August 10, 2005
This page contains advice for people who are interested in starting to use a digital camera and are at least moderately serious about photography. If you're just interested in taking snapshots, or if you're a professional photographer, this page probably won't help you much. But if your interests are similar to mine, here's what I've learned so far.
Will I need a lot of stuff?
Yes.
If you're not particularly serious about photography, digital photography is as easy as, or easier than, film photography. You get a point and shoot camera and it saves your images onto a memory card. You bring your memory card to your drugstore to have the images printed, or you connect your camera to a small photo printer. If you want to invest a little more time, you connect your camera to a computer, where you can store your images and use the web to order prints and share images with others.
I'm going to assume, however, that you're more interested in your photography than that -- you're not a professional, but you want to work on your images and preserve them. In that case, things quickly get just as complicated as they were with film. Digital photography gives you the ability to exercise the same kind of control over your work that a photo lab can, but the price of that is some complexity.
If it seems intimidating, look on the bright side. All of the components are there to give you more control over your work and help you achieve your artistic goals. They're worth taking the time to learn, the same way that you had to learn about apertures, shutter speeds, and depth of field.
What kind of camera should I get?
I don't know.
In today's market, if someone tells you that a particular camera is the perfect camera, you should stop listening to that person and ask someone else. Digital cameras are still evolving in a number of ways: hardware and software continue to improve; photographers continue to discover what they most want in digital cameras; and manufacturers continue to look for the right feature sets and price points for their product lines.
From my point of view, broadly, here is how the market currently breaks down:
| Consumer compact cameras | Prosumer compact cameras | Prosumer SLRs | Professional SLRs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meant for casual personal use | Meant for serious amateurs | Meant for serious amateurs | Meant for full time professional photographers |
| Mediocre to decent quality sensor | Decent to good quality sensor | Good quality sensor with minimal chromatic aberration | Excellent sensor with best tonal range, most accurate color |
| Mediocre to decent lenses | Decent to good lenses | You choose your lenses | You choose your lenses |
| Images are always compressed | Uncompressed images may be an option | Uncompressed images are an option | Uncompressed images are preferred |
| Few manual controls | Most manual controls | Full manual controls | Full manual controls |
| $200-600 | $400-900 | $800-2,000 | $3,500-8,000 |
Today there are good options to choose from in each of these segments. And in each segment you might find a camera that has a feature that is particularly important to you and that you can't find in another segment.
If you're somewhat serious about photography, though, the basic choice that confronts you is the same as it was with film: do you want an SLR or not? The choice isn't much easier than it was with film; in the $800-$1,500 price range, there are fixed-lens and SLR cameras with comparable image quality and feature sets. As an illustrative example of the issues you might consider, see this page, part of a longer review of a particular fixed-lens camera.
The upshot is, you're going to want to do some research. I suggest you go to Digital Photography Review, which provides (for free) very extensive, complete, and well organized reviews of the latest cameras from the major brands.
Reading about the latest digital cameras is fun and can become an unhealthy obsession. Just try to remember that your most important photographic tool is you -- your experience, imagination, and perseverence. So limit your research, make a decision, and get out there taking pictures.
No, really, what kind of camera should I get?
Here's one observation that might help: unlike in the film world, there are not yet any fixed-lens compact cameras (significantly smaller than an SLR) that match the image quality of the most affordable SLRs. Many of us are eagerly waiting for digital cameras to catch up to that point; it's still to come. For now, there's a tradeoff between camera size and image quality (combination of optics, sensor, and software), no matter how much money you have. If you know that you'll want both an SLR and a compact camera, it makes more sense to start with the SLR now and buy the compact later.
If you do choose an SLR, your decisionmaking is somewhat simplified since there are not as many affordable SLRs as there are high-end compact cameras. When it comes to SLRs, Canon and Nikon are the dominant brands, with the longest digital SLR experience and the widest range of lenses and accessories. Each company usually has one latest, entry-level model in the $900 range. Beyond that there are just a few alternatives from Pentax and Olympus to consider.
I need a computer, right?
Yes.
Most obviously, if you don't have a computer to copy your images to, you'll run out of memory and be forced to delete images you'd rather keep. But more importantly, if you don't have a computer to edit your images, you'll miss out on a lot of what digital photography offers you. It would be like shooting film and always just taking it to the drugstore to get prints.
Most new computers sold today, and many sold in the last four years, are perfectly capable of running the software you need to work on images. It doesn't take a special computer to store a few thousand digital photos and edit a few images at a time. Good photo software is available for both the Apple and Microsoft operating systems.
Just like the other information you keep on your computer, your images need to be backed up safely in case your computer fails. The most convenient ways to do this are with a portable hard drive or an online backup service. Alternatively, burn CDs or DVDs of your images and add additional discs as your collection grows, and keep them in a safe place.
Can I get by with just the software that the camera manufacturer provides?
No.
The software provided with your camera will probably be just enough to copy images from your camera to your computer, store them in folders, and make crude image adjustments such as contrast and brightness. There are two main areas in which you'll want to consider getting additional software.
First, you'll want to organize your image collection. Because your digital camera lets you take as many pictures as you want without burning through film, you'll quickly accumulate thousands of images. In the long run, filing images by any single characteristic -- such as by date or location -- isn't going to be sufficient. You'll want to associate images with multiple characteristics (in batches of course) and that you can search on later. You'll also want to keep track of the versions of an image that you create as you edit it. There are many options Adobe Album, Picasa, and ACDSee. Most offer some way to try out the software and see if you like it.
Second, you'll want to edit images, "processing" them to turn what came out of your camera into the final product you want to share. Adobe Photoshop is widely regarded as the leading photo editing software and there are surprisingly few competitors. Adobe recently acquired Macromedia and so we can expect Macromedia's products to be absorbed into the Adobe product line. That leaves just a handful of alternatives such as Corel Paint Shop Pro.
Photoshop is too extensive and expensive for many photo enthusiasts at the outset. For that reason, Adobe provides a less extensive version of Photoshop called Elements to get started. If you're lucky, your camera may come bundled with Photoshop Elements. If not, Adobe offers a trial download.
Finally, at some point you'll likely want to share your images with others electronically. Online photo services such as flickr let you share images with your friends and, if you're interested, larger communities of people who might comment on your images.
What about printing?
Just as with film, you have three main options for printing: do it yourself; take it to a local photo shop; or get prints by mail.
Doing it yourself means buying a photo printer. The cost of printing your own pictures includes the cost of the printer, special paper, and toner or ink. Beyond that, there is the non-trivial time investment of calibrating a printer and learning to edit your image files to get the printed output you want. Getting prints as good as your local photo printing chain is easy. Getting professional, museum quality prints is hard.
If most of your work ends up on the web, and you don't really need a printer, it's reasonably convenient to order prints from a web-based service such as Printroom.
I want more detail
Ok.
Here are some web sites with more information:
- An Introduction to Digital Photography by Ken Rockwell
- Introduction to Digital Photography by Frank Phillips
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