In this video, I'm going to talk about what you need to consider when buying a
new camera. Now it's often overwhelming the amount of choice that you're
presented with when thinking about a new camera, new camera model. There's an endless
range of DSLR cameras or mirrorless cameras on the market at the moment, so
if you're trying to decide on which one is best for you then this video and the
associated blog post we've got on KarlTaylorEducation.com is going to help
you cut through some of the chaos and confusion and reach a decision that you
won't regret. Now I often get asked questions like what is the best camera
to buy: is Canon better than Nikon is Olympus better than Pentax,
should I get a mirrorless camera? Well the truth is that there is no easy
answer as to which camera is the best although there are many articles that
claim to have a simple answer only you can decide what's best for you. So before
you head to your nearest camera store with your wallet in hand, there's a
number of very important factors to consider and I'm going to run through
those point by point. The first thing is the purpose. What do you want to use your
camera for? Are you going to use it to photograph handmade arts and crafts to
post online? Or are you an avid sports or wildlife photography fan that wants to
capture fast-paced action out in the field? Or are you a budding professional
photographer looking to deliver high quality work to your growing client list?
What do you want to use the camera for is the first and perhaps the most
important question you need to answer as this will help you determine what you
need from your camera. Just because a camera has a greater number of
megapixels or a higher frame rate per second doesn't necessarily mean it's the
right camera for you. If you're interested in landscape photography you
may want a camera with a greater tonal range rather than one with a greater
higher frame rate per second. If you're interested in high-end product
photography you may want a full frame or a medium format camera rather than a
crop sensor camera to allow for greater image quality. Number 2, Know the basics.
If you're not sure what a crop sensor camera is or why megapixels might not
matter as much as you think they do then you might want to take the time to go
back to the basics. Now let's look at a couple of things, let's start with sensor
size. The camera's sensor is the CCD or CMOS chip that captures the light to
record the image. It's what converts what you see through your viewfinder into a
photograph. Now while there are a few different sensor sizes the three that
you're most likely to have heard about are the full-frame 35mm sensor, crop
sensors or APS-C sized sensors and medium format sensors and on our blog
post we have a great graphic that indicates the relative size to each
other of those sensors. Now full-frame cameras, as the name suggests, is the
larger of the two sizes and also the more expensive because of the larger
sensor size, they're able to record greater tonal range, have greater image
quality and perform better in low light conditions and they allow for far
greater depth of field control. Now full-frame cameras are actually
full-frame 35mm and what that means is that the size of the sensor
matches very closely to the size of the very common 35mm film format
that was around before digital cameras became popular. Now as the name suggests
it's obviously larger than a crop sensor camera but it's not as large by any
means as a medium format camera. Now when we have a larger sensor size they are
able to record a greater tonal range, usually have a better image quality and
usually perform better in low-light conditions as well. There is also another
factor that happens when we increase magnification as we do when we use
larger sensors, the depth of field control is slightly different based on a
given aperture being used. With crop sensor cameras,
we're dealing with a smaller sensor which means that the camera itself can
be smaller, the viewfinder and everything else is smaller to match that crop
sensor but generally these crop sensor cameras are obviously more portable
because they're generally smaller. Now crop sensor cameras are the most common
sensor size for many entry-level cameras the sensor size measures approximately
23.5mm by 15.6mm compared to the 36mm by 24mm
of a full-frame 35mm sensor. Now that makes them smaller and lighter
than their full-frame counterpart which basically means that the image recorded
is recorded onto a smaller area of silicon sensor than a 35mm full-frame
camera. Now that may well make them suited to photographing wildlife or
sports. With a crop sensor camera a 400mm lens on a crop sensor and on
a 35mm camera will actually give the impression that you're more
zoomed in on the crop sensor camera than you are on the full-frame 35mm camera.
