Photographer's thread

[Chen]

As much as I would love having a backpack. I find myself only using 1 lens at a time and find myself hardly ever wanting to switch lens. With that being said, most of my other gear stays at home.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by Chen

10-24mm 3.5-4.5 - My only UWA lens and my most recent pick up. This thing is wide!

I've had my 7-14mm (m4/3) for about a month now. It has about the same fov at the short end as your 10-24mm and yeah, it has been fun learning how to use it. Having said that at the "long" end it is surprisingly "normal".
This m4/3 camera is the first interchangeable lens camera I've owned since using film. I am still coming to grips with the whole one-lens-doesn't-do-everything. Also, the thought of changing lenses while out and about leaves me cold so if I'm thinking I'll want a wide angle lens today it means carrying two cameras. That's ok but I am still trying to work out how to juggle two at the same time.

[Chen]

I personally don't like the idea of carrying to cameras, Even with the strap it was bouncing everywhere when I tired to shoot w/ the other one, Idk how people do it.

[Peaty]

Originally Posted by Chen

I personally don't like the idea of carrying to cameras, Even with the strap it was bouncing everywhere when I tired to shoot w/ the other one, Idk how people do it.

I use a blackrapid harness that holds two cameras. When I shoot a concert I have my 24 - 70 and 70 - 200 pretty much covers things. Once you get use to how it works it's not too bad.

[Pwolf]

I really like my single strap harness from blackrapid. much more comfortable than the straps that come with the camera or lenses. Need to get another one so I can have two cameras for airshows.

[Chen]

I find myself hardly ever using the strap. Period. But I have it on my camera for the piece of mind.

[VIP BRZ]

Hey photographers!

I'm looking into getting a camera to take some decent pictures of my BRZ, all this technology is way over my head and i know virtually nothing about cameras.

Can anyone suggest some good starting point camera/lenses/packages? .. Im not looking to break the bank, the camera would really only be used occasionally and for the soul purpose of photographing my/others cars. (Mostly for Instagram) haha

Anyway, any suggestions / comments could help me with my choice..

[MaximeT]

Do you plan to learn post processing ?

Usually it's best to buy Nikon or Canon if you plan to be a photographer.

If you want something compact, Fuji make some great APSC camera. Like a second hand X1.

If you don't want to shoot too seriously, Snapseed is a very powerful processing tool for JPEG. (You just have to share with Instagram after)

[Pwolf]

Originally Posted by VIP BRZ

Hey photographers!

I'm looking into getting a camera to take some decent pictures of my BRZ, all this technology is way over my head and i know virtually nothing about cameras.

Can anyone suggest some good starting point camera/lenses/packages? .. Im not looking to break the bank, the camera would really only be used occasionally and for the soul purpose of photographing my/others cars. (Mostly for Instagram) haha

Anyway, any suggestions / comments could help me with my choice..

Any entry level camera will be good enough. If all you want to do is take decent pictures of your car/post pictures to instagram, a simple point and shoot is fine and there's probably more features geared towards that.

If you want to learn more about photography though, I'd start with any of the three major brands (Sony, Nikon, Canon) and look at their entry level offerings. I used the entry level Canon T1i for about 6 years before upgrading. Only reason I upgraded was because I needed something better for motorsports (it was also 6 years old, lol).

[VIP BRZ]

Originally Posted by MaximeT

Do you plan to learn post processing ?

Usually it's best to buy Nikon or Canon if you plan to be a photographer.

If you want something compact, Fuji make some great APSC camera. Like a second hand X1.

If you don't want to shoot too seriously, Snapseed is a very powerful processing tool for JPEG. (You just have to share with Instagram after)

As for post, I have an advanced knowledge of Photoshop so that's whats ill be using.

Originally Posted by Pwolf

Any entry level camera will be good enough. If all you want to do is take decent pictures of your car/post pictures to instagram, a simple point and shoot is fine and there's probably more features geared towards that.

If you want to learn more about photography though, I'd start with any of the three major brands (Sony, Nikon, Canon) and look at their entry level offerings. I used the entry level Canon T1i for about 6 years before upgrading. Only reason I upgraded was because I needed something better for motorsports (it was also 6 years old, lol).

