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In my last post “Choosing a DSLR (Part-I)” I explained one of the 5 steps that I would recommend to choose a DSLR. In this post I’ll emphasize on the remaining steps. Aperture Aperture Priority Auto Mode Camera Choosing DSLR Dark Depth Of Field DOF DSLR Dust Reduction EXIF Exposure f-stops f/2 f/2.8 f/4 f/8 f/11 Focal Length Grain Image Sensor iris ISO Landsacpe LCD Lens Live View Macro motion Night No Flash Zone Noise Photographic Film Photography Point-and-shoot Programmed Mode Protrait Shallow Depth-of-field Shooting Modes Shutter Shutter Lag Shutter Priority sports Stationary tripod WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck requires Flash Player 9 or better. 2. Getting familiar with the important features.In the previous step I only stated the feature that you will be looking in your new DSLR. Let me brief out the features along with some common specifications. 1.1. Image Stability- One of the most important features you will like to have in your DSLR. This feature is required in almost all the available scenarios and comes in two ways these days; one integrated with in the camera body and other in the lenses. When activated minor tremble to the camera will be eliminated resulting in sharper, crispier images even in the darker conditions. Some manufacturers term it as “Vibration Reduction” and some call it “Image Stabilization” but both means the same. 1.2. Sensor Size- Basically larger sensors capture even a finest detail of your subject. Digital cameras use an array of sensors containing millions of tiny pixels which constitute to your final image. Each pixel contains a bucket like structure called “photosites”. When you press the shutter release button the light rays coming from camera’s lens is poured in to these photosites and once your camera completes the exposure, these photosites are sealed. These photosites are then internally processed to apply true colors using filters. Although understanding these sensors is a big chapter and might occupy two three posts of mine but I tried my best to brief out in a layman’s terms. A camera that has large sensor will try to grab more of these light particles and thus fill in more of those photosites resulting in attaining a great detail of the subject. Following are some common sensor sizes available:
Sensor size Examples:
1.1. Burst Or Continuous Shooting Mode- As the name suggests, this feature will allow you to take a burst of images while pressing down the shutter release button. This helps in capturing sports actions or a fast moving subject like a racing car, your quick pet and of course kids. This is generally indicated as “Frames per Second”. Most of the DSLR these days are capable of capturing full resolution images at a rate of 3.5 Frames per Second. You can look for more if your budget allows you to do. 1.2. Larger Buffer- When you shoot images in burst/ continuous mode, your camera process the images and store them temporarily in its buffer memory. You must see if the buffer memory is enough to store the images captured in a burst/continuous mode. If at all your cameras buffer in not large enough to hold the images, it will automatically decrease the rate of frames per second at which the picture is expected to be taken. 1.3. Built in dust reduction- Since a DSLR has a capability to change lenses; you will more often mount/ unmount lenses based on the shooting requirements. This will expose your camera’s expensive optics to expose the risk of getting dust particles. Once dust particles stick on the image sensor or on any inner optics, it is very difficult and risky to clean. It will require professional of a good experience to clean the same. Basically there is a vibration mechanism which removes the dust particles from camera’s optics and most of the DSLRs these days have an inbuilt dust removal/ reduction system installed. You get an option to choose it to activate or deactivate. My camera gives me an option to dust removal during startup and or shutting down the camera. 3. What’s your budget?Ok, now that you know what category or categories you are going to be in, you are ready to set your budget. Buying DSLR doesn’t only mean buying one product it means you are going to buy a list of items to make up your photo gear. If you are upgrading from a point-n-shoot then you are not going to end up buying camera alone instead you may have to buy a variety of lenses based on the shooting requirements, filters, tripod, monopod, external flash unit, remote shutter release, reflectors, additional battery, memory cards, etc. So split your total budget into two parts, one for buying the camera body and another for buying its initial accessories. Suppose you are an entry level to a mid level photographer and your goal is not to out reach your limits beyond 1500 USD. Divide it into two parts; let’s say you keep 800 USD for Camera body and remaining 700 USD for its accessories. Generally you will get a good deal when you buy camera body along with an initial lens this will act as a bonus for you and you might save a couple hundred dollars. Here your budget for buying a camera body will be 800 USD. Write down your first budget part and proceed to next step.
