So you are interested in photography? Or maybe you’re wanting to use it as a tool in your design. Or you just want to know the difference between the cameras in the picture above, if you have answered yes to any of those questions then keep reading, if not read anyway because you might learn something like why two of those cameras look almost the same but are very different. Now for this article we aren’t going to get into every detail in fact we will only scratch the surface, but of course there will be more info to come.
Now bear in mind, I am not going to try to not make a judgement call as to which camera is better. Always remember, the best camera is always the one you have with you, and I am a firm believer in that; my photography adventures began on a Kodak EZ share 5 megapixel camera. It was a piece of crap, even for the time, but guess what? I took pretty good pictures, because the most important part of the camera is who's holding it.
We are going to divide cameras into 3 categories in this article for the sake of simplicity. Cell Phone Cameras, Compact Cameras, and Pro-Style Cameras. First is the cell phone camera.
Now bear in mind, I am not going to try to not make a judgement call as to which camera is better. Always remember, the best camera is always the one you have with you, and I am a firm believer in that; my photography adventures began on a Kodak EZ share 5 megapixel camera. It was a piece of crap, even for the time, but guess what? I took pretty good pictures, because the most important part of the camera is who's holding it.
We are going to divide cameras into 3 categories in this article for the sake of simplicity. Cell Phone Cameras, Compact Cameras, and Pro-Style Cameras. First is the cell phone camera.
Cell Phone Cameras
Cell phone cameras (this also includes tablet cameras) really are designed for convenience. They are slapped on phones so people don’t have to carry an actual camera to take pictures. They feature nearly microscopic image sensors and anywhere from 5 to 40 megapixel sensors. They are also optimized to be easy on the phone’s battery and typically feature little to any optical zoom or stabilization. Their drawbacks are almost innumerable, including horrendous low light performance, slow response time, and just generally muddy images. And even if you wanted to go for a specific effect in a crappy lighting situation, it won’t let you because it is fully automated. Now in sunlight they do a decent job and if you run it through instagram you can make it look like you’re some kind of artist to the untrained eye. Their real benefit is the fact that most people don’t leave home without their phone.
Compact Cameras
Next we have compact cameras. These are cameras that are meant to be cameras, albeit inexpensive consumer cameras. They will often feature image stabilizers, zooms up to 20x, as well as fairly high megapixel counts, anywhere from 16 to 20 or more. Many of the only slightly more expensive options will also let you operate the camera in fully manual exposure mode, and even if it doesn’t it will usually have different modes for different shooting situations which can help the camera determine how it should take the picture. A select few will have manual focus as well. Their image sensors are typically a little bit bigger than cell phone cameras, and some nicer ones will offer a fairly large sensor plus the ability to record images using a RAW format which retains more light and color information than typical jpegs resulting in higher quality images. Their advantages include, their small compact nature, many convenient features and generally good image quality if you know how to use them well. Disadvantages are that their low light capabilities are still lacking most of the time, a lack of manual focus, and the models that do usually are not friendly. This also contributes to very little control of what is in focus. Images are generally pretty flat and fine detail can be hard for these cameras to resolve. And if you have one that doesn’t have any manual controls that can be a big downside.
Pro-Style Cameras
Last of all we have my personal favorite, pro-style cameras. This includes pro, prosumer, and consumer DSLRs, Compact System Cameras, and a growing list of large sensor compact cameras. These are a must have for anyone who is serious about photography. These cameras will have large sensors that are as big or nearly as big as a 35mm piece of film (or larger if you have $25k to spend on a camera). They also usually have interchangeable lenses. This gives them the advantage to make sure you never feel like you brought a knife to a gunfight. Their low light ability is better than their smaller counterparts, and if paired with the right lens, most people will be baffled at the lack of grain and blur. The main advantage to these cameras is the lenses. Most lenses are more expensive than a single compact camera, and the really nice lenses can easily be $1000 plus. You can tailor your camera kit to what your needs are. If sports are your thing, there’s a lens for that, if you want to shoot concerts, there’s a lens for that, and so on. At this point the camera is less important than the lens, and your camera bag becomes your bag of tricks.
Now other advantages include shooting in the RAW format to preserve high quality color and detail, very good low light capabilities, full control over every aspect of the image. Images look more natural on pro-style cameras because the large sensor allows fine detail to be well defined and smaller areas to be in focus. Disadvantages include $$$$, if you are looking at a pro camera you are staring down at a minimum $400, for a new bare bones camera and 3x zoom lens, and additional lenses and accessories will nearly always be in the hundreds of dollars or more. Also these things are big, even the small ones will be bigger than the largest compact camera. And hopefully this isn’t too much of a problem but you will have to learn stuff. These cameras are only as good as their users, if you use it like a compact camera and leave it on full auto you could end up wondering why you paid $3000 for your Canon 5D mkIII to come up with pictures that are 5 times bigger than your old camera’s but look only slightly better.
Now other advantages include shooting in the RAW format to preserve high quality color and detail, very good low light capabilities, full control over every aspect of the image. Images look more natural on pro-style cameras because the large sensor allows fine detail to be well defined and smaller areas to be in focus. Disadvantages include $$$$, if you are looking at a pro camera you are staring down at a minimum $400, for a new bare bones camera and 3x zoom lens, and additional lenses and accessories will nearly always be in the hundreds of dollars or more. Also these things are big, even the small ones will be bigger than the largest compact camera. And hopefully this isn’t too much of a problem but you will have to learn stuff. These cameras are only as good as their users, if you use it like a compact camera and leave it on full auto you could end up wondering why you paid $3000 for your Canon 5D mkIII to come up with pictures that are 5 times bigger than your old camera’s but look only slightly better.
I hope this answers a few general questions, if your head is spinning after that, then I promise it’s only going to get worse. If you are interested stay tuned for more explorations of cameras and camera technology. If you were bored to tears because you know it all already, also stay tuned because it will get more interesting I promise (physics of light anyone?).
© Bradford Ivan Jones
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