I'm in the market for a new camera, can anyone give me a good recommendation?
It'll be used for graphic design purposes so must have some bells and whistles (control of the shutter speed would be nice, as would some sort of blurryness control and video capabilities), however I'm not mega rich so it also has to give me good value for money.
Any thoughts? CommentAuthorNick CommentTime10 hours ago Buy a Drinkpermalink I have a Canon Powershot S70. It's far away from an SLR, but I can happily change exposure, ISO, colour settings and it has a manual focus mode in addition to the macro mode, where you choose the focal range using a visual slider on the screen (0cm to 5m+).
It's not amazingly new, but it has a high megapixel count, wide lense and decent battery life. It's a workhorse. CommentAuthorMouse CommentTime10 hours ago Buy a Drinkpermalink Richo Caplio R5! top camera in fact i just bought two! CommentAuthorTHiNK CommentTime10 hours ago edited Buy a Drinkpermalink If you are after a dSLR then a Canon EOS350d is spot on - got a few more quid? get the later EOS400d
There are a few photos taken with the 350d on my Flickr page :
http://flickr.com/photos/dannykeyDanny CommentAuthorilaskey CommentTime8 hours ago permalink Any idea of budget? I'd second the Canon 350/400 recommendation but those may be more than you want to spend, especially if you start looking at extra lenses etc. Whatever you get, don't get excited by pixel counts, what is important is metering and lens quality. Pixel counts are just for lazy marketeers although they do have a bearing if you are likely to crop right down a lot. CommentAuthorDan CommentTime8 hours ago permalink The Nikon D50 is a good camera. My brother has one, the images are really sharp and it's pretty easy to use while also keeping the pros happy. CommentAuthoriMarc CommentTime8 hours ago permalink I have the Canon Powershot SD600 - its great for personal pictures! Though, it certainly would not be acceptable for professional photography. CommentAuthoriBaz CommentTime6 hours ago permalink I've got a Fuji S5600. When I bought it about a year ago it was as well specced as you'd get without going to an SLR. I'm really happy with it and I think I would have been hard pressed to find something better for the money. It is quite hefty though, so I generally carry my old PowerShot A40 around for snapshots. CommentAuthormickyBoy CommentTime3 hours ago permalink I agree with THINK and ilaskey - go for a Canon 350D or 400D.
I've used both Nikon and Canon SLRs and they are both good; I'd say Canon comes out on top in terms of technology - very accurate and fast, and Nikon has the edge in terms of lenses - very crisp images.
The difference is pretty subjective though. What you decide on is really down to you.
I agree that pixel count isn't everything, and don't let your arm be twisted by sales people in camera shops. 1 to 9 of 9
Monday, February 26, 2007
Digital cameras include sophisticated mechanisms that can automatically figure out the perfect focus for the scene that you are photographing. However even the most sophisticated digital camera can be fooled by scenes that are hard to focus on. Here are a few such scenes and explanations.There are three main ways to implement automatic focus:Passive auto focus: This is practically an electronic version of the way in which photographers manually focus on objects. In this mode the digital camera defines areas in the photo on which it will try to focus. These are usually around the center of the photo. The camera captures the picture in real time and analyzes the quality of the focus in these areas. The camera moves its optical components (lenses) back and forth in a search for the optimal focus quality position. This in many ways is similar to the way photographers focus on objects ? they try to move the lens in one direction, if the focus gets better they move the lens a bit more, if the focus gets worse they move the lens to the other direction. The process continues until the best focus is achieved.Active auto focus: Active auto focus is a more direct implementation of auto focusing. In theory if you knew the exact optical characteristics of the camera and its lens and the exact distance to the objects that you are trying to focus on ? you could calculate the exact position of the lens that will result in a prefect focus. Active focus systems measure the distance to the objects in the picture by transmitting an invisible light beam and measuring the time it takes for the beam to bounce back from the objecst. The measured distance is used to calculate the position to which the lens should be moved in order to achieve the best focus.Combined auto focus: These systems are a combination of passive and active focusing. High end digital cameras support both passive and active methods. In combined mode the camera either chooses which system will work best for any given scene (for example in dark scenes passive auto focusing is not practical) or it uses both systems together (for example using the active system to bring the lens close to the perfect focus and then the passive system to fine tune that focus position.In some scenes auto focus systems can fail. It is important to understand what these scenes are and it is even more important to understand why the auto focus system fails in these scenes. Photographers that understand how auto focus system works and why it fails can easily identify scenes in which the digital camera would not be able to automatically focus. In such scenes the photographer can use techniques such as manual focusing or focusing on another object in the same distance and panning the camera (while the focus is locked).Following are a few scenes that will fail the auto focus system and the reasons why:Low light or dark scenes: Passive auto focus systems need to electronically see the objects in the scene in order to calculate the quality of the focus and find he best focus position. In low light or dark scenes such systems can not work since they are not able to see the objects and to calculate the focus. Some digital cameras solve this problem by shooting a series of flashes toward the objects and having the passive auto focus capture the image and try to find the perfect focus. This solution is very limited. It can only work with objects that are within focus range. In addition such aggressive flash usage is not practical in many scenes for example if you are trying to quietly take a photo of an animal. In low light or dark scenes the usage of active systems is very effective since they do not need ambient light in order to work.Active systems can fail too. For example they can fail when taking photos of objects that absorb the infrared energy that is used by the camera in order to measure the distance to the objects. They can also fail in scenes with objects that emit infrared energy such as candles or other heat sources. This emitted energy can cause the digital camera active system to measure the wrong distance.Low contrast objects: Objects such as white walls or blue skies are low contrast objects. Passive auto focus systems rely on the fact that the focus quality significantly changes in relation to the optical components position. This is only true for high contrast objects. Low contrast objects are harder for the camera to focus on since the focus quality does not change much and it is almost impossible for the camera to find a definite best focus position. This can be solved by using an active system that can simply measure the distance to the object or by focusing on another high contrast object in the same distance and then panning to the low contrast object while keeping the focus locked.Ziv Haparnas writes about technology and digital photography. This article can be published as long as the resource box including the backlink is included. You can find more information on digital photo printing and photography in general on printrates.com - a site dedicated to Sony and digital printingRelated Articles - auto focus, manual focus, passive focus, active focus, focusing, focus failuer, can not focus, focus,
