Things You Should Know About Choosing a dSLR Camera
When shopping around for a digital SLR camera, it is easy to become overly hung up on brand names. For instance, Canon and Nikon seem to be the strongest brands in the camera market overall - and they have had that dominant position for as long as I can remember.
Now, since my first “real” SLR film camera, back in the 1970’s, happened to be a Canon (which I was quite happy with), and I later owned a budget-range Nikon SLR (which didn’t work right), I decided to be a worshipper of the Canon brand for ever after.
After these experiences, I wouldn’t even think of buying any other camera than a Canon! And, sure, Canon makes excellent cameras of all different kinds - from simple point-and-shoot to professional SLR’s. But so does Nikon.
What I am saying is: When making up your mind about which camera is right for you, then try to clear your mind from old prejudices. OK, I had a bad experience once with a Nikon camera - but that was very long ago and this particular camera type (I think it was called “Nikon EM”) disappeared from the market many years ago and is totally forgotten nowadays.
My advice to anyone looking around for a digital SLR camera are mainly focused on two things:
ONE: Look at The Lenses!
Ask yourself what types of lenses you are going to need, and check what each manufacturer has to offer in that range. Like, are you a bird enthusiast, and need fast telephoto lenses? Then check what Canon, Nikon, and all the rest have in stock for your particular needs.
Or you are into extreme macro photography - which manufacturer offers the best lenses for that special kind of application? Read magazines and search the Web, there are special sites devoted to field-testing all kinds of photo-gizmos. (For instance, Imaging-resource.com.)
Among the leading brands, you will probably find that they offer lenses of every conceivable kind, for every imaginable type of use. But their specifications may differ, as well as the prices.
TWO: Get a Feeling For The Camera Bodies!
What I mean by that is: it is very important that you feel good about actually using the camera. The controls should be placed so that you don’t have to search for them and the camera should feel well balanced when you hold it. You can get some idea about such things by reading reviews and looking at illustrations of the camera bodies, but actually holding a specimen is much better.
Sure, there are other things to consider also when comparing camera bodies. I am especially thinking about how well the camera handles shooting at high ISO-settings. Being able to use a high ISO-setting and still get an image of excellent quality is a great advantage - indeed one of the reasons to upgrade from a point-and-shoot digicam to an SLR, since the latter tend to do better at high ISO-settings.
At the time I write this, it appears that Nikon has the edge here, but this could change. One of the premium digital SLR’s from Nikon, the Nikon D700, permits shooting at up to ISO 6400 while keeping an excellent image quality! Canon hasn’t quite matched that yet, but their new Canon EOS 5D Mark II (pictured above, equipped with a 24-105 mm, f=4.0 zoom lens), which will be released later this year, has a new image sensor and may turn out to match the sensor used by Nikon in the D700.
