Last updated: 04-08-09

So you want to buy a digital camera but don’t know where do you start? This post is for you. Being a photographer, a lot of friends ask me, “what camera should I buy?” Usually there is a list of things that they want in a camera and a target price. So here you go, the comprehensive list!

First of all, you have to ask yourself what you want out of a camera and what kind of budget you have. You will find that you pay a premium for small camera size, image quality, and features – so decide which is your main requirement.

I have found that most digital cameras fall into one of the following categories:

1. A cheap but good medium sized camera to take snapshots. you can get a good one for about $150.
2. A small and stylish camera with the same picture quality as #1 that you can show off to friends and fits easily in a pocket or purse. You can get one for approximately $199.
3. A compact camera with manual controls (being able to control shutter and aperture) and features (like a big zoom, image stabilization, better pictures in low light environments) that will enable the user to learn about photography on a deeper level. These tend to be relatively larger cameras. Expect to pay between $250 and $400 on these.
4. An SLR with really nice image quality, interchangeable lenses, full manual control, and lots of accessories. An SLR is going to be much larger and more expensive than a compact camera. You will probably have to spend at least $599 on a base model plus the cost of additional lenses if none are included with the camera body. These lenses can range in price from $75 all the way up to $2000.
5. The best image quality money can buy. Professional digital cameras with all the bells and whistles – they are usually huge, heavy, and extremely expensive – for pros only! These cameras start at around $2500 and go up to about $8000.

So, what are some cameras in each class that you would recommend? (as of April
2009)
#1 – Canon A series
#2 – Canon SD series (SD1100), Panasonic Lumix FS series
#3 – Canon SX (SX10) series (big zoom), Canon G series (G10), Panasonic LX series (LX3)
#4 – Nikon and Canon digital DSLRs
#5 – Nikon and Canon Pro DSLRs

Info on Canon Point and Shoot Cameras:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=113

Info on Panasonic Point and Shoot Cameras:

http://www.panasonic.net/avc/lumix/compact/index.html

I would say that 75% of people are going to fall into either categories #1 or #2 because they want to take pictures without the fuss that comes with the more expensive cameras. For those who want to pursue photography as a hobby on a deeper level will probably want a camera from categories #3 or #4. Most people who find that they really enjoy photography eventually graduate to #4 after first having a point and shoot or an advanced compact camera first. #5 is for professionals and the cost is usually prohibitive. A camera in category #4 can probably do 85% of what a camera in category #5 can do.

I’ve found that for image quality in a small package, Canon is the way to go. I’m really impressed with the quality for the price of the Canon. Recently Panasonic cameras have gotten really high marks as well for the quality of their lenses and low light photo abilities. I’ve owned other brands as well, but none really stack up to these brands.

I’m not too sure about the cameras in the #3 category because they are in between an SLR and a compact so they have the advantages of both, but sometimes you’ll feel that it’s too big and sometimes if you want to just carry a camera around in a pants pocket. Also, with a camera in category #3, you’ll feel that it can’t do everything an SLR could do – so while in a way it is the best of both worlds, in a way it shares the disadvantages of both as well.

If money isn’t a problem, I would opt for having 2 cameras – a DSLR and a compact. You can take the compact with you for casual occasions and use the DSLR when you want to get serious about taking good photos.

WARNING: SLRs are money pits. you’ll constantly want to upgrade your equipment because everything is interchangeable. The best lenses can cost twice as much as the camera. If you are a casual user you can probably get by with the cheap lenses. If you want the best lenses, you pay a huge premium.

Also, more megapixels don’t necessarily mean better quality! anything over 5-6mp is enough for the casual photographer!

Here are the best review sites that I read:
steves-digicams.com – reviews written in plain english
dpreview.com – in depth technical and user reviews
pbase.com/cameras – go here for sample photos sorted by camera and lens
amazon.com – good for user reviews and some sample photos
photographyreview.com – user reviews on higher end photo stuff

Final word of advice. Don’t just buy from the website with the cheapest price. There are a lot of bait-and-switch retailers on the internet that will advertise one price, then try to sell you rediculously overpriced warranties and accessories. Many will cancel your order unless you buy these “upgrades”. If you really want to get the cheapest price, first check www.resellerratings.com before you buy. If you don’t want to deal with that, here’s a list of resellers I trust:

amazon.com
buydig.com
dell.com
adorama.com
bhphotovideo.com

I was out shooting outdoor photos today at apeture setting F14 and thought I was getting some really nice shots. On closer inspection though, my old arch nemisis the black little dots of my sensors were back with a vengence, just 8 months after the last time I cleaned the sensor. I usually don’t shoot over F8 so the dots aren’t that noticeable, but this was terrible. There must be a hundred dots on this photo alone – this shot is unusable and I really don’t feel like taking the time to fix it.

Good news is, I followed my original DIY cleaning instructions (click this link to see them) again and cleaned the sensor almost completely in less than 3 minutes.

Before:

Notice how all the spots are in the same place on this photo as in the church photo:

After:

I went from 100s of dots to about 3. I could clean it again, but this is good enough for now – don’t want to risk getting more dirt in by opening the sensor up again.

I found a new shortcut for spotting the dots too. Instead of photographing a white sheet of paper, I used my computer monitor. I simply opened notepad, maximized the screen, and shot a photo of my monitor (focusing on the pointer) at ISO800, F16 and 1/60 sec. This was much faster than getting out a tripod, setting up a white sheet of paper vertically and shooting that with a much longer exposure.

UPDATE: 09-25-07 – Amanda from the Austin Photography Group reminded me that the reason I’m probably getting so much dirt on my sensor is because I am not turning off the camera when I change lenses every time. I believe the logic behind this is that when the camera is turned on, the electric current that runs through the sensor attracts dust.

