and unlike most other digicams; the Sony’s ISO 400 setting is actually usable for photographs. Most other brands that offer ISO 400 or higher, end up looking like a dog’s breakfast with images so noisy, they usually end up in the Trash folder, including some of the more expensive prosumer cameras. The
Sony W series cameras are also speedy little digicams that don’t
take several seconds to turn on and be ready to shoot and pushing
the shutter release button actually means you take the photo right
then and there instead of waiting a second for the camera to discover
that, indeed, you actually do want to take a photo. Meanwhile the
Sasquatch that just came running through your campsite to steal
your stash of Kokanee beer is long gone before you could even get
a shot off with your non-Sony digicam. (Kokanee beer and Sasquatch
are
If you won’t take my advice and insist on looking at the dozens and dozens of digicams available on the market, here are some things to look out for:
These are the main features that I look at for a digicam, but there are definitely more available from the various brands. For example, Panasonic is now offering Optical Stabilization in some of their digicams and at first look, it’s a great feature to have, but for one small matter. Panasonic chips seem to be quite noisy when pushed beyond its default ISO sensitivity and this makes it difficult to recommend.
Advanced Users Prosumer
Cameras Personally,
I find these cameras, Coolpix 8800,
A prosumer in-between camera is not compact like a digicam and neither is it as flexible as a SLR with attendant qualitative capabilities. If you insist on buying one of these types of cameras, the Nikon Coolpix 8800 seems like the overall winner with good telephoto reach and Vibration Reduction to steady that long 350mm equivalent lens. I also like what KonicaMinolta has done with the old A2 and now the A200. The ergonomics are good with a real barrel on the lens for zooming instead of the Coolpix’s button zoom control. The KM A2 also goes wide down to a 28mm equivalent compared to the Coolpix 8800 with its 35mm wide setting, but then the CP 8800 gives it back in the telephoto range by going up to 350mm compared to the KM A2’s 200mm maximum reach. Serious Amateurs Digital
SLRs Prices are creeping downwards thanks to Nikon, Canon, and Pentax coming out with competitive entry-level cameras, however, just as I recommended not buying an entry-level film SLR, I suggest bypassing the entry-level D-SLRs too. As of this writing, these are the:
Save a bit more money and move up to at least these models:
This second group of cameras is still built to a price point, but don’t skimp as much on features and capabilities as the entry-level models. Ideally, I’d really suggest that you start off with some mid-level cameras that offer good bang for the buck in feature set, ergonomics, and file handling, i.e. frame rate and buffer flushing.
For all of the cameras mentioned above, they have a 1.5X or 1.6X crop factor relative to a 35mm film frame of 36x24 mm. The digital chip is smaller than what the 35mm film frame is and is commonly referred to as APS-C sized. What this means is that when using a 50mm lens on one of these cameras, it provides an effective crop similar to as if you had used a 75mm lens on a film camera. It’s a bit more involved than to just say that a 50mm lens acts like a 75mm lens with a D-SLR, because there are other issues involving the depth of field and magnification. Using a 50mm lens on a D-SLR does not mean that you have magnified the image as if you had used a 75mm lens, because the magnification is still 50mm. All that you have actually changed is the crop factor, i.e., it’s an in-camera crop to a 1.5X field of field. See this article to compare how the field of differs between film and digital. The depth of field is also the same as a 50mm lens...because...it’s a 50mm lens and not a 75mm lens that would normally provide a little bit more shallow depth of field because of the telephoto effect. If you desire the same field of view going from film to digital you have to think in terms of the 1.5x crop factor. If your favorite walk around lens is a 50mm lens on a film camera, in order to get the same field of view on a D-SLR, you need to use a 35mm lens. However, your depth of field will increase with that same field of view because a 35mm lens is wider than 50 and wide angle lenses have more depth of field. There are endless debates and discussions about the field of view crop and while it benefits the long distance sports and wildlife photographer, it becomes a nuisance for the wide-angle photographer because ultra wide on film become merely wide, or not at all with digital. A 20mm lens on film has a field of view that’s 94 degrees, but with a D-SLR, the field of view is reduced to about 62 degrees, or the equivalent of a 36mm lens (technically, 62 degrees is for a 35mm lens, but let’s not quibble over 1 degree). In order for a digital SLR user to get close to the 94-degree field of view back, a 14mm lens has to be used (technically, a 13mm lens has to be used, but let’s not quibble over 1mm). And 14mm lenses are quite expensive at just over CAN $2000 for a Nikon or Canon version and still well over a $1000 for a third-party version, compared to just over CAN $500 for a 20mm lens. What many amateur and professional photographers desire is a full-frame digital SLR for the same kind of money as a good film camera. Unfortunately, this a massive pipe dream to think that the current yields from producing full-frame chips will be enough to lower the price of full-frame cameras. Some people have speculated that it would only be a matter of time before full-frame became a reality and