I don't have much interest in learning a whole lot about photography, I'm really geared more toward point and shoot

So even a Canon T1i (Your entry camera) is like a $400 machine, am i really going to see a difference between that and just any digital camera?
Sounds like maybe I'm overthinking and i should just cheap out sense i wont be using it for anything that needs amazing resolution.

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by VIP BRZ

Hey photographers!

I'm looking into getting a camera to take some decent pictures of my BRZ, all this technology is way over my head and i know virtually nothing about cameras.

Can anyone suggest some good starting point camera/lenses/packages? .. Im not looking to break the bank, the camera would really only be used occasionally and for the soul purpose of photographing my/others cars. (Mostly for Instagram) haha

Anyway, any suggestions / comments could help me with my choice..

Without knowing your budget - I suggest a Sony A6000 or a new/used Sony A6300 if you can swing it. Perfect size, great photos, easy to use. My roommate has it and is in love with it, and he's a diehard Canon shooter (5D I think). The A6000 can be bought new with a 16-50mm lens (great all-around lens) for around $600. They have wifi too, so you can easily send the photos to your phone to edit/upload to Instagram.

[MaximeT]

If you know photoshop, yes. The best RAW file will give you a massive advantage for processing. So the larger the sensor, the bigger the file quality.

T1i like camera will give you a nice starting point.

When you know what you're doing, a smartphone camera is a powerful tool.

Like this Nexus 6 shot :

[Pwolf]

If I were in your shoes, I'd just go cheap and get a $100-$200 point and shoot.

[everythingsablur]

Originally Posted by VIP BRZ

So even a Canon T1i (Your entry camera) is like a $400 machine, am i really going to see a difference between that and just any digital camera?
Sounds like maybe I'm overthinking and i should just cheap out sense i wont be using it for anything that needs amazing resolution.

Will you see a difference? Generally, yes, but a lot has to do with the photographer. Having a proper camera will just not hold you back like a cheap POS P&S would, and for a number of reasons. Lens optics at going to be higher quality (and hey, they're likely to be well coated glass instead of some P&S cameras which are just plastic, or thin glass), image sensor is going to be a lot larger, you will be able to get RAW files out of camera, etc.

It's really not about image resolution. That's been a terrible, terrible yard stick for cameras for the past 10 years. A phone or P&S that can shoot 16 MP is not going to give you the same quality as an SLR or mirrorless camera of even 12 MPs, broadly speaking. It's not about that anymore, especially with most images never being printed any more. The big difference is going to be in the dynamic range you can get from a larger sensor, and the control over depth of field you can get with faster aperture lenses and bigger sensors. You can fake or enhance some of that stuff in Photoshop, but you can only do so much when your base image is limited. Having a RAW file with tons of dynamic range is going to let you have a lot of control over your post-processed image. You can't bring adjust highlights or shadows if your camera crushes them away in a crappy JPEG.

All that said, there is a balance you can strike between easy to use, compact, and maybe less expensive vs. the quality and flexibility of system cameras. Take a look at some of the really well reviewed ~1" sensor point and shoots that have come out in recent years. The Sony RX100 series for example are phenomenal cameras, and it's widely considered as the pocket camera to have when you don't want to carry your big camera. Brand new they are expensive (like, as much as a midrange system camera), but you can find old Mark 1's on ebay or the craigslist for $200-300. Still an excellent camera.

If you are looking at other point and shoot cameras that have tiny sensors (basically, if they don't advertise the sensor size as being something like 1", or at least 2/3" in the case of Fuji), you aren't much better off than what's in most cellphones. Maybe slightly better, more flexible optics, but that's about it. Some of the higher end smartphones actually take really good photos, and can output RAW files.

Personally I've been shooting Micro 4/3s for maybe 6 years after a good stint with Canon gear. I like the weight and size savings gained from mirrorless, and some of the benefits that have since been (finally) backported up to SLRs like Live View and whatnot. I don't see a huge quality decrease over what I had before in Canon land; there is a difference, but for my purposes not enough to irk me greatly. Like others though, I have no problem recommending someone get into some entry level, even used Canon gear to start out with. There are so many camera bodies and used lenses out there that you can get going with a pretty nice starter setup without going too crazy on the bank account.