Medium format cameras record images onto a much bigger sensor that's about
53.4mm by 40mm on the 100-megapixel sensor. Now the benefit
of this is that the larger sensor size allows for much higher resolution
compared to cameras with smaller sensors and this often means more megapixels in
medium format cameras and greater dynamic range. This allows for much
greater tonal quality and tonal accuracy and sometimes color accuracy too. The
image quality means that they are often the camera of choice for professional
photographers looking to achieve true color accuracy or produce very large
format work for advertising purposes. However, medium format cameras are much
bigger and heavier to handle than most other cameras and they are usually far
more expensive too. Other drawbacks with medium format cameras are that they have
a slower burst rate so you cannot shoot as many frames per second as you can
with a 35mm camera, so they wouldn't really be best suited to something like
wildlife or sports photography. Now I did a comparison between the quality of a
full-frame Nikon D850 and a medium format Hasselblad H6 and you can read about
that comparison on another blog post on our website KarlTaylorEducation.com (Link Below).
Now let's talk about megapixels. Photographers nowadays seem to be
obsessed with the number of megapixels and while it's certainly important it's by
no means the defining characteristic of a good camera. Put simply, an image is
made up of millions of pixels. For example: a 22-megapixel camera has 22
million pixels that make up the recorded image. The more megapixels, the higher the
image resolution - this can be useful if you're likely to crop your image later
or you want to produce large scale prints. Now as I just mentioned, the more
pixels there are in an image the higher the resolution, however, more megapixels
doesn't necessarily mean better. What's more important is that you have the
right number of pixels in relation to the size of the sensor. For example the
image quality of a 50-megapixel smartphone camera will be far less than
a 50-megapixel medium format camera. But why is that? Well to understand why we
need to understand the basics of how images are formed. Digital images are
created from millions of tiny dots of color which blend together to form the
image that we see. These dots, as you should know, are called pixels in fact
they're actually squares in an image but their photosites on a sensor. Now these
are recorded on photosensitive diodes on the sensor called photosites and the
term pixel is often used in place of photosites but they are not the same
thing. Photosites are what records pixels. Generally, the more pixels
recorded by the photosites, the higher the resolution of the image however a
higher number of megapixels does not guarantee higher image quality. It's not
necessarily the number of megapixels that matters
but more the size of the photosites measured in microns which is determined
by the size of the sensor. Let's take a look at a graphic showing what I mean.
Now 50-megapixel smartphone camera will have much smaller photosites compared
to a 50-megapixel medium format camera. This is because the sensor of the
smartphone camera is much smaller itself which means the 50-million pixels are
crammed closer together. The consequence of this is that the
sensor's ability to capture and record light is much less. This often results in
diffraction and increased noise especially when shooting at higher ISO
and the camera manufacturers or the phone manufacturers have to use clever
algorithms to overcome these problems. A larger sensor allows for much larger
pixels or larger photosites compared to say a smartphone camera with the same
number of megapixels and they allow for a much greater dynamic range which gives
a larger transitional tonal value, greater tonal accuracy and better color
accuracy. For example on a 50-megapixel Hasselblad CMOS sensor the pixel size is
about 5.3 microns compared to the pixel size on a standard high-resolution DSLR
where the size is about 4.14 microns. Now other factors that greatly affect
the quality of the recorded image regardless of megapixels is to do with
how the light is formed on the sensor from the lens. The higher the image
quality is able to form at the correct position on the sensor so there is a
huge influence on the image quality from using high quality optics and
professional lenses and you could use a very large, high-quality, medium format
camera with a 100-megapixels, but if you put a low-quality lens on that
camera and record the light onto that sensor the image, will still be low
quality. Now let's talk about DSLR vers Mirrorless cameras. Recently there's been
a lot of hype about mirrorless cameras. Many photographers don't really
know what the differences actually are let alone the advantages or
disadvantages of each model. DSLRs are built using the same design as 35mm
film cameras of the past, they have a mirror inside the camera body
that reflects the light coming through the lens up into a prism and that's
where you see the light through the viewfinder so you're actually viewing
the light that's coming through the lens. Now, when you press the shutter button,
the mirror flips up out of the way, allowing the light to hit the sensor
where the image is then recorded. Mirrorless cameras have done away with
the mirror, so instead the light doesn't have to hit the mirror it passes
straight through the lens and straight onto the sensor which then captures a
preview of the image which is displayed electronically on the back of the screen
or in the EVF, which is the Electronic ViewFinder. So what you're looking at
through the camera is an electronic or a miniature television screen representing
the image of the light coming through. Mow the absence of the mirror in a
mirrorless camera means they are much smaller and lighter than DSLRs which is
their main benefit. However the lens choices for mirrorless cameras, although
they're expanding, are still limited compared to what's available currently
for DSLRs which have been around for much longer.
