Find the perfect camera for you
Do you like to buy a new camera? That isn't easy and if you realize how many different camera systems there are, it is really hard to find the perfect one. Because of that I wrote a little description of different types of camera for you. I will show you the advantages and disadvantages of every one. The first (professional) camera is always something special, you will learn with that camera and even if you want to get a better camera you will buy in the most cases a camera form the same brand.
I will show you 6 types of cameras which are good for photographer and blogger. I will not write about the view camera because you will only need this in special cases as a professional photograph.
The Camera Systems:
Medium Format Camera
Full Frame DSLR Camera
APS-C DSLR
System Camera
Bridge Camera
Compact Camera
The Medium Frame Camera
Let's start with the „premium class“. The medium frame camera has a large sensor (44x33mm). This brings some benefits, but this make this camera also really expensive and is just recommended for blogger, who are professional photographer or want to became professionals. You should note that you never will need a resolution like that for the web. There are a few really good benefits with this camera, but they are so expensive that I would recommend the most of you to buy a good DSLR and better lenses for the halve of the price.
The Advantages:
1) You have a higher resolution and you will get more details (60 MP)
2) The sharpness and color saturation is really good
3) The resolution of gradation (dynamic range) is much better
4) Great adjustment options
5) Excellent picture quality
6) Optical viewfinder, great for backlightning and pictures at night
The Disadvantages:
1) You need photography experience (no automatic programming)
2) Really Expensive (6.000€ – 40.000€ without lenses) with good lens(es) it will be over 10.000€
3) Heavy (approx. 3-4 KG without lens)
4) The camera is really big
Who will need this camera?
1) Professionals can bring a little bit higher quality than an amateur
2) You will get a better picture, even if this is only 5% better
3) You will get more details in dark and bright pictures
4) In some industries this is required, for example: (high-) fashion photography
The Full Frame DSLR
This is the most used camera of professionals, they are not expensive as much as the medium frame camera and the quality of the picture is really good. There are also so much camera accessories for everything you will need, no matter if you want to take pictures or videos.
I use this camera at my most shootings and I can recommend you this one.
Advantages:
1) Camera accessories for every use you want.
2) A lot of adjustment options
3) Great pictures quality
4) Optical viewfinder, perfect for backlight and pictures in the dark
5) You will get a lot of details, because of the high resolution (ca. 20 MP)
6) Sharpness and color saturation are great
7) Dynamic range is great
The Disadvantages:
1) You will need some experience with photography (just a few automatics)
2) Expensive (1.600€ – 10.000€ without lens)
3) Heavy (1-2KG without lens)
4) The camera is big
Who need that camera?
If you just want to make pictures and you will never leave the full automatic mode, this camera isn't good for you. Only if you will photography manually this camera shows you the great possibility. The full frame camera shows more detais, the picture quality is better but they are also more expensive than a "small" DSLR.
The DSLR
This camera is the most used camera from amateur photographs. This camera is a little bit cheaper than a full frame dslr but the quality is also good. There are a lot of camera accessories for every use. And this camera have a lot of automatic programms for beginners and also the possibility of the manual mode for advanced photographers.
Advantages:
1) A lot of accessories for every use
2) A lot of options in the M mode
3) Good picture quality
4) Optical viewfinder, great for backlight and pictures in the dark.
5) Sharpness and color saturation is good
6) Dynamic range is good
7) Affordable (approx. 500€ – 1500€)
The Disadvantages:
1) Heavy
2) The camera is really big
Who need this camera?
Only if you know how to photography manually or you want to learn this I can recommend this camera to you. This camera is not so good as the full frame camera, but this camera is much cheaper.
I learned photography with this camera and sometimes I do use it still today.
The System Camera
The system camera got a lot more fans in the last 2 years. This camera combined the advantages of the DSLR and some of the compact camera (A lot of options for the M mode and smaller and lighter). Today we also have system cameras with full frame. Many amateur photographer use this camera, because this camera is smaller, lighter and cheaper. But I don't like this camera because I miss the advantages of the optical viewfinder.
Advantages:
1) A lot of camera accessories are available.
2) All options for the M mode
3) Great picture quality
4) Sharpness and color saturation is great
6) Dynamic range is great
7) Affordable (approx. 350€ – 3000€)
8) Easier and smaller than a DSLR
The Disadvantages:
1) No optical viewfinder
2) The battery gets quicker empty because of the display
Who need this camera?
The camera is smaller and easier and cheaper as a DSLR (perfect for travel). The picture quality is the same as the DSLR. Many of amateur photographers use this camera. But I don't believe that professionals will change to this camera, because of the optical viewfinder.
The Bridge Camera
The name show already what the camera is. This camera is the bridge between system cameras and compact cameras. At this camera you can't change the lenses, but this camera have a large zoom area.
Advantages:
1) High zoom area
2) A great mix between set options and easy to handle.
3) Lighter and smaller than system and DSLR cameras
4) Easy to use without photography experience.
The Disadvantages:
1) No optical viewfinder
2) The batteries gets faster empty
3) No possibility's to change the lenses and nearly without camera accessories
4) The picture quality is lower than system cameras, but they coasts nearly the same
Who need this camera?
This camera is for people who don't want to learn how to photography and want a easy to handle camera.
The Compact Camera
Nearly every family has a camera like this. The advantage is that this camera is small and easy. This camera is really easy to handle and you have nearly no possibility to make different options. But this camera dies out, because the most mobile phones make Pictures with the same quality
Advantages:
1) Easy and small.
2) Easy to handle without photography experience.
The Disadvantages:
1) No optical viewfinder
2) Just a few camera accessories availably
3) (Bad) picture quality
4) Just a small optical zoom
Who need this camera?
If you like just to take some pictures without care about the camera settings I would recommend you to use the mobile phone camera.
If its important for you that you have a great picture quality and a small and easy camera, than you have to buy a good compact camera, but the costs more than 100€ or some even more than 1000€.
Here I have some other photography tipps post for you:
(just click at the title and you will get the right article)
– The Iso
Which Camera do you use?
XX,
Nico Treeman
