Choosing a Digital SLR
It is good Mcknight Photography Fellowship see a growing number of photography enthusiasts! And with quality digital SLR cameras descending to the consumer's price range, this is a great time to upgrade from a digital compact camera. However, it is easy to become overwhelmed because of the many options available and the ambiguities of this relatively new technology. Even within professional photography circles, many questions commonly arise when a studio converts from film to digital: Is Nikon better than Canon? Is it worth spending an extra $1000 in order to have the newest technologies in my camera? Is eight megapixels enough?
As far as which company to trust, you cannot go wrong with Canon or Nikon. Both consistently produce quality digital SLRs. Each company offers a wide variety of lenses and accessories so that photographers of every kind have room to grow. And, perhaps most importantly, each company has financial motivation to stay atop the digital photography world, so the chance of either company discontinuing its products any time soon is unlikely.
(Note: Sony and Konica Minolta have merged, and it is likely to compete with Canon and Nikon, at least on the consumer level, but going with Sony/Minolta would be a little risky for a serious enthusiast.)
I will focus on Canon D-SLRs, because I have had a lot more experience with Canon. (Nikon has some solid candidates as well.)The Rebel series is great. They have most of the same features as the 20D/30D/40D series, and they can be had for hundreds of dollars less. The 20D has three potentially substantial advantages over the Rebel XT: (1) the controls are easier to use, (2) the body is more solid, and (3) the grip is larger. The shortcomings would bother a professional who is taking 2000 pictures in one day, but for an Model Release Photography in low pressure situations who tops off at 300 or 400 shots over the course of a day, an XT is great. If your Chapman Photography Orlando are small-to-medium, it is the way to go. The $500+ that is saved can be used to purchase a high quality lens. Lenses affect image quality more than the camera. The 18-55mm lens that Canon often packages with its D-SLRs is a fine one to start. It does have limitations, so it may be best to see which limitation is the most frustrating and then buy a lens to address that.
As far as megapixels are concerned, eight MPs are plenty for the majority of photographers. If you plan to produce many 20-inch prints, it may make sense to buy a camera with more megapixels. Beware, though, because more pixels result in larger image files, which can slow down and fill up your computer. More megapixels will not improve the image quality of any typical-sized print. In fact, the extra megapixels can have a negative effect in certain situations. (If the sensor is the same inside of two different cameras, the one with more pixels needs to have smaller pixels, in order to fit them on the same size sensor. Utilizing smaller pixels generally results in an increase of noise when shooting at high ISO settings.)
The difference in output quality between each of the cameras within the 20-D line and XT line is very small. A photo enthusiast would be hard-pressed to rationalize spending $1000 more for a 40-D than an XT when lenses, computers, hard drives, memory cards, and batteries all cost money.
When all is said and done, the quality of your images will have little to do with the camera that you trust. More importantly, when you do purchase your new D-SLR, get out there, experiment, and have fun!
Travis Flynn owns and operates a wedding photography business in Milford, CT. His articles and photographs have been published numerous times in The Connecticut Post, Milford Living, and other publications. He can be reached with questions and comments at :travis travisflynnphotography travis travisflynnphotography .
posted by compare-digital-camerasxwnhrmi @ 1:20 AM
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