It has been a month since we started this quarantine. Many of you have completed several house projects, cleaned the house, baked as many muffins and cupcakes as your kids will eat, and cooked your entire pantry. If you are running of things to do or you just don’t want to do any more house chores now is a great time to start a new hobby or learn a new skill.
Photography is a great hobby, one that you can turn into a business or just keep it as a hobby. You are ready to move from your iPhone and you would like to learn to take better pictures by moving from auto to manual mode. But you have no idea where to start. That’s why I’m here to help you.
Before we can start taking pictures, we need to buy a camera. There are many options out there from point and shoot cameras to DSLRs and Mirroless cameras. But which one is the best one for you?
Here are a few questions to consider when you decide to purchase your new camera:
What kind of pictures do I want to take?
Before you decide which camera to buy, think about what kind of images you want to take. Do you just want to take better pictures of your children? Do you want to take mainly landscapes photos? Do you want to become a professional photographer? Do you want to do macro photography? Are you going to be taking a lot of pictures at night or in low light situations?
What is your budget?
I believe buying a camera is an investment. You want your camera to last you a long time so you want a good quality camera. There are many brands out there that can satisfy most budgets. Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, Fujifilm, etc. are all good brands that offer cameras with different specs. I, personally, shoot with Nikon and I’m very satisfied with their performance. I know other photographers that prefer Canon. A lot of times the brand that you end up choosing speaks more about your personal preferences than about the quality of the brand.
Mirrorless or DSLR
You are probably thinking what is the difference. In a DSLR camera, there’s an optical viewfinder through which you see the image that is reflected from the mirror. What you see through the optical viewfinder is not the final image and any changes or adjustments you make will not be visible before you press the shutter. In a mirroless camera, there is an electronic viewfinder that offers a live view and shows you how the final image will look. The electronic viewfinder is like a small LCD. Any changes or adjustments you make, you will see them through the electronic viewfinder. This type of camera also doesn’t have a mirror which makes it smaller and lighter compared to a DSLR.
Now, let’s take a look at different types of DSLR cameras and their specs.
Entry DSLR. There are many entry DSLRs in the market. My first camera was a Nikon D3300. I bought the camera with the lens kit. The latest model of this line of cameras is the Nikon D3500. The Canon EOS Rebel T7i have similar features to the Nikon D3500. You can always buy the camera without the lens kit and just buy a prime lens. A prime lens has a fixed length (i.e. 35, 50, 85mm, etc.) and you can’t zoom. One of the advantages of a prime lens is that they have larger apertures. I would recommend for your first prime lens what many people refer as a nifty fifty, Nikkor 50mm or from a third party company like Sigma Art lenses. Most of my lenses are from third party companies. They are high quality lenses, but with a lower price tag. While prime lenses offer larger apertures and usually the images are sharper, great pictures can be taken with the lens kit. I took the picture below with the 18-35mm lens that came with my Nikon D3300.
2. Semi-professional DSLR - If you see yourself outgrowing an entry a DSLR then a semi professional DSLR might be the right option for you. Once I outgrew my entry DSLR, I purchased a Nikon D750. This is an excellent camera that will allow you to take excellent pictures in all kind of situations. For Canon, a comparable camera to the Nikon D750 would be the Canon 5d Mark IV
But you might wonder, what are the differences between an entry DSLR or a semipro. When purchasing a camera, it is important to look at their specs. These include:
Sensor. There are different types of sensors. The two main types of sensors are APS-C and Full Frame. A full frame sensor is the size of 35mm film and an APS-C sensor is cropped which means that the available area is smaller. With a full frame camera you can capture more of the scene. This is specially helpful when taking landscape pictures. It also captures more detailed pictures and it performs better in low light situations. The Nikon D3500 has an APS-C sensor while the Nikon D750 has a full frame sensor.
Megapixels. The more megapixels in a camera the more details you will be able to preserve when enlarging your pictures. Cameras with 20 megapixels or more will allow you to enlarge your pictures beyond an 8x10. But the more megapixels the camera has, the larger the files will be. The Nikon Z7 (this is a mirroless camera) has 45.7 megapixels vs a Nikon D750 which has 24.3. The Nikon Z7 produces files larger than 20MB. I photograph weddings with the Nikon D750 and the quality is superb.
ISO Range. What is ISO? The ISO refers to the sensitivity of the sensor towards light. Many of today’s cameras have very high ISOs (i.e. 25000) that allows the camera to take great images under low light situations. But higher ISO also introduces noise to the images. So usually you want to keep your ISO as low as possible to avoid noise, but if you have to choose between a well exposed picture with noise vs an underexposed picture without noise always choose the settings that will give you the well exposed picture. Sometimes, the exposure (how bright or dark the picture is) can be adjusted in post processing, but if the picture is too dark or too bright you take the risk of losing details in those very dark and bright areas and they can’t be recovered.
Video. Most cameras now have the ability to record video with resolution of 4k and there are some cameras that can reach resolutions of up to 6k.
Image Stabilization. This feature compensates camera shaking. Most DSLRs don’t have image stabilization in their body. Instead, many lenses come with this feature. Mirrorless cameras tend to have in body camera stabilization.
All these factors, along with size, weight, and ergonomics, are very important when choosing your new camera. Feel free to post in the comments any questions and let me know which camera did you end up buying.
*This is part 1 of a series of posts for those that will like to learn photography and start moving from auto to manual mode.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links which means that I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you if you click on the link and buy something. All my recommendations are based on my own experience and that of fellow photographers that have shared their opinions with me. I only write about products that I believe in.