DSLR cameras also boast better battery life although again this is improving on
mirrorless cameras as technology advances. Fundamentally though using a
mirrorless camera is no different to using a DSLR and as with many things it
largely comes down to personal preference
in fact people get confused about the image quality difference between a
full-frame DSLR and a full-frame mirrorless camera and I can tell you now
that both cameras will resolve the same quality image if they're using the same
type of sensor so it's simply down to the compactness and the size of the
mirrorless cameras compared to DSLRs. Now the next thing we need to consider is
lenses and accessories. Buying your camera
just the start and it's important to consider what accessories you're going
to be using in conjunction with that camera. Now if you're an avid wildlife
photographer a telephoto lens is a must, the same way that if you're a portrait
photographer, accessories such as studio lights or speed lights may come in handy.
Now before you make the final decision on which camera to buy think about
what's available to you. When it comes to lenses you may find that Canon offer a
better range than Nikon or Nikon offer a better range than Canon or that
independent brands such as Tamron or Sigma offer a more budget-friendly
alternative and the type of lenses that you choose for your system will be very
very important going forwards because you're likely to retain your lenses and
possibly upgrade your camera body at a later stage. The next thing to consider
is budget and the good news is that there's a wide selection of DSLRs
available for almost any budget. The bad news is that there can be a number of
hidden costs that you need to consider too. A good lens or two should be the
first thing on your list it isn't just the camera that determines the quality
of your images, lenses play a huge part too. I'd recommend putting a part of your
budget aside for investing in a couple of good quality lenses really before you
even consider the camera itself. Make sure you do your research before
investing in a lens, read reviews about the lens, explore different comparisons
and consider renting the possible options before you make the leap and
I'll discuss a little bit more about this later.
Now there's also smaller, less obvious items that are also essential as well,
such as camera bags, spare batteries, memory cards, but remember it's not
essential that you buy everything at once.
You might want to save buying that shutter release cable or filter set for
a later date and keep your money for those important lenses. Explore your
options - before taking the final plunge, it's a good idea to rent your final
options for a day. This will give you an opportunity to get a feel for the camera,
test its controls, explore its capabilities. Now in the blog
post here on KarlTaylorEducation.com (Link Below), I've linked to a few well-known
equipment rental companies. Now one other key factor that shouldn't be under
looked is knowledge. Knowing how to use light is one of the most important
aspects of photography - s this allows you to create a particular mood or
emotion in an image and it's this mood and emotion that helps tell a story and
captivate your viewer. Now I go into more detail about this in our Emotion of Light
LIVE show where we show and explore all of the ways we control light to depict
emotion in an image. Now knowing how to combine this with the technical
aspects such as composition, depth of field and shutter speed is very, very
important. The fact that you've taken the time to watch this video shows you've
already understood and value knowledge but it's worth including this point
nonetheless I've always said photography isn't so much about the gear as it is
about your knowledge. Imagine for example putting a top-end medium format camera
in the hands of a complete novice or putting a low-budget camera in the hands
of a 25-year professional. You can pretty much already dictate who's gonna come
back with the best images - so more often than not, it's not about the equipment
that you have, but more about knowing how to use that equipment, knowing how to
compose your shot and lighting your image will have a huge impact on the final results.
So remember if you're ready to buy a camera, there's a lot more to consider
than just the technical. Take the time to think about how you'll be using that
camera, set out your budget, consider any extra equipment that you might need and
if you're still undecided try and find somewhere that you can rent or borrow a
camera to try out and test for yourself. Once you've made your decision, take the
time to get familiar with your equipment and invest in your education... and one of
the best ways to do that is at KarlTaylorEducation.com. Get my completely FREE
Photography Course, with NO signup required. You can also access our FREE 90
page eBook. Just click the link or go to KarlTaylorEducation.com/FREE