dumped on the notion that APS-C sized sensors would become the mainstream standard. Reality finally came and bit them on their posteriors because it hasn’t happen and won’t happen for years to come. If any company could make that happen it would have been Canon, but while they have improved and increased the resolution of their full-frame D-SLR, they have not dropped the price at all, as the price remains at US $8000. The only way that the camera companies have been able to drive the cost down on D-SLRs to get mass market acceptance has been to use the APS-C sized chip, which can now be considered a mature product in this digital age. Don’t hold out on buying a full-frame D-SLR for cheap anytime soon, because even if Nikon jumps in with Canon, to offer a full-frame camera, it will be an expensive, professionally oriented product with zero prospects for trickle-down to consumer SLRs for years to come after introduction. Possibly by 2010, we could something happening on this front for consumers (my own speculation). Consumer D-SLR Kit Recommendations Budget
No telephoto lenses included for budget considerations. Mid-Level Consumer Kits
Big additions are the wide-angle and telephoto zoom lenses to make for a very well rounded kit. If you built up to this level from the budget consumer kit, keep the SB600 or 420EX flash and start your journey into wireless, multiple flash use. It's also good to have a spare flash in case you're crazy enough to agree to shoot a wedding (not recommended unless you have two cameras). High-End Consumer Kits
For these kits, we leave the ultra wide-angle zooms in because there aren’t any professional quality ones available, but we upgrade the standard and telephoto zoom lenses for Nikon and Canon’s best lenses. We also add in a macro lens to add greater variety and flexibility and we also switch the backpack option so that you can actually fit all this gear in for those nature hikes. The tripod is also significantly upgraded to a good overall carbon fiber model from Gitzo. I list the gold standard of ball heads, the Arca Swiss B1, but there are alternatives from Kirk and RRS that you should look at too, but just be aware that while the B1 is expensive, the RR$ head is even more expen$ive. High-End
Digital SLRs Canon has two excellent professional quality offerings in the 1D Mk II and 1Ds Mk II. The 1D Mk II is an 8 MP camera that can shoot off 8 frames per second and is primarily meant for sports and news photographers. While 8 MP is overkill resolution for newspaper photographers, it comes in handy for magazine photographers, especially for producing a double-truck (two-page) spread image. The 1D Mk II has a 1.3X crop factor. The 1Ds MK II is Canon’s high megapixel camera offering nearly 17 MP of resolution, but at a large cost of US $8000. While full-frame, it makes very large demands on the quality of the lenses and for best results, you’ll need to use Canon’s best L series lenses and even then, the quality could still be lacking in the corners and for control of chromatic aberrations. It’s obviously not a camera, or kit to be undertaken lightly. Nikon offers the D2Hs, as its news and sports camera. It only offers 4 MP of resolution, but offers fast 8 frames per second capabilities along with a large buffer to keep shooting for more than a few seconds at that frame rate. It’s expensive enough that it seems silly to buy it over the D2X and I wouldn’t recommend the D2Hs to anyone I know unless they were doing the majority of their photography with action in mind and that they did not need to print very large. The Nikon D2X is the current camera of my wet dreams. An ergonomic tour de force with more than enough resolution to print large. If you need to print larger than what the D2X can offer then you need to move on pass even the Canon 1Ds Mk II and go whole hog into a medium format digital back system offering 22 MP of resolution. There’s just a small matter of having to pay about CAN $40,000 for one of these digital backs. These backs are so expensive and have such high profit margins that the Canadian Leaf distributor will give you a basic camera kit for free (current promotion by Amplis Foto) if you buy the 22 MP Leaf Aptus back. And this is not just some cheap camera gear either, but pretty much the most expensive medium format system on the market in the Hasselblad H1. Now of course, I am a Nikon user, so you can expect that I would be very enthusiastic about the Nikon D2X over the Canon 1Ds Mk II. Rest assured that no matter which system you go with at this level, you’re buying state of the art gear that will deliver the goods. Forget the hubbub about the Nikon D2X white balance issue and third-party RAW converters, because it’s more noise than it is signal. For me, it’s not a factor that would prevent me from buying a D2X if I had the coin. For the ultra high-end, and highest resolution digital files in a SLR interface, you need to go up to the aforementioned medium format digital back systems from companies such as Phase, Leaf, and Imacon. The cost is high and prohibitive if you’re not a specialist surgeon making more money that you know what to do with, or if you’re not a commercial photographer doing big dollar shoots for multinational corporations and their Madison Ave. advertising firms, I don’t see how any working Joe or Jane could ever justify spending that kind of money for something with so fleeting a technology as digital image capture. But if somehow you are and you’re actually reading this page for some guidance, I suggest the Mamiya 645AF system for the best overall system with a good selection of lenses. Mamiya is also making a big splash in high-end digital imaging by producing their own standalone digital SLR, as well as digital backs for their film based cameras. Before blowing the equivalent of what it cost my parents to put me through university back in the late 1980s and early 1990s for a Phase or Leaf digital back, I’d just as soon buy the coming Mamiya ZD camera and still have enough money left over to also buy the Mamiya lenses AND a couple of Nikon D2X cameras. Pro Kit Recommendations
