Schierer Space

So let’s get to subjects at last. Here’s a summary table for those of you in a hurry:

Now for the writeup…

• The least challenging of the subjects (for the camera) is probably landscape. It’s generally stationary (!), and you have all the time in the world to setup the shot. Compact cameras can do as well as higher end cameras in this area, because they tend to have fairly wide-angle lenses. Slow auto-focusing and shutter lag don’t effect you. Light isn’t a problem, because you can set the camera on a fence post (or beanbag or tripod) and let it collect as much light as it wants. If you want to shoot at dusk, make sure the camera you want supports exposures above 1 second in duration (night shots often need exposures upwards of 15 seconds).
• I group Macro, Still Life and Portraits together because I’m basically considering stationary shots where the subject is relatively close (<15') to the camera. The photographer can choose the lighting and use the flash effectively at this distance. With good light (not a dark ballroom or museum), pretty much any digital camera can serve you well in this area. If you have a smaller camera (and a smaller flash), choose your light carefully and you'll be ok. For true macro shots, higher end non-SLR cameras often provide a macro feature to provide precise focusing at close distances. My G2 actually does macro quite a bit better than my standard SLR lens due to a very close focusing distance. Of course with some diopter filters (or a specific macro lens), the SLR really shines.
• Wildlife generally doesn’t like having its picture taken. If you want to get close, you’ve gotta have a zoom*. Don’t be fooled by the gimmick known as ‘digital zoom’. All this does is reduce your image quality by essentially cropping out the middle of the image and enlarging it. If your camera has an option to turn digital zoom off, I highly recommend doing so. Even the most basic photo editing software will (probably) be able to do a better job enlarging your photos than the software on the camera. In an SLR, you can use a fixed lens with a large focal length or a telephoto zoom. Most RM and N cameras have limited zoom ability. Generally they’re limited to about 4-6x. To be fair, this is about the zoom range of my SLR walkabout lens (I hope longer** glass will be coming soon!) Other than SLR, only GG cameras really have it in this category. The latest offering by Canon has a 12x optical zoom while Panasonic has 18x in their latest GG offering, the Lumix DMC-FZ18 (~$400).
• Action shots are the money shots of the professional photography world. Moms and Dads everywhere point their compact digital cameras at the field thinking they will snag that Sports Illustrated cover shot of their kid playing Soccer. They expect to see the goalie frozen in mid-air watching the time-stopped ball clear their fingertips in the unoccupied corner of the net, background crowd blurred artistically into a colorful mosaic… What they usually get is a blurry image of the parents on the other side of the field and somebody’s back foot. Shutter lag strikes again.
  This is the true bane of digital cameras: the amount of time it takes the camera to actually take the picture. There are three actions the camera must perform when you push the button: focus, exposure and imaging. All digital cameras are auto focus. Expect to pay more for faster focusing with the SLRs at the front of this pack. Exposure is usually done by the time the focus lock occurs, unless lighting conditions are poor (some cameras test the flash if the lighting is low enough). Finally, the image sensor and processor have to actually collect the photons and data to form the image. This last step is hard to generalize, because often manufacturers will upgrade a processor but not the image sensor (speed goes up!) or vice versa (resolution goes up and speed goes down) when making the next model in their line. Some of the fastest cameras are often lower resolution than their peers. SLRs can often shoot in a fraction of a second (<0.25); GG are close behind (<0.5). Normal and miniature cameras can vary from 0.5 to 3 seconds or more. Lighting, zoom setting, flash charging and many other factors can come into play in a real life environment. If you're considering a mid-line camera, go to the store and try it out (the darker the store the better!) Ignore the hovering salesperson and take some pictures of people moving around the store (or better yet, fast moving children). Point the camera, smash the button and see what happens. Try this a few times to get a feel for the reaction time. How much difference does pre-focusing make (push the shutter half way down)? Try two cameras at once and 'race' them, remember, the salesperson doesn't know who you are so don't be embarrassed.

Shopping tip: Many stores will provide cameras to play with on their displays, but usually they remove the media and sometimes the batteries. Many cameras won’t function without media, so ask the salesperson to bring you some.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Advice, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.