Friday, May 21, 2010

A picture tells a thousand words...but with what camera?

This is a community announcement to all and sundry who know how to take photos - I'm in the market for a new camera and I need some helpful advice and guidance.



Critical to this purchase are a few things to note:

#1: I need something practical that's happy to travel around with me, in bags that share the same space with hair ties, sand, wet ones and Barbie band aids. I will endeavour to keep sand to a minimum as I know it doesn't mix well with state of the art, precision made lenses!


#2: It can't be too pretentious and flashy as I'll never learn how to use it. I don't need lenses that can take shots of Brittany Spears topless on a boat in the Maldives from 8 kilometres away...and let's be perfectly honest, who on earth wants to see that anyway!


#3: Whilst I'm under no illusion that a camera is only as good as the joker holding it, I'd like one versatile enough to take landscape images so I can capture the beautiful scenery that I am blessed to wake up to every day whilst also taking...


#4: Run of the mill action shots of my kids (who are not these ones in the photo but are bound to grow up doing this) so I can look back and say "where on earth did the time go"


#5: And just for good measure, a few nature shots wouldn't be bad either.



So, hopefully this isn't too tall an order. Look forward to hearing all your suggestions and I will keep you updated on my progress in buying this new camera (or pestering my husband enough so he buys it for my upcoming birthday).

{images}

4 comments:

p h o t o g r a p h y said...

I have a fabulous little canon IXUS which is the one that travels in my handbag for all those spontaneous photos.
I also have a fab canon SLR with the interchangable lenses etc. which unfortunately gets shoved to the back of the cupboard unless we are off on a holiday, as the little one is so great and versatile that I don't often have to bring out the big guns.
such a personal thing, but my little one is great. simple to use, but has all the extra features also!
good luck finding something.

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Kelly Rachel said...

Well, first, please let me say, please have a look at:
Your Camera Doesn't Matter by Ken Rockwell:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm
And also see why here:
http://www.chasejarvis.com/#s=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&p=5&a=0&at=0
This is Chase Jarvis' catalogue of photos taken with his iPhone...how much more handy could you get with that.

Having said that, I reckon a nice compact camera would suit you. If you can, get one that has an aperture as wide as at least f/2.8. This should enable you to get nice indoor shots as well as outdoor shots. (It allows more light into the lens.)

I'm not really up on compact cameras, so I can't really recommend a specific brand. I have a Canon DSLR, and I've spent quite some time figuring out how it works. I recommend when you get a camera, read the manual from front to back and play, play, play. If you know what your camera can do, you can work around its limitations and enhance its strengths.

Well I've rambled on far too much. Hope I've helped a little. :D

Tuuli - Lumo Lifestyle said...

I am in love with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 ( I believe it's called TZ7 in US), there probably is a newer model since last sumemr when we bought our camera. It goes with me everywhere and I have taken abt. 7000 photos in a year. All my photos in www.lumolifestyle.blogspot.com are taken with our Lumix.

Love the 12 x zoom and macro zoom. Very low light photos (restaurant photos etc.) could be a bit better, but I think I would need a system camera for them and prefer a pocket size camera.