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Sunday, May 27. 2007

How I decided to buy Canon EOS 300D

My first dSLR was Canon EOS Digital Rebel, also known as Canon Digital Kiss and Canon 300D.

Buying first dSLR can be very difficult choice, especially in these days when the entry-level market offers great variety of models, from different manufacturers, each with its own PROs and CONs.

Choosing the manufacturer (the brand) and model is both objective and subjective thing.
In this article I will tell you how I decided to buy Canon EOS 300D, few years ago.

I already had Canon Powershot A80. You can read how I decided to buy it here.

A80 was excellent camera with its 3x zoom, 4MP sensor and great photos when the conditions were good. Yes, when the conditions were good. Back then, shooting at ISO 400 with a compact camera was more suicide, than anything else (like achieving some acceptable result). When I say bad conditions I mean something like: bad weather (dark), indoor photos without flash, shooting some action photos etc. Sure, with some prefocusing, tripod and understanding of how camera works, you can achieve pretty good results. But, I wanted better results. Also, I started to enjoy shooting sport. Indoor sport. This means: low-light conditions and fast moving objects.

Here is example of typical photo achieved with A80 in mentioned conditions. High ISO noise and motion blur are visible.
EXIF details: 1/80, f/4

Achieved with prefocusing. This, as well as above photo has motion blur. While it serves as effect in this photo, it is a defect in the other
EXIF details: 1/50, f/4

Few weeks before my sport shooting attempts, I was thinking to buy tele and wide convertors, which should also allow me to use filters with my camera. Luckily, I left this idea very soon, and realized that what I needed was an dSLR.

I really knew where I was going: dSLR usually means more money, accessories and weight. On the other side, I also knew what were the benefits.

Canon A80 found its new owner pretty fast. From what I know he uses it even today. Now, I had to choose what exactly I wanted to buy. Actually, I was thinking about that for some time, but final answer came clear just after I sold the powershot.

I decided that I should buy second hand dSLR body with one lens, which should not be of lowest quality, maybe some filter for it and some photo bag.

Back then, it was only a choice between Nikon and Canon. Here is another advice which you might not hear very often: it is good to have friends with compatible equipment. So, when you need something (like flash or ultra-wide lens), you can borrow the same. I already had canon photo camera and I was satisfied. I also had few friends which had Canon dSLRs. I also knew that Canon had the cheapest dSLR on the market, and this was also very important, with my low budget in mind. Another important thing to know: low level body with first class lens will produce far better results than first class body with bad lens. All this leaded me to the choice of 300D. Actually, I still searched for Nikon offers, too.

Very soon, I saw one great offer for Canon 300D. The price was good and the timing was perfect. I arranged testing of the machine. (Remember to test even new cameras. If you can, bring someone with more experience with that particular or similar models) Testing went ok, the jpegs I checked at home were great. And, it was it.

300D was bought. Few days later I bought Sigma 18-125mm with UV filter. It is very good 'tourist' lens, like I like to call it, with good focusing speed and image quality. After that a Lowepro backpack (which was just half full back then), later on accessories were bought one by one and wishlist had more and more checks.

My first impressions from new camera were focusing speed, better control of DOF, acceptable results at high ISO speeds and lots of buttons to master.

Even if 300D is the cheapest dSLR and it also has some software and hardware limitations, it is great camera even today.

In one of my next articles, expect a short course to basketball photography and show you some of my photos from 300D.

Posted by photography-reviews.com in starters at 06:50
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Tuesday, May 15. 2007

Accessories you have to buy for your dSLR

In our previous article we talked about compact cameras and accessories for them.

I will focus now on things specific to dSLR cameras. If you are buying one, it usually means that you are not absolute beginner, but since price (and size) of those photo cameras is dropping with every year, in order to provide best information, I will write some things that you might already know.

Interesting thing about serious dSLR equipment is that at the end, the camera body is the cheapest part. While, this is not always true, it says how important are other parts of your system.

I will write about lenses in some other article, because this is a subject that deserves at least one separate article.
Flashes are another subject, too.

1) If you don't like the size and price of
battery grips, you should at least have one backup battery (which should always be charged).

2) buy yourself serious photo bag. Choose your style: big, small, backpack or not, but choose from good and reputable manufacturer. I also suggest to have one big backpack for all your equipment and one small bag just for your camera with one or two lenses.

