Computing Life

Anything related to ‘digital’ brings forth a ton of information, which for the non-initiated or non techies becomes too hard to digest. In the interests of new camera affectionados or folks like my parents who just need to buy a decent camera, i have tried to put together my recommendations and advice in an easy to use format on this page.

The cameras i have recommended is intended for the novice, who is baffled by the gazillion options available out there. I have purposefully not opted to suggest the latest and greatest models, not just for economy reasons, but also from my experience which suggested that not everyone requires the latest models. And frankly the latest models are never as good as some of the tried out and steady best performers that are still available.

So here are my recommendations

340$ – Canon A 640 (or Canon A650IS if A640 is not available) (Weighs 315 gms & takes AA batteries)

375$ – Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom (Weighs 720 gms)

400$ – Fuji FinePix S9100 (Weighs 750 gms and takes AA batteries)

700$ – Canon EOS 450D (Entry level DSLR – weighs 525 gms)

1300$ – Canon EOS 40D (Mid level DSLR – weights 822 gms)

1600$ – Canon 5D without lens (Full frame DSLR – weights 924 gms)

Here is a comparison of all the above on one page

NOTE : I have not researched the extremely slim pocket-able / cheap types as they are not too versatile in my opinion. If you need a pocket-able solution i would suggest to check out any of the Nokia N series mobiles that offer mp3 playback, 5 MP camera or better using a Carl Zeiess lens.
Factors to look for when buying a digital camera

More Mega Pixel is not better

The first mistake that people make when buying cameras is to think that more MP is buying them better quality. This is wrong. Read further to find out why.

Bigger sensor size

Sensor is the electronic component that actually captures the light and translates them into pictures. Individual pixels within the sensor capture the light at that point. Obviously a bigger sensor and bigger pixel implies better pictures.(<-This link contains pictures that demonstrate the quality difference). Most point and shoot camera’s use a sensor size of 1/2.3″ or lower.

I have not considered any cameras that does not have a minimum sensor size of 1/1.8″ (A 640). Olympus uses the 2/3″ sensor and all the DSLR’s use APSC size sensors.

Pixel Density

This refers to how close together the pixels that sense the individual photons of light are placed together. When the density is high, the pictures tend to be noisier and therefore unusable. Being less crammed, pixels can be bigger allowing to capture more light falling on its surface. This directly translates to MUCH better low light capabilities.

However most manufacturers tend to disregard this and cram more pixels in the same area to increase the MP counts that can claim for their camera. No doubt this is bad for the picture quality. (but reduces the manufacturing cost too i suppose)

The cameras i have chosen also have the least pixel densities(26 MP/cm2 and less) i have seen in a point and shoot camera. DLSR cameras are much better than the best point and shoot by a factor of 10/15 in this regard. Obviously the pictures produced using these cameras will also show this characteristic.

ps : A demonstration of this is the fact that the Canon 40D which is older than their latest 50D model, takes less noisy images. This is because 50D tries to cram in more pixels though the sensor size is the same and as a result the imgae quality wrt Noise suffers.

The lens speed & Aperture

This refers to how much light a lens can capture. In low light situations a ’slow’ camera needs to be kept open for a longer period of time ie You need to use longer exposure periods (less than 1/250 secs upto to 1 or 2 secs) to capture the full light you need. However this requires the use of a tripod or equivalent if the shot has to come through properly. In effect with a low speed lens, this means you can only capture static objects in low light situations else you will have blur in your pictures.

The speed of a lens is primarily indicated by its max aperture size specified in f numbers. F2.8 is standard for most cameras with some even allowing smaller sizes. A640 has a maximum aperture of f2.8 while the Olympus can do an f 2.4 which is definitely better.  DSLR’s can take any type of lens and you chose the lens with the aperture you need (of-course you have to pay for the different lens you require)

ISO capability.(Affected by sensor size)

ISO refers to how sensitive a camera can be in low light situations. if a camera can ’see’ only in very bright day light situations, it is of limited use. Higher ISO’s means that the camera can see better in lower light. Here are two sample images (BIG IMAGES) from two DSLR’s. The Nikon D200 which is techincally equivalent to a Canon 40D  (has an APS-C sized sensor and the EOS 5D has a full size sensor.

APS-C sized sensor – Nikon D200 (at ISO 3200)

Full size sensor – EOS 5D (at ISO 3200)

Point and shoot cameras cannot take night shots so i haven’t even included them here. Suffice to say that point and shoots are utterly useless beyond ISO 200/400 at all.

To get more light in, when using a camera with a lesser ISO capability, you would have to expose your shot for a longer time ie your click does not really click for x seconds or so. This introduces the possibility of a camera shake unless you use a tripod. But then again you cannot expect toddlers or moving objects to remain static for the entire time you want your low ISO camera takes to getthe light in.

ps : Canon 40D takes better night time images than 200D but it still cant beat the 5D. I’m using D200 here only as a representative for the APS-C sized sensors due to unavailability of a similar image using Canon 40D.

ps : Some lenses are better than others and can open up further to let more light in.  The best point and shoot cameras have a max aperture size of only about 2.8. However custom lens available for DSLR’s can even got to a size 1.0 – 1.2.

Bokeh and Sensor size

The other reason why you may need a bigger aperture is to get that nice blur beyond the center object, which is especially useful for portraits (ie pictures of a single person).

Notice the greenery in the above picture which is nicely out of focus allowing the kid to be the center of all attraction. This gives the picture a well balanced look. Folks who absolutely need that kind-of a blur needs the combination of a DSLR with a fast lens.