4. Compare and Shortlist.You are now ready to do a research on what models are available in market that suits your requirements and budget. For this you don’t have to step out yet, just visit some good consumer websites like:
You can prepare a comparison chart based on your feature requirements you gathered in above steps. I am going to give you an example below and you can also download a template which you can fill in to make your final decision:
5. Step out to analyzeWow! You are now at the very last step of finalizing your DSLR. Until now you have a shortlist of DSLRs that fit into your requirements and budget. Not you have all the arms and ammunitions to fight with all those greedy dealers who just want to sell their product no matters how worst it is. Visit your nearest store where you can locate the shortlisted DSLRs, hold the models, look and ask any type of questions from the sales man. I am sure he/ she will get frustrated with the amount of questions and counter question you ask but it is their duty and they are being paid for this job. Don’t buy from the very first store, just bargain the price and get out of the store without making any deal. Visit a couple of other stores and gather the best prices offered. This way you will have a chance to feel the camera and each time you hold, you will see a new point that will raise a question. Finally sit under a tree or grab a coffee at Starbucks and compare the deals you are getting from an online dealer and that from your local dealer. In countries like US and Canada you can easily do online shopping without any risk of losing your money in fact 80-90% shopping is done online in these countries. Anyways, it all depends upon ones discretion. What next??Well; I don’t think you need me anymore J Go and do your homework before doing DSLR shopping. I am sure if you follow these guidelines you will surely gain something. I my further posts I’ll try to come up with top 10 DSLRs based on the reviews and study I do. Please leave a comment so as to let me know that this post is at least helping some one      Tags: Aspect Ratio, Auto Focus, Burst Mode, Camera Buffer, Choosing DSLR, Compare DSLR, Continuous Mode, DSLR, DSLR Buffer, Dust Reduction, Flash, FPS, Frames Per Second, Image Sensor, Image Sensor Size, Image Stability, Large Buffer, LCD, Live View, Photography, Photosites, Pixels, Sensor Type, Vibration Reduction, Viefinder What DSLR should I buy? Is there an effective way to choose between different available DSLRs? Which one is the best DSLR in market these days? these are very common questions that I often get from my friends and readers, I thought why not scripting it for all my dear ones- It’s a good idea I guess If you are in one of your initial phases of research and you still have doubts whether or not to upgrade your gears to DSLR then I would like to recommend you to read my post “Is it worth upgrading to DSLR?” Believe me you will not lose anything by reading it. OK, now that you have made up your mind to buy a DSLR; let me take you through a range of steps that I usually recommend to make decision in choosing a good DSLR. According to me a good DSLR is not the one which is expensive or has all the advanced features or has a live view or light weight but it is a camera that serves you with what you expect after paying thousands of dollars. Just grab a pen and a paper and write down your own conclusions as against the 5 steps that I am presenting below: 1. What type of photography are you going to do? 2. Getting familiar with important features. 3. What’s your budget? 4. Compare and shortlist. 5. Step out to analyze. Walla!! You are done. That sounds easy right?? Now let me dig into each of the steps which will make your life easier. 1. What type of photography are you going to do?In brief, photography can be distinguished in a number of categories: 1.1. Indoor PhotographyWhen you are planning to do a lot of indoor photography like shooting events mostly arranged indoors. Under this category you will mostly be shooting photos inside your premises, wedding halls, party halls, etc. - You will be using external flash units a lot. - You might have to shoot in no flash zones for which you will have to switch to high ISO settings. - Due to dark conditions you will have to switch to lower shutter speed thus making an impact on the image quality due to hand shake i.e. Image stabilization. - For image stabilization you will also have to have a tripod.
1.2. Night PhotographyThis is almost close to an indoor photography category and you will be mostly shooting stars, moon, city lights, fireworks, etc. under dark conditions. - Again you will be using external flash units with longer range a lot. - You will be looking to shoot images with the lowest possible noise/ grains with highest possible ISO settings. - Due to dark conditions you will have to switch to lower shutter speed thus making an impact on the image quality due to hand shake i.e. Image stabilization. - For fireworks you cannot afford even a little bit of shake which can be caused due to shutter release button. Under this scenario a remote shutter release will do a great job. - Adding to image stabilization you will also have to have a tripod or at least a monopod.
