Digital Camera

[Trevor Tizard]

Hi All,

 

I am spending more and more time recently creating photo montages. As this is the case I thought I'd ask what digital camera people are using or recommend.

 

I currently have a Konica Minolta Dimage Z20. This has 5.0 mega pixels, and a best quality file is 2048 x 1536 in .jpg format.

 

The resolution seems a touch low, especially as I need to prepare some images for sales hoarding soon which obviously will be quite large.

 

Although the business will purchase this equipment and not me personally I must be able to justify any expense, so can't just get the most expensive. The arguement being that I will not be using it day-in, day-out.

 

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

 

Trev

[Tommy L]

The first decision is whether you go digital SLR or pont and shoot. Id recommend SLR all the way.

I recently purchased canon rebel xt and 2 lenses. Its great, take a lesson or two and youre away (you will never use the 'auto' setting again).

 

The rebelXT is an 8 megapixel digital SLR. Therefore, you need to buy the lenses seperately (I recommend buying the body only with ALL slr's, they usually ship with a good looking but poor quality lense). There is also the rebelXTi which is 10 megapixel, but otherwise the same (but more expensive). Its my opinion that once you reach 8mp, its enough.

 

There is tons of literature about comeras. Just bear in mind that most people, like me, will say what they have is the best. Chances are, like me, they havnt tried anything else. I did do alot of reading bfore making my choice tho.

 

Whats your budget?

[Trevor Tizard]

Thanks Tommy...........

 

Gonna price (and then beg) for a Canon, D400 if possible.

 

My next problem is the lense. Having read what people have said about the lense kits being Pony I need some advice. I will be using this camera for preparing shots for Montages, so not for close ups, landscapes, christmas parties etc. From the minefield out there, some of these lenses are twice the price of the camera.

 

Bottom line is I need to know what size (mm) I should be looking for as money will certainly be an issue.......no budget, just the best I can get for as little as possible!

 

Thanks in advance.

[taprice]

For shooting Architecture and for montages I'd recommend getting a zoom lens that has something on the wide angle end. The office where I work has around a 12-55mm that helps in a pinch and you could even get a 18-200mm then you'd really only need on lens to carry around.

[Tommy L]

You need to know if your camera is 'full body' or standard digital. The difference is the size of the sensor (i think, or it may be the distance of the sensor from the lense). Either way, a full body camera works exactly the same as a 35mm camera, ie, the lenses are totally interchangable. With the usual (cheaper) digitals, there is a multiplier of 1.6 on the mm of the lense. Therefore, a 50mm lense becomes an 80mm lense etc.

 

I guess you know a little about the field of view of the lense length from using max. 15mm is extremely wide and anything over 35 is getting narrow.

 

You can get 2 types of lense that will be suitable. Zoom or fixed. I recommend getting a couple of fixed lenses (good ones are pretty cheap, my 50mm f1.8 canon cost $50 and takes wonderful photos) and a medium zoom. You dont need telephoto or super wide, your feet can compensate for these.

 

The general rule with zooms is that the larger the range, the worse the lense (unless you spend big money) so dont be tempted by a 15-300mm, it will probably be shite. Reason being, you want a zoom with a fixed aperture and to make a lense do a lot of different lengths and stay 'fast' is a difficult thing to manufacture.

 

A 'fast' lense is one with a wide aperture. A wide aperture lense is something like a f1.4 or a f1.8. Wide aperture does two things, it lets more light through the lense and also shortens the DOF. More light means you can take much better photos in low light. Buildings look their best at dusk and dawn, so this is imperitive.

 

BUY A TRIPOD, very important.

 

This stuff when described by someone who really knows what they are doing (not me) actually becomes very simple. You could have a 1 day photography course and then go and confidently buy the right equipment AND use it successfully. If you dont, chances are you'll buy a fantastic camera, mediocre lense and use it on 'auto' all the time.