Be a Better Photographer #2 - Camera and Lens Advice

(Cameras)
If you are serious about photography as a hobby or profession you are going to want to buy a DSLR (digital single Lens Reflex) camera. This is a camera system that is made up of a body with interchangeable lenses, where you look through the lens (via a mirror in the camera body) to frame your shot, not on an electronic viewfinder or auxiliary lens. I'm not convinced that DSLR's won't be replaced by electronic viewfinders (it's already starting) but for now that is what you want.

I would also suggest you buy a Canon or Nikon DSLR. My personal preference is Canon (that is one n not two) I use Canon DSLR's for my weddings and portraits http://www.portlandphotographer.com and Canon point and shoots for my photo booths http://www.fortunephotobooth.com I have certain biases that Canon is better than Nikon and if you have a Nikon you better have the opposite feelings, otherwise there would be no reason to fight about it.
Many a Camera forum war has been started by someone dissing Nikon or saying they wouldn't use a Canon for a paper weight. We'll try to be civil here though, so keep your comments nice and clean. (Canon rules!)

Why Canon and Nikon? Because they have been around for a long time and I feel they really care about photographers, and photography I general. There is an amazing array of lenses and products made for these cameras and not only are they at the forefront in technology (canon may be a bit ahead ;-) but I think they will be around for a long time to keep supporting their products. Once you buy a nice lens you may have that lens for ever. After borrowing equipment for a few years I bought my first Canon Lens in 1993, a Canon 28-80 USM 3.5-5.6. It was and still is a fine variable aperture lens, and I still have it, and even use it as a back up lens. If it ever breaks I know I can send it in t Canon and in a week or so have it back in my bag functioning perfectly.

Canon was also named one of the worlds most environmental companies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_(company) Take that Nikon. Now give Canon some love.

The mega pixel race is winding down. All current DSLR's (IMHO) have enough resolution. I used to shoot weddings with a 3 Mega pixel camera, The Canon D30. Looking back maybe 3 MP wasn't quite enough, but then I had the D60 and 6 was pretty good. 8-10 seems like a great number, although with today's technology you'd be hard to find anything under 10 MP. Too many pixels crammed on a sensor can negatively affect image quality, but apparently has never hurt sales. I'm not saying more is always bad, it's just that all cameras have the required mega pixels for weddings and portraits at this point.

I actually still have my D-30 and D60 cameras and they still work. But eventually if you shoot for a living, or shoot a lot then your cameras mechanical shutter will break. You will be shooting away and suddenly your camera will sound funny while shooting, then when you review your images you will either see a black bar across your images or half of your photo may be over exposed. Time to send the camera in for repairs. This happens somewhere around the 300 thousandth frame. Which is why you will have a back up camera at all times. I usually use a camera until the shutter blows, repair it, then it becomes my back up and I upgrade bodies for my Primary camera. You can sell your old cameras or do something fun and crazy like what I did to my D30 - turn it into an Infrared Camera. See:
http://canonir.blogspot.com/ (There are also shops that will do this for you, but its cool to tear things apart and put them back together, and if they still work its amazingly satisfying. Just what to do with all the leftover parts that I was left with.)

Personally I love to shoot with a full frame sensor. That is, a sensor that is the same size as a piece of 35 mm film. If the sensor is smaller then all of your lenses are not what they say they are. For instance a camera with a 1.6 crop means a 20 mm lens is actually a 20 x 1.6 = 32 mm lens. And I love to shoot wide. Another benefit of a full frame sensor is that the photo sites are larger. Lets say two cameras had 1 pixel resolution, One of these is full frame and one is a 1.6 crop camera. That one pixel will be larger on the full frame camera right? It will be the size of a piece 35mm film. The same is true of 20 mega pixel cameras, the larger the sensor the larger the individual photo-sites are, and larger is always better right?
Like, "How big a hole would you like me to drill in your head?" But really, larger photo-sites mean cleaner images and more accurate colors. The draw backs to full frame sensors is that 1. your lenses are wider (and you might only like close ups) and the larger the sensor the more flaws your lenses will show. Lenses are often sharpest in the middle, and softer at the edges, so If your camera crops off the edges than you crop off all the soft areas that your lens makes.

Now, if you follow my advice and buy a Canon or a Nikon you will find that there are millions of other users online who are dying to answer your questions about these products. Go to http://www.dpreview.com and look at the Canon and Nikon forums, and you can solicit advice on which exact camera and which lenses you should buy. You may also notice that if you need to borrow or rent equipment, chances are that it will be Canon or Nikon, so if you are already familiar with then it will make borrowing and renting much easier.

(A word or two about Lenses)

"What lens should I buy?" That is a question I hear all the time. Of course it depends on what you are shooting, how much money you have, and if you are doing it for a living or not. I am a fan of the zoom lens. I love to zoom.
I stick with a 24-70mm lens for most of my wedding shooting. Others like to shoot with fixed focal length lenses, but as I said, I loves me the zoom.
In the studio I'll often shoot fixed, but for most shots a zoom has all the quality you'll need, and twice the convenience.