1.3. Portrait PhotographyUnder this category you will mostly be capturing peoples’ faces. You will be interacting with the people surrounding you noticing and finally capturing their facial expressions on your camera. - Since the importance here will be the facial expressions, you will be shooting with a shallow depth of field, capturing only and only the face and partial body. You will be ignoring out the surroundings or any other objects which distracts the viewer. Here comes the aperture or the f-stops. This is basically considered when you are buying a lens but DSLR body is nothing without a lens I guess J - Even a little shake in your camera can blur out sharp little expressions on you subject’s face. You will have to activate Image Stabilization to overcome this. - If you are a person who doesn’t like to do post production stuff then you will probably like the inbuilt feature to apply different filters to your capture picture like Monochrome, Fisheye, Glow, etc. In fact these days DSLRs have an option to enhance color, contrast or even reflection from bright objects. In my case I love doing post production stuff using Adobe Photo Elements or even Google’s Picasa tool. - Some times after taking a shot you also want to review the captures image and believe me a big 3.5 inches live view (LCD) will make a great positive difference.
1.4. Sports PhotographyIf you are a sport lover I am sure you will love to capture those moments when a soccer player is jumping while giving cheers after winning a game. You will surely want to freeze that moment when the player is in air with a great winning expression and body language. - Sports here depict the speed of events, you will curse yourself on missing even a single act, and you would take a burst of shots with highest number of frames per second. - You will be capturing each and every action of the player by lowering down the shutter speed to its limits. - Since you will be shooting a burst of images, your camera should have a huge buffer to hold and process the image before saving it to the media. - Players during a sport often change their position and it would be great if your camera could allow you to focus manually to a multi focusing points.
1.5. Macro PhotographyI am a person who believes in the power of little ones. I love to shoot insects, wild flower, rain droplets on ivy, and many other small subjects. If you are the kind of person who wants to capture that little beauty then you are a macro photographer. - You will be reaching out to that honey bee resting on a sun flower to capture its smile J for this you will either be buying expensive macro lenses or adapters to convert your regular lenses to a macro one. Your camera should adapt to not only the previous generation lenses but also the adapters and lenses available by the third party like Sigma. This is called Camera adaptability. - Shooting at extremely close distance can make your hands to shake and thus resulting to a blurry image. Activating the Image stabilization feature will surely make a big impact. - Your body might have to go against ergonomic rules but it would be better for your body and of course camera to be equipped with a big LCD Screen to have live view action without leaning yourself below the ground level J - At such an extreme closeness your external flash unit mounted on hot shoe might not work. It would be great if you could set it on remote flash mode and place it aside pointing in the direction of the subject.
1.6. Outdoor/ Landscape PhotographyIf you love those huge green mountains with human less spots, or you travel a lot with fully equipped photo gears then you are in right section. - Based on the scenes you will often change your lenses thus risking your cameras optics to expose dust. Now-a-days most of the DSLRs are coming equipped with dust removal feature. You have an option to set the dust removal at startup or at the time of shutting down or even both. - Working outside in extreme weather might harm your lenses, it would be better to buy precautionary filters beforehand. - Carrying a lot of weight in the form of camera, lens kit, tripod makes huge impact while you are travelling. A light weight camera and its adaptable accessories will work like a blessing. - As I said earlier to eliminate hand shake blurs and avoiding image ruins your camera must have an Image Stabilization feature. - You will be shooting far off distances to capture that little log wood hut at the top of uphill. To shoot these subjects it would better equipped with an extended dynamic range. - Again to avoid post production processing it would be better to have inbuilt feature to apply filters and enhance true colors.
1.7. Studio PhotographySo you are fully equipped with a studio and a variety of lights. You must be having a huge collection of fixed lights and remote flashes, reflectors, etc. Along with Image Stabilization, live view, inbuilt color enhancing features your camera must support all those bunch of lighting accessories.
Step 1 Summary
Continued in “Choosing a DSLR (Part-II)” Please leave a comment so as to let me know that this post is at least helping some one Tags: Aspect Ratio, Auto Focus, Burst Mode, Camera Buffer, Choosing DSLR, Compare DSLR, Continuous Mode, DSLR, DSLR Buffer, Dust Reduction, Flash, FPS, Frames Per Second, Image Sensor, Image Sensor Size, Image Stability, Large Buffer, LCD, Live View, Photography, Photosites, Pixels, Sensor Type, Vibration Reduction, Viefinder |
