Camera Stuff
Camera Stuff
I love taking pictures I just wish I had a better camera. I'm constantly clicking and the camera doesn't respond quick enough and I lose what I am sure is valuable pictures! I also need a camera that can zoom in a great deal often I am very far away from something and I need closer shots. I am very new to photography so I'm not sure just what to look for so if anyone has ideas I'd sure love to hear them.
Ed and all --
The key to a good picture is getting the picture. I was an early adopter of digital cameras -- used them in the military as early as 1988, and had some of the first ones on the market (Apple QuickTake, Kodak DC40). I went through many many digital cameras -- I have a whole box of old deaders -- and working as an aviation photojournalist I kept losing the shot!
Many digital cameras will zoom. (What you want is "optical zoom". Sometimes they claim a high level of "digital zoom" but that usually means they are faking a blow-up of the picture, and it's not good). But most of them take several seconds to be ready to shoot, which is frustrating to those of us who remember the instantaneous action of film cameras.
I finally got frustrated when I was interviewing the head of NASA's Aeronautics program, a very distinguished scientist and manager who gave me valuable minutes out of his cramped schedule, and my camera forced him to pose unnaturally while the damn thing warmed up. That was it -- what could I get that was instant-on?
Turns out what I needed was a digital SLR. Next airshow, I borrowed a Canon from a friend and took amazing photos, and it was never unready. I did some research and bought a Nikon DC70, which was at the time Nikon's prosumer camera. I'm very happy with it, although it's bulky enough I don't always have it. It was also expensive -- not from a pro's point of view, and I suppose I could have written it off on my Schedule C as a business expense, but I paid $1200 for the camera, two lenses and some accessories.
If you don't know cameras it is a good idea to find a shop that caters to pros (there has to be one on the central coast somewhere!) and have them educate you. You will save money by buying from Amazon or Adorama but they will just sell you what you ask for, which means you need to know what you want! I believe that if the local guy teaches me and educates me, it's worth paying a small premium and the state sales tax for that service.
People ask -- Canon or Nikon? Both are good. I was a Nikon film camera guy and so I went with the Nikon digital thinking I could share lenses (in fact, I have wound up getting new lenses for the new features anyway). Most of the pro aviation journalists I know shoot Canon. Tyson Rininger, Howard Cohen (sp?) and Jim Campbell are all dedicated Canon guys, and Canon was the first with image-stabilized lenses, which are GREAT for aerial and air-to-air shots because they take out a lot of the camera shake. Nikon offers their version too; on the Canon lenses it's called IS and on Nikons VR but it's a very desireable feature both ways.
The only guys I know shooting Nikon on the airshow circuit, off the top of my head, are me and Dave Higdon (and I'm kind of retired from that right now). Dave is a pro photographer period, he & his wife have a gallery in Wichita that's worth seeing (they feature local artists, and show his best aviation and his fine art photography). Dave has taught me more about taking a good picture than all the camera store guys and the weeks of 12 hour days of photography classes I had in the Army put together. So my point is, it's the photographer more than the camera; both Nikon and Canon make great lenses and great cameras, so pick the one you like better and it will definitely up your game.
Both Nikon and Canon make an entry level package with a simple digital SLR and one or two lenses. For most people, the one zoom lens will do, something like an 18-70 (the lens in the standard kit). If you're going to be shooting across an airport or trying to shoot aircraft from the ground or ground details from the air, a lens that zooms to 200 (which is the second lens in the standard two-lens kit) will do it for most people. The humongous lenses you see the pros carrying are overkill unless you plan to sell a photo-essay to Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine or something.
The downside to a digital SLR? Bulk. It's a bit harder to manage and it's
much easier to leave behind, leaving you dependent on cellphone pictures! They're also not cheap, but two ways to save money are to buy used or discontinued versions, or to buy the low-end body. The difference between low-end and high-end DSLRs is primarily the durability of the camera; pros tend to beat their gear up more than amateurs. Another difference is that some pro DSLRs shoot second and subsequent shots much faster than others, but those tend to be expensive (sports photographers rely on them).
A good camera shop should have classes and seminars, too. Like I said, I don't know if there's a good one where you live. But Tyson lives not too too far away (Monterey or Carmel, I think) and he's always willing to help people -- look him up. He probably has an idea where to find the right gear.
cheers
-=K=-
cheers
-=K=-