'I'd like to buy a proper camera, what should I get?' - This is one of the more commonly asked questions for anyone who is known to be a photographer.I have two standard answers in the form of two further questions:How much do you want to spend?What is it that you cannot do with your current camera?It presents no challenge to find cameras that will cost more than a brand new car. Buying cameras can be a slippery slope leading to a black pit that absorbs money. In my view there needs to be a budget set and an attempt to reach clarity about what the buyer seeks to achieve with their new camera.The last 2-3 years has seen an immense simplification in the process of buying cameras as the category of ‘compact camera’ has all but disappeared. In almost every case these have been completely replaced by the ever improving and spectacularly competent camera in even modest smart phones.Most people have an excellent camera already in their phone. £300-£500 buys an entry level camera with interchangeable lenses and from then on the bank balance or credit card is the limit.The crucial questions become:What do you want to photograph?What does your current camera (or phone camera) NOT do?Often, buried deep within the original enquiry, is the perennial problem - the belief that a ‘better’ (more expensive or more technological) camera will result in ‘better photographs. This is a false promise in which the greater part of the Magazine industry is also complicit. I often refer enquirer to the outstanding work of Julian Calverley using only an iPhone http://www.juliancalverley.com/personal/#north-northwestFor other aspects of photography (travel, portraits, etc) a quick Google will generally yield fabulous results from a phone camera.Who definitely needs an upgrade? You may well get better results from an upgraded camera if you want to photograph the following:Sports especially if the action is some distance awayInsectsWildlifeInteriors in small spacesAircraft, motor racingSome landscapes especially if you want to exploit different angles of view provided by wide or telephoto lenses.Finally, the experienced, analytical and reflective photographer who is able to identify a highly specific feature may well see improvements.Canvas as many views as you can but be wary of anyone who insists that any one brand is the best. It's pretty hard to buy a poor camera currently. The number of cameras being sold and the number of makers is reducing, by and large the best are surviving. There is a great deal to be said for a specialist camera shop but again be aware that the salesperson may be on greater commission for some brands.If you return home with a camera that feels right and looks right to you, it will have the potential to produce fine images. Most cameras on dealers shelves come from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus and Fuji; all will produce fine images. The current models will represent the ‘state of the art’ but the previous models will also represent high quality and better value.Tips:Do your research. If you are considering spending hundreds of pounds on a camera, make some effort.Look for the previous model in every case. These will always be cheaper, always have better deals, always represent good value for money and in an occasional case, may even be the better camera.By all means ask for views on Social Media but don't set yourself up as an easy target. Express clearly what your budget is, what you want to photograph and if possible what it is about your current camera that fails you.Make sure you are getting the best out of what you have now. Many people express a desire to get ‘clearer’ pictures: if that's the case, holding your phone more steadily and using a handkerchief to clean its lens will often bring rapid improvements.Consider the investment in some tuition. A 1:1 workshop may well pay for itself in terms of money saved on needless or ill considered expenditure. Many providers are happy to answer a continuous stream of questions that lead to you getting the resits for which you seek.Read the reviews by all means but remember that many of them are written by people who are in the pay of the manufacturer, many are written by people without any real experience, many in print and online are designed to increase circulation and so are controversial or provocative.Getting off the fenceWhat would I currently recommend for a newcomer to photography?(May2017)If you want to spend less than £300, I'd be very tempted to either stick with your phone camera or consider an upgraded phone.If you are ready to spend £350 then I'd look very hard at the Nikon D3300 with an 18-55mm lens. ( the current model is the D3400 so previous model is cheaper). Depending upon what you want to photograph, you may need to budget for a tripod, a remote release and protective filters for the front of the lens. A little more will allow you to add a telephoto lens for those more distant objects. A camera such as the above ( or Google for whatever the nearest Canon equivalent might be) will certainly cope with most holiday photographs, pets, family, walks, festivities etc. When you can't make the picture you want, the time may have arrived for additional lenses. Bear in mind however when seeking additional lenses that most of the greatest photographs ever taken throughout history were taken on focal lengths within the range of that supplied kit lens.
Learning Curve
I'm on a learning curve that has suddenly steepened. A few weeks ago a 24mm PC-e lens arrived along with a determination to achieve control over it. This morning was another instalment, beginning at 4.30 (which is frankly getting ridiculous...) and concluding with more thoughts about selling it.I think I understand the principle. Frame the image, focus on a point about 1/3 of the way up the frame then apply a tiny amount of tilt forward to bring everything into focus. I know everyone applies too much and am careful of that. I use live view and magnification to check the focus. I have a Lupe to allow me to magnify the live view screen. I feel I'm doing it all right but still failing to make a substantial or indeed any significant improvement over using my 16-35mm well stopped down and carefully focussed. I'm going to edit and add to this post as blog within a blog. I'd be really keen to hear others people's views and experience. If you have one or have ever had a PC /T&S lens, do contribute.Update 6/5/17 The Pc-e lens has gone. I am in the fortunate position of being able to do what I enjoy. I wasn't enjoying this lens and it wasn't adding to what I could achieve. Even allowing for the need to learn and practise I was hating the fuss necessary to make a photograph. I don't mind slowing down and taking time but this lens sucked out my desire to live. I don't know whether I expected too much or if I simply failed to make the lens perform to its full or even if the lens was faulty. It would have required an even greater financial investment to investigate and my patience was done.Lit is being replaced by a Zeiss 25mm f2 that comes with a colossal reputation. This will no doubt become the subject of further ramblings in this blog.
Teacher or Sharer?
I’ve recently experienced a relatively dramatic upsurge in enquiries for workshops relating to either photographing or processing. Simultaneously there has been a noticeable increase in visitors to this website. Finally and in some ways most surprising of all has been the growing realisation that many of those visitors have been reading these blog posts. I plan and think in words and pictures. I use diagrams and text to organise my thoughts (usually with pencil and paper) and while the blog has always been open, it has served as a way of enabling thinking rather than of specifically sharing or pontificating. I’ve been a subscriber to the principle of Social Constructionism for many years now. The core of this for me is the belief that learning, rather than a competitive process where the ‘best learner’ wins, is an undertaking that is best performed by a group. This may be a small study group or scaled to the whole of society/humanity. Simply, work together, share and we all learn more. In writing the above I am trying to make a point. When I write about what I have learned, it is to share that learning and perhaps facilitate the learning of someone else. It is explicitly not to demonstrate my learning, knowledge nor to advertise some form of mastery. Last week I wrote about installing Jetpack on this website. I'm not a high skills tech guru and it wasn't intended to be an evaluation, justification or even a recommendation. I don't know enough about either the product or the underlying technology to do any of those things. The writing was simply to share an experience. The growth of Social Media and of self publishing (in its many forms) has made it very easy to become an ‘expert’. There seem to be an ever increasing number of people who on Monday buy their first DSLR, by Wednesday are Photographers (With a Facebook business page) and by Friday have their own YouTube channel to disseminate their week long experience and expertise.Some of this relates to a future post on the difference between response and judgment and some relates to the concept of mastery. However the key element is that when I write I am sharing my learning rather than seeking to teach. I’m offering a personal perspective rather than an expression of what I consider to be an absolute truth. There are different truths out there for different people, even science is not absolute and shown so elegantly by Heisenberg and Schroedinger et al.