NOTE : With a non DSLR you absolutely cannot create those blurs. The blur effect is also much better when we go with a full frame DSLR rather than entry level DSLR’s with medium size APSC size sensors.  See the difference below (image from Bobatkins.com). The 5D which is full frame DSLR produces a better blur compared to the 40D.

This effect is hard to capture in point and shoots due to the small sensors they use. Smaller sensors automatically focus in maximum possible depth (technical term - depth of focus) in all their pictures. Unlike DSLR’s the focus area does not shift so much in point and shoots and everything in the picture and beyond up-to infinity always remains in focus.  The creative freedom of changing the focus area can only be had with a DSLR. (NOTE : Good close ups of anything at all like flowers and butterflies use this same trick of blurring the background)

The lens width

This refers to, how wide an image can be produced by the lens. 35-36 mm is the typical size for a point and shoot camera. If more width is available, it will help you to capture more area horizontally, without stepping back a lot apart from enabling other important photographic techniques not quite possible with a more narrow focal range.

This is especially useful when capturing group photos or landscapes or buildings. Some point and shoot does offer 28 mm width. A640 has the standard maximum width of 35 mm. The fuji and olympus can capture 28 mm width.

NOTE : SLR cameras have removable lens. (Usually the default lens would be 18-55 mm in width). So you can attach lenses of any size provided the size you want is available. Even an entry level DSLR like the 450D can taken lens which can go to  14 mm width’s. If you are excited by this possibility DSLR’s are the way to go. (imagine the wide panorama of the Himalayas or the Andes) But the prices of externally attachable lens are never too low.

NOTE : Even amongst DSLR’s, the full frame DSLR like the Canon 5D will capture wider images than the APS-C DSLR’s.  eg When you have a lens that can do 50mm, it in fact becomes 85mm with an APS-C DSLR. Because of this reason, your expensive 10mm lens will not be able to take a truly 10mm picture unless you get the full frame sensor DSLR.

Image Sharpness and Sensor Size

Images captured using a bigger sensor and bigger aperture would be more sharper – dramatically explained here.(Open the link and go down to the section called WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE)

For this reason full frame DSLR sharpness > APS-C DSLR > point and shoot image sharpness.

Max Shutter Speed

This refers to how fast the camera can open and close, having a direct bearing on its abaility to “freeze” action. However this capability is less effective without the ability to keep pressing on and taking more and more fast shots. Shooting birds, sports and to a lesser extend children requires really fast cameras that can click more no of pictures in a second. If this is the area of photography you are interested in, an entrey level DSLR like the Canon 450D will be better suited for you.

Lens zoom

The zoom that factor that you should look for when buying a camera is the amount of optical zoom that is available. Bigger is better. A picture can also be digitally zoomed. But anyone can do this and there is no limit on how much digital zoom can be done. Some scrupulous camera manufacturers indicate the digital zoom along with the optical zoom. One should not be taken in by this.

But you should also know that it is very hard to create quality camera that works well in all zoom ranges. The best lenses in the world are non zoon lenses(aka prime lenses). The Canon A 640 above has only 4 x zoom but Fuji does 10x. So which takes better pictures? Compare the review pictures.

Manual Controls and Lens thread

Manual controls will let you experiment with your photography techniques. Lens thread will let you add some goodies on top of your lens that might help you in some situations. Having these options also indicate that the camera is intended for some what more power user.

Zoom lenses never capture their pictures in the best quality in all zoom ranges. The Canon A640 captures its best pictures in the f3.5 aperture. So this knowledge allows me to shoot in aperture priority mode, where i set the aperture and the camera decides the rest of the parameters. The flexibility to overcome the limitations of your camera is basically what the manual controls provide you with.

Image stabilization

Image stabilization will save a lot of picures that you might have had to throw away otherwise due to picture blurs. As they say, the picture you shot is always better than the picture you did not.

History

Not all companies produce the same quality even though on the paper the specs may seem the same. I have no idea why this is so. But here are the companies ranked in the order of my preference

Canon, nikon
Olympus, Fuji
Panasonic

There are others like HP (sick?) but they never seem to get things right or are too expensive (Leica) etc.

Other goodies

Movie Mode

If the camera allows recording of movies it will be really useful in real life situations. I have had many occasions to use this feature on my camera, recording dance sequences of Rajasthani tribal performances or the rush hour traffic in Bombay central etc. Higher resolutions and higher speed of play back (frames per sec) implies better movies. Stereo sound recording would be good.

Only the latest and greatest entry level DSLR’s have this feature though. But most point and shoot would have this feature by default.

Flip out and twist LCD panel – This is a very flexible option if you can have it. Once you have started using it, you would always want to have this available. Basically it lets you frame an image without creeping under the LCD panel to take a look at what the picture looks like. This is very useful in almost all situations where you are not firing the camera from your normal height / angle.

No of pixels in LCD panel – Most pictures look ok in your lcd at the time of capturing. But only later with a closer inspection would you find the real problems in it. An LCD which is bigger brighter and has more pixels will show up the errors and colors in your picture immediately.

Battery Life – The camera will not work without power. So a camera that can run longer will be a major convenience factor especially on long trips. dpreview reviews will give you a good indication of the battery life. AA cameras with 4 cells are good in this aspect (eg A640 or Fuji FInePix). When using AA cameras use the high charge NimAh batteries. These always give the best performance. However the fact that a camera takes AA can be good if you are travelling a lot and run out of juice.

Flash Guidance – Flash guidance basically lets you know how powerful the flash is. Bigger the better. If the camera can take external flash that is also good in case you are the type who is interested in versatile flash photography techniques. Nikons are reputed to be bette in flash technology.