Case #1 The student with no money who wants to take better photos. In this case go cheap, go Sigma or another of brand and get something with a killer zoom range. Sigma makes a 18-300 Image stabilized lens that will get the job done. You may never change lenses again! Don't be afraid to buy used, but lenses will last forever and I find the quality control on new lenses is bad (see later comments on this) so don't buy unless you know you can return a defective copy of your lens.

Case #2 Someone starting out shooting weddings, and making a little bit of money at their hobby. In this case I think you need to have at least 2 lenses and a back up main lens. You need something in the 24-70 range and something in the 70-200 range to capture portraits and ceremony shots from far away. (Sigma and Canon and Nikon make these two lenses with a fixed 2.8
aperture) I am more of a fan of getting a 2.8 lens rather than relying on image stabilization. In weddings it's the subject moving that causes me to make blurry shots, not camera shake. Make the investment and go 2.8.

Case #3 The person who wants more and isn't afraid to make the investment.
At a minimum I would get the 24-70 and 70-200 lenses and then add the 15mm fisheye and a Lensbaby kit. Lensbaby now makes a circular fish eye for about $150 that is super fun http://www.lensbay.com . I'm going to write a lensbaby article soon. (watch this space) What else are you willing to lug around? You could add a 400 mm lens (better have an assistant to carry your
gear) or maybe a 85 or 100 mm macro/portrait lens. Everyone is going to suggest their own favorite arsenal, and feel free to leave your list as a comment to this blog post, or email me directly at soren@fortunephotobooth.com

(Side Note)

People who work with me know that I hate lens caps. When I buy a lens I open the box, put on the lens shade, throw the lens cap to the kids to use as a Frisbee and then throw the lens into the bottom of my camera bag. I do use the lens shade which gives some measure of lens protection. In fact, I better stop there.
I ALWAYS use a lens shade (and when I say ALWAYS, I hope you know I mean usually ;-) You must use a lens shade. Please go out and make sure you have a lens shade on every lens you use. Lens shades actually make pictures look better! They reduce lens flare which increases contrast, and I even believe it makes better pictures indoors as well as outdoors. Why do lens caps drive me nuts? Because they slow me down. I switch lenses quite often and removing and replacing lens caps just isn't in my work flow. Also, I just can't stand the embarrassment of pulling out an impressive looking 70-200 mm lens, and plopping it on in front of a big group at a wedding. Then you bring the camera up to your and then everyone in the group shouts "wait.
Wait! You left the lens cap on." Like you wouldn't have noticed, its an SLR do you can't see the scene with the cap on.

You however should not blame me when you scratch your nice new lens because Soren doesn't use lens caps, and doesn't scratch his lenses. Honestly though if lens caps float your boat, go ahead, I'm just a speed freak, I switch fast and furious and lens caps slow me down, or at least add a subliminal message to my brain telling me ... "Don't switch lenses, it's a pain." And the kids dig playing with them.
Some people are filter freaks and buy an $80 filter to protect their lens glass, fine go ahead if you must (I don't believe in them they just add more glass for reflections and lowering the contrast of the final shot.)
(end of lens cap rant here, its my own problem, and I know it.)

What about lens brands. I must admit I a not a purist here. I use Canon lenses, Lensbaby lenses, Sigma lenses, Tamron lenses, I'll use anything that fits on my camera if I like it, I even use a Holga lens on my canon, See:
http://www.holgamods.com/mods/mods.html . If you are looking for lens reviews I'd go somewhere like http://www.fredmiranda.com Fred has a great site with lots of gear info and helpful forums. It wouldn't hurt to visit http://www.dpreview.com either since the forums there have more posts than you could ever hope to read.

Here is my important advice on lens buying: One thing I've noticed about lenses, made by any company, is that quality control seems pretty low. You can buy a Canon 24-70 f2.8 L, and shoot 100 test shots of a non moving subject and the subject may never be in focus, (some call these blurry shots "Artistic.")But if you do some quick tests and find the lens is soft or won't focus and you swap it for another of the same kind you might find the worlds sharpest lens. I'm not sure why there is such a difference between two seemingly identical lenses, but it must be that these things are just that complicated. And if you are going to have a lens forever, you might as well test it, and send back the bad ones for a replacement.
Canon and Nikon make great lenses, but they are expensive, and I drop and break them just as often as I drop less expensive lenses. I suggest exploring Sigma as a substitute if you are on a budget, they make some 2.8 and better aperture lenses that I really like, The 24-70 and 70-200 are ones I use, as well as their 15mm fish eye and 14 mm wide angle. Just make sure
you get a good copy. (One reason I never liked the Canon zoom lenses is
that I shoot with off camera lights at weddings and the canons gave me big yellow pumpkin-like blob reflections on my shots, and I never get these with the Sigmas.) I'll be doing a lighting article soon.

That's it for now, I wrote way more than I thought I would, and I'm sure I'll have updates to this topic soon. As always please tell me if you like the article, or if you think I'm just full of it. Really I'd like to hear. You can email me at soren@fortunephotobooth.com Let me know if there is something you would like me to expand on or re-explain.


Cheers!

Soren
http://www.fortunephotobooth.com