BY: Moshe Yuda
We can start by answering the most asked question…. “which camera should I buy?”
Simplest answer: “the one that you can afford “
“the one you want to hold in your hand”
“the one you like at the store “
Start out by answering this question…. “how much money do you want to spend on a new camera”. you do not want to get a used camera since problems show up in a camera long after it was dropped, not immediately.
After the question about money, ask yourself what kind of photography you are thinking of doing. Many situations would tell you that the smart phone you already have is good enough for what you want.
In photography, size really does matter…..
Are you thinking that any of your photos you would actually blow up bigger than a typical photo or bigger than an 8inch X (by) 10 inch?
In the past, phone photos were not able to be ‘blown up’ because the chip that was inside the phone, capturing the photo, was very tiny. However, by this time (in the past 2 years and into our future) I think phone makers have solved the problem. I myself, do not know about printing photos, I NEVER print any photos of mine (from phone or real cameras).
If you think you would blow up photos, or if you think you would later zoom in on a photo on your screen and want it to be sharp and agreeable, then, you do need a camera with a larger sensor and good lens.
the next question as I have said above, is, how much money are you able to spend on a camera. The range is from $50 (not better than a phone, but maybe) all the way to over $20,000….. with 20,000 possible variables LOL.
Many cameras on the low end $50 – $400, come with a built-in lens that you cannot change. They are still great for being a tourist and taking home photos of your children, parents, pets, a wonderful scenic view you just saw…..
These low-end cameras we call “point and shoot” cause that is all you do….
can capture images that will fill the whole computer screen (if you own a computer) and the images would be sharper then a phone camera.
Some of these low-end cameras have a tremendous range of zooming capabilities, from very wide angel — you need wide angle to photograph large areas (city street, building, mountain range, beautiful sunset sky, beautiful blue sky and clouds, large groups of people ) when you cannot really step back cause you would fall off a cliff:-) all the way to extreme telephoto, used to zoom in on objects far away when you cannot get closer to the object/person.
Long ago, I bought a $500 camera that has a built-in lens with tremendous zoom/telephoto, I meant to put a very dark filter on it and zoom into the sun to catch solar flares. I set it aside and I have not really tried that for years, but then last year, I took it to a location for a total eclipse of the sun, not really intending to use it, but just in case. I drove 3 hours north just to ‘experience’ the total eclipse event. I ended up coming home with very exceptional photos that filled the whole frame with the sun in partial eclipse and being able to see many sun spots on the surface of the sun, then the whole eclipse perfectly sharp and very large. As well as seeing some solar flares protruding the eclipse…. totally mind blowing!
The dark spot near the center of the sun is a ‘sun spot’, an area of cooler temperature then the average sun’s surface. There is another one at the 10 o’clock position.
if you look closely, you can see at the 6:30 clock position, a sun flair, a small half circle of fire
Depending on how much money, and how much time you will spend on your purchase, the better the performance.
One path you can choose is to narrow your search down at home first. You can do a google search for cameras in your price range. You can study some reviews, however, in our age of ‘lying is totally OK’, you may be reading fictional reviews authored by corporations/big stores and manufacturers and advertising agencies…… so, it’s best to just stick to the technical descriptions in the information area.
After narrowing it down to a few possible choices, you really should go to a large camera store, NOT a mom & pop store or a big box store, so that you can hold and test out the cameras in your hands. A mom & pop store usually do not have a wide range of selections, and would probably not have the cameras handy (out of the box) to test out in the store.
An example of such a situation was many years ago. My father, a world traveler (cause he lived in a few areas of the world, but not a rich traveler, by no means) always admired the ‘Leica’ brand cameras, but their price was always extremely expensive. It’s like buying/owning a Ferrari. Then, at one point, there were a lot of advertising of a normal type of camera by Leica that costs $1,000. My father thought, “finally, I can buy a Leica camera and accomplish a dream. When we got to a certain huge camera store in NYC, we tested out that camera, then the sales man, suggested a similar quality camera for half the price made by SONY. We already had good experience with SONY cameras, so we tested out the two cameras, side by side. In the store, zooming in on far signs with each. We found that the cheaper SONY, with similar capabilities, was much sharper, and produced much brighter and colorful images than the Lica camera…..
we bought the SONY! Over the years we did not regret our purchase.