I agree, sometimes I do get rushed and forget to shut the camera down. Over the next several months, I will be careful when changing lenses and I’ll compare the amount of dust I see in about 6 more months.

Have you ever noticed when you take photos when the sun is shining bright, parts of the photo are either way too bright or way too dark? Because of limitations in film or with your digital camera, It’s hard to get fine details in the shadows and in the bright areas at the same time. Is there any way around this so that all of the parts of the photo show up as you see them with your eye?

Well, it turns out there is, and it’s called High Dynamic Range Photography. This type of photography takes multiple photos taken at different settings and averages the best parts of each photo. The result is a new photo that has a higher dynamic range and more information – that is you get more detail out of the extreme white and black areas in the photo and everything in between.

There are many tutorials online on how to do HDR photography, but this is the short version of the the basic and most common technique:

Take a digital camera and put it on a tripod. Frame the scene and set up the camera for bracketing (taking multiple photos at different exposure settings). You want to take 3 photos, one at normal settings, one at +2 exposure, and one at -2 expsosure settings (consult your camera manual – I know most canon digital cameras do this). +2 means twice as bright as the photo at normal settings, and -2 means twice as dark.

Take 3 photos and import it into an HDR program such as Photomatix (available here. You will have to adjust the final image a bit to your desired settings – you can make the photo lighter or darker within the program. I won’t go into the details here because you can just read the tutorial within the software. Photoshop CS2 also has an HDR function if you already own a copy of that. Once you are done and the software does it’s magic, you’ll have a single image that is the result of merging 3 images together. Enough talking – here is a look at my first HDR image. This is the view outside of my living room window in Austin, TX.

Photo taken at normal settings – notice how the buildings are dark and there is a large white spot on the right with no detail.

Photo taken at -2 exposure settings – notice how the buildings are extremely dark but we can see much more detail in the sky – all of the clouds are visible.

Photo taken at +2 exposure settings – the buildings are properly exposed, but the sky is totally white and we can’t see the clouds or the sky at all.

Resulting image #1 – Notice how the sky has all of the details of the darkest images, and the foreground with the buildings and the city have the details of the brightest image. Using the HDR technique, I effectively brought out all of the detail that you could see with the human eye.

Resulting image #2 – This image is an example of what HDR can do at it’s most extreme settings. Saturation, strength, and contrast were turned very high on this one, giving an extrordinary amount of detail and a very artistic, surreal looking photo with an almost oil painting feel to it.

For more info, a Wikipedia link to HDR Photography can be found here.

Visit this HDR Flickr group for more examples: http://www.flickr.com/groups/myfirsthdr/pool/

Here is a link to an in depth HDR tutorial using Photomatix: http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/ via Vanilla Days.

White Balance is a concept commonly misunderstood by beginners. Simply put, white balance is a digital camera setting that allows the colors in your photos to appear accurately. White balance gets it’s name because if a photo has correct white balance, things that are white in reality appear white in the photo. All other colors appear accurately too – blacks are pure black and gray are pure gray with no other colors mixed in.

Why do we need white balance? Many don’t realize it, but different light sources produce different colored light. For example, household light bulbs contain a gas called tungsten which produces an orange colored light. Fluorescent bulbs produce a greenish colored light.

You’ve probably seen photos with incorrect white balance that were taken indoor without a flash. These photos tend to take on either a green or orange tint depending on what kind of lights are in the room. This happens because the camera sees the world differently than the human eye. While our eyes are able to automatically correct colors accurately, the camera is not as intelligent. The best way to illustrate the concept of white balance is with real world photos.

The photo on the left was taken in auto white balance mode in a kitchen that has flourescent lights. Notice the green tint on the white counter tops and the black stove. The photo on the right was taken in a bathroom lit by tungsten light bulbs – notice the orange tint throughout the entire photo.

How do we get colors to appear correctly without looking too green or too orange? See the example below:

Auto White Balance	Tungsten White Balance
Orange Cast	Correct WB

The photos of the memory card above were lit by a regular light bulb (tungsten light). In the photo that was taken using auto white balance (left) the whites and blacks have an orange cast. In the second photo (right) the tungsten white balance option on my camera was selected before I took the picture. Notice how in this second photo all of the colors apear more accurately. White is much closer to true white and the blacks are true black (without the orange tint). Colors are represented correctly when the camera’s white balance setting matches the main light source in the photograph (tungsten light source and tungsten white balance in this case).

Correct white balance is important for many reasons. In portrait photography skin tones need to appear accurately because greenish or yellowish skin tones look unnatural. In product photography it is important for the colors to appear accurate so that the consumer knows exactly what he is getting. Also, when taking multiple photos of one thing it’s important to have consistent white balance so that the colors in the photos all match.

The table below shows how daylight, tungsten, and Flourescent light look when photographed in 3 different white balance modes. When the light source and the white balance setting are matched properly, the main light source appears white in the photograph. Note that if you start in the top left corner and move diagonally to the right and down you will see images that more or less have correct white balance.

	Tungsten WB	Fluorescent WB	Daylight WB
Tungsten Light Source
Florescent Light Source
Daylight (cloudy) Light Source

Also notice how if you are in tungsten or fluorescent WB settings daylight appears blue or purple.

So what white balance should you use? In order to get the most faithful color representation you should use the SAME white balance mode as your MAIN source of light. For example, if your house is lit by 5 fluorescent lights and and one regular light bulb – you should set your camera to fluorescent white balance. If you are inside during daytime and all the windows are open and only one light bulb is on, you should probably use the daylight white balance. Experiment and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Learning to use white balance properly takes a lot of practice. Also, after shooting in a custom white balance mode, make sure to change the WB back to auto when you are done or you might get some interesting looking photos the next time you shoot!

Good luck and happy shooting!