3) With digital photography shooting more is no longer expensive. Well, you do have to buy that memory card once, but after that it is free. In case you shot a lot of pictures and travel a lot, you might consider buying photobank.

4) you should have at least one tripod. Based on your shooting style, you might use it occasionally or daily. In case you like mountain hiking, consider buying some lightweight and stable tripod

5) use UV filters on your lenses - this way you will protect them from scratches

6) you can also buy polarizer filters and some other like star-effect filers. Polarizers are very useful and I recommend having at least one and using it on more lenses with step-up rings

Posted by photography-reviews.com in starters at 22:00
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Monday, April 16. 2007

Accessories you have to buy for your compact photo camera

Few days (or hours) after you have bought you brand new photo camera, you realize that you will have to buy some accessories. Some of them are mandatory, others are just good to have.

This article will tell you what accessories you might need, so you could prepare your budget.

1) batteries - even if you have one set of batteries, it is always good to have another. My advice is to have 2 sets of rechargeable batteries and one alkaline, just in case. If your camera uses custom battery, then, buy another. You will be surprised how many times you will see that 'the more, the better'. Buy battery charger, too. Charge only batteries which say they are chargeable!
2) photo case - even if you have some of the smallest models on the market, it is always good idea to have special photo bag for your jewel. It will hold your batteries, keep your camera from cold, or wet weather. Most cases designed for photo cameras have soft parts designed to absorb lighter shocks. Even falling from 1 meter (3,28 feet) on hard floor can be very dramatic experience. Buy case and use it!
3) memory card - some cameras have integrated memory, others come with some memory card included. But, more memory equals more photos. For everyday shooting and shorter tours 2 cards of 1 GB each should be more than enough. Why 2x1GB instead one card of 2GB? Well, cards do broke, just like everything else. Even if you have one of those superfast, life-warranty cards - they can get lost, too. So, this is why I suggest to have 2 cards.
4) hand strap - if your camera has one - use it, if it doesn't, buy one. This tiny thing can save your camera's life.
5) tripod - advantage of little cameras is that they can be placed on top of many things and stay there. You can place it on the wall, parked car or directly on the ground. But, the problem is that there are not always things to put your camera on, and even if there are, it is hard to position camera the way you want it. Small cameras don't require big and heavy tripod, so you can buy one of lighter (and cheaper) models. They come in different sizes, choose the one that suits you.
6) filters - UV or CPL filters are very useful, and people usually first think of them when mentioning filters. If you are considering to buy filters for your compact camera - this should mean that you are advanced amateur. Consider also ND filters, as well as some effect filters, like cross screen. Note that some cameras need special adapters in order to use filters (however I have a friend who used to hold his CPL in his hand in front of the lens - it worked for him, but it is difficult and tiring).
7) extenders - todays compact cameras have great zoom capabilities. Some have 12x zooms, and I feel that if you read this article next time this year, 12x will not look so impressive. Having 6x zoom or similar is more than enough for usual point&shoot photography. The problem which is common to most compact cameras is that their wide angle is not very wide. In order to achieve wider angle photos, some users buy and use wide-angle adapters. For opposite reasons, others use long-angle adapters. Using those usually degrades quality of images and can add distortion to geometry and other problems. I don't recommend doing this. Instead, concentrate on using the most of your current zoom capabilities. Most of greatest photographers of all times actually used fixed lenses - they did not have zooms at all. Use your imagination and look for different angle, or walk away from (or to the) the object.

Posted by photography-reviews.com in starters at 06:50
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Thursday, March 29. 2007

How I chose what compact digital photo camera to buy

This article is continuation of Which photocamera will suit my needs article.
However, here, I will tell you how I chose and what my experience was. This is greatly influenced by my shooting style, expectations and knowledge. Your experience might be different.

Feel free to share it in comments to this article.

My first digital camera was Canon Powershot A80.

Here is a story about it.

Goals, previous experience and needs

I have already used analog point & shoot, as well as SLR. With time, I realized that I wanted to shoot more and more, and digital was cheaper way to do this. Also, I wanted to experiment more, and, once again, digital photography was the right choice: price per photo is... hm... none

and the possibility to instantly see results of your experiment was just great.

Also, I wanted to have my camera (almost) always with me. So, size mattered.
I also did not have money for a dSLR.