These two professional kits should cover you for most general photographic applications. If you want to specialize into specific kinds of photography such as sports, birds and wildlife, then you’ll have to spend more money to add another super telephoto lens such as a 500mm f4 or a 600mm f4 lens. Some users like the super fast 400mm f2.8 lens and then add in teleconverters to change the magnification as needed. These lenses cost like brand new entry-level cars and require a good backpack/harness system to carry on trails if you don't want your back to give out on you. Consider that the Lowepro Pro Trekker backpack on its own weighs 10 lbs. Add in a monster super telephoto with another 14 or so lbs and you're talking 25 lbs just for the pack and one lens alone, never mind all your other gear that can push the weight to over 50 lbs. I remember the first time I did a hike with the Pro Trekker, I was winded and felt like throwing up before I even got to the top of the hill and I couldn't figure out why, because I'd normally be way ahead of a friend along for the hike. After he offered to switch packs, I was like a mountain goat without the 50 lbs of gear I had brought along. For the landscape photographer, adding in a Tilt-Shift lens can be a worthwhile addition to take advantage of the Scheimpflug Rule. Following this Rule with a TS lens can allow you maximize the depth of field in a scene without having to stop all the way down to your minimum aperture setting and risk image degrading diffraction. Canon holds the advantage here with three TS lenses, whereas Nikon only offers a short telephoto that can do double-duty as a macro lens. For those that photograph events and like to use ambient light then you'll want to add in some fast prime lenses. Obviously, you would not add every single lens to the kit, but a selection of wide, normal, and telephoto lenses for a good mix (don't forget the 1.5x crop factor in your choices). For the budget conscious, the f1.8 and f2 lenses offer great bang for the buck and with today's D-SLR that can provide usable ISO 1600 settings, could be all that you need. For that must have all the speed possible then go for the f1.4 lenses, but be prepared to pay dearly for some of them (all listed below are auto focus):
You can liken my recommendations to cars in the following manner:
Again,
you must remember that these recommendations are based on my biases
and opinions. While I know Pentax has
come on strongly in the last couple of years to offer some very
nice D-SLRs, I don’t know enough about the system to say much about
it and going beyond the consumer level, Pentax does not offer anything. Same with Minolta. While I am quite impressed with their 7D, I would have liked to
have seen a higher resolution chip for a relatively expensive camera
(December 2005 - Minolta is no longer being sold in Canada).
Nikon and Canon still reign supreme for providing its users with logical progressions in the camera line. My current digital kit as of this writing are the (someday I'll be able to buy the D2X, but I think by the time I can get my wife's permission, the (full frame?) D3 will be out):
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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You
are most likely looking at a compact digital camera (digicam) to
get your feet wet in the digital process. You face a couple of hurdles
if you are very new to photography too, as not only do you have
to wade through the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of digicams available
to find one suitable for you, but you also have to learn how to
become a photographer too.
The
2.5-inch LCD screen is no longer the largest available as of this
writing with Samsung set to introduce a 
Memory
cards – just as you need spare batteries, you may need
spare cards, because the cards that come with digicams are uselessly
small. Or, just buy one very large card and don’t worry about
where all your extra cards are. I don’t consider 512 MB to be
a very large card, I’d consider it pretty standard for capacity,
but as already mentioned, I haven’t had a need for a larger card
yet. If I were traveling then this opinion would change and I
would want at least another card along with my digital wallet
for storage.
Going
beyond the digicams, we enter the world of the prosumer range of
cameras that try to marry the compactness and convenience of digicams
with the quality of SLR cameras. They are in-between cameras for
size and weight and due to their design in making the lens internal
instead of exchangeable as with a SLR, the lenses can be optimized
for the chip being used. They can also offer huge focal length ranges
in a package much smaller than a comparable lens for a SLR. Some
of the better prosumer cameras also offer image stabilization either
through the sensor chip with the KonicaMinolta cameras, or through
the lens, as with Nikon and Panasonic cameras.
I
believe that a person serious about digital photography should have
at least two cameras, one a compact digicam like the Sony W series
for everyday snapshots, and a SLR for quality and flexibility.
You’ll
note that I have not included the 
In
the high-end 35mm-based D-SLR sweepstakes, there are only two contenders,
Nikon and Canon, with a couple of offerings for different photographers. 