I decided that my next camera was going to be a compact digital one.

Since I was new to digital world, I had to investigate first.
I already was familiar with photography terms, so I caught up fast.
I read lots of sites and reviews about digital photo cameras. Found out how they work and how they reproduce what we see. What are their technological advantages and disadvantages.
After that I familiarized myself with latest models on the market and their specifications

Important things to you

I had to explain myself which things were important to me and which ones were not. Is zoom important? Is video quality more important than something else? What I could sacrifice and what I could not ...

I wanted to have full manual control, and also Aperture priority and Shutter priority modes (more about this soon, in one of next articles). Number of predefined auto modes was not important.

Megapixels were not something that I worried too much. It was the quality of the picture that was important. I knew that with quality 2MP model I could make nice 4x5 inches (10x15 cm) copies. And new models on the marked were with 4MP or more, so I decided not to worry about number of pixels, but more about their quality. Responsible for this is manufacturer of camera sensor and the in-camera processing (all cameras have software integrated in them which allows signals from sensors to be recorded as digital photo)
Back then, there were not so many manufacturers like today, and there were just two-three of them on the top: Canon, Nikon and Sony. Sure, other brands (like Pentax or Olympus) also had their gems, but only these were worth considering, in my opinion.
"It will be one of those manufacturers" - I said.

I also wanted model which will feel good in my hand. Really small models (like Canon IXUS, also known as PowerShot S series) simply don't fit in that requirement, so they are off, too.

From articles on the web, I knew that with compact digital camera I will have more problems to use higher ISO, than with an analog camera (more about ISO in next articles, but in short: higher ISO value allows you to shoot in darker conditions, but it also adds grainy look to the photo, which usually does not look good). The camera had to behave good at higher ISO values.

Video (and audio) recording was something that I did not care at all.

Choosing the brand and the model

I decided to buy Canon, since it had least noise in photos.
Of all Canon series I decided to go with Powershot A series. If I had little more money, I would probably choose PowerShot G5, but I did not.

Friend of mine had Canon Powershot A70. I tested his camera, and also examined the photos produced by this model.

After that I went to several photo stores and consulted with sellers (you can always tell if someone if below your level or he is just trying to sell you the product). I held in my hands various models and ensured myself that my choice was right

And, few days later, I ordered Canon Powershot A80.

Even before I bought it, I read the whole manual and understood that it will be more than I need. (later I needed more, but this will be represented in next article)

Generally speaking, I could buy camera with more zoom, more MP or better video recording for similar price. But, I wanted quality photo results and I never regretted.

I had great time with this camera. I sold it when I decided to go for dSLR, and current owner uses it without problems.

Check latest models from Canon Powershot A series:

Posted by photography-reviews.com in starters at 06:55
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Saturday, February 11. 2006

First dSLR with live preview

Olympus has announced its new dSLR E-330 ( EVOLT E-330 in America ). Olympus has proved that it will not stop with implementing new things and pushing technical designe teams to the limits for existing [i]big[/i] dSLR companies, like Canon and Nikon.

Olympus dSLR cameras have few things that are different than photocameras from above manufacturers.

First, their senzors are with different proportions. So what? - you might say. Well, it does matter.
CMOS sensor of canon 20D has following width and height: 22.5mm x 15.0mm (0.886 inches x 0.590 inches). CCD sensor of Nikon D70 has following width and height: 23.7mm x 15.6mm (0.933 inches x 0.614 inches). And so on. Sensors from most manufacturers have similar proportions - which is: 3/2. This is proportion that is considered the best ratio by many mathematicians, scientists and artists. The regular film has the same ratio. So, most of professional camera manufacturers decided to follow the traditions and make sensors which will produce images with which proportions we are all used to.
But, Olympus was brave enough and its system has ratio of 4:3. With 3:2 you lose a big part of lens coverage. This is reduced with 4:3 ratio. This can be seen on the picture below:

Second, they were the first who implemented automatically sensor cleaning.

Now, they are the first who implemented live preview on dSLR photo camera. It has tilt and swivel monitor (just like compact photo cameras have). ofcourse you won't use this feature with your 300mm 2.8 lens, but it [b]is[/b] usefull. Making shots above the crowd, or from the ground level, macro photography - all this will benefit from the new feature.

Congratulations to Olympus!