The yearly Thanksgiving holidays are coming, so are the deals of camera and lens. I have to admit that during these years if you still stick to only simple point-and-shoot digital compact camera (DC), you might be a little bit outdated. DSLR has become a mainstream photography gear for anyone in this world, no matter if you really know how to take a picture, or take it further how to make a "good" picture. Even if you are not interested in the photography at all, you still can't resist making "Wow" once you saw others' cool shots at the live spot when you were traveling or on the Facebook when you were doing some social business. My point here is quite simple, anyone today needs a DSLR just like anything else that is necessary for your life. Fortunately, most DLSR today won't cost you a fortune to afford it. It is cheaper than your house, your car, you jewelry or even your dog. It might be just a little bit more expensive than your laptop or mp3 player. This is a good point to start, and that's why more and more people I know begin to consider to get one, especially when deals are available. But you know there will be always some bad things coming up, for DSLR, you need to consider the following "accessories" that we will talk more in details below:
1. camera lens 2. filters 3. bags 4. memory cards 5. batteries 6. tripod 7. flash 8. software and hardware
These 8 things plus the camera body could make the whole thing look really complicated. As you might already know, it will never be just like your DC, you certainly didn't have to think much, just take it out from your pocket, set Auto and shoot. A DSLR requires you master a certain degree of learning curve; aperture, shutter speed and ISO at least. Now the Thanksgiving is imminent, and there are certainly quite a few deals on the introductory camera sets coming out, so most people would take it granted that this might be the best time to get one. With limited knowledge and faced with so many different brands of cameras and lens, it is quite intimidating for most people that knows little about camera and photography. Quite a few of my friends left messages on my Facebook, Renren or even called me directly for advice. When first person contacted me, I spent more or less 30 mins to explain some of the critical points that I came up with at that time. And when second people called me, I spent another 45 mins to make her get the ideas. And when the third person came to me with the similar problems, I knew I should write something to save my time and their time. And here are my talking points running in my head each time I tried to answer.
*Curtesy of Limeng Chen for photography
Q1: What kind or brand of DSLR should I get? A1: Generally, you can get any DSLR you want. Each person has his/her own taste, from functionalities or configurations. But as most people I knew didn't have specific taste or idea for a DSLR, so my suggestion would be based on the following two questions you need to answer:
1. What is your budget or how much you plan to spend on this stuff? 2. How far you plan to go for photography?
Believe it or not, though there are so many different brands of DSLR on the market, actually they can be divided into two categories: crop sensor or full frame. For all low-budget DSLRs, they have crop sensor, which means the area of CMOS sensor inside is smaller than traditional 35mm film that shares the same with a full frame one. So briefly speaking, full frame camera can create more vivid pictures of higher resolution and saturated colors than crop ones. But this actually matters little for most of users. The biggest "weakness" for crop sensor cameras is the focal distance conversion. Any lens put on crop-sensor camera will be equal to a lens of focal distance 1.3 or 1.6 times longer (depending on your camera model). This means, for wide angle lenses, you will never be able to shoot wide enough compared to the ones on the full frame camera. If you want to shoot landscape and has a crop-sensor DSLR, you might need to purchase ultra-wide lens in the focal range 16-35 or even fisheye (focal distance
And now cut it short, I think most people only takes it as kind of a tool for recording, then no doubt you only need a well built, full functional crop-sensor DSLR. And I recommend Canon or Nikon only, since only these two have a full product lines for lens and accessories. Some people only prefer to use SONY, but SONY never made really impressive lens by their own, so I didn't recommend it in the long run. And between Canon and Nikon, I might suggest people to get Nikon models like Nikon D7000 or Nikon D90, depending on your budget and requirements for functionalities. For full frame, you might be better to invest for either a Nikon D700 or Canon 1Ds. Though I am a Canon guy, I didn't recommend to purchase Canon DSLRs expect for 1D and 1Ds series because of its crap and cheap AF sensors built inside. In a word, the most critical thing you need to consider for a working DSLR is its auto-focus (AF) sensor is powerful or not. If you missed the shot and got soft images because of the defected AF sensors, your DSLR is a total waste then. For Nikon, its AF system was regarded far better than Canon's, which means by using Nikon, you can get more accurate AF and sharper images. My big frustration for Canon comes from the fact that even for a semi-pro camera like 5D Mark II, Canon only placed the last generation of 9-point AF system inside that made the low-light shooting extremely difficult and unexpected. Therefore, go and get a Nikon to save your time and strength in my opinion.
*Curtesy of Limeng Chen for photography
Q2: What lens do I need to purchase? A2: My suggestions here have two big points. The first one, NEVER ever purchased any cheap lens bundled with the camera body. This means, if you saw a deal about a camera package of a DSLR + one or two or three lens that covering a long focal range, ignore it!!! These lens are cheap and crap in both building and image quality. They are cheap, which is biggest advantage for most DSLR users, but have you ever thought this question in your mind before: why you need to purchase a DSLR? I think fewer people will say I don't care, I just need a DSLR since it can help me know more girls or get a girlfriend, so on and so forth. Most people will say, "I need to take better pictures." That's the point!!! For high quality images, you need a high quality sensor, high quality lens, high quality filters, and high quality software. Now you have already get a cropped sensor, if you continue to get a crap lens and purchase a cheap filter later (in my mind, no one will purchase a high quality filter, which normally is very expensive, on a cheap lens), how can you make DSLR-quality pictures? If camera body determines 30% of your final image qualities, i believe lens could make it 50%. Playing DSLR is more like playing various kinds of lenses instead of the camera bodies. The camera bodies are more or less similar (differences are very limited compared to lenses) in functionality and built quality most of times, the lenses made the whole thing very large difference. My suggestion is to purchase the best lens you could afford, even if you can only have one lens, period! Good lens can seldom failed your expectations, and stimulated your interest for photography. And excellent lens preserves its value for relatively longer time compared with camera bodies since lenses could be used on different bodies no matter they are new or old models. Some people even made long time investments on the lenses of top quality like Leica and Zeiss. So remember this, only purchase the best lens you could afford!
*Curtesy of Limeng Chen for photography
And now the second point, what lens you need to purchase depends on what kind of stuff you need to take pictures for. For landscape, you need wide angle lens (focal range: 16-40); for portrait, you may need standard portrait lens (50-135); for wild life and long shooting, you need telephoto lens (70-200). And if you need zoom or prime lens also depends on your interest, your budget and your capabilities. Prime lens had better image qualities compared to zoom lens mostly, but zoom lens are easier and more flexible to carry and use. In Canon case (you may apply the same focal range to find your corresponding Nikon mount lens if you prefer to use Nikon), I suggest the following combinations from my experience:
1. if only one lens to purchase, get 24-105 f/4L IS or 24-70 f/2.8L 2. if two lens, get one of the above and 50 f/1.4 (for both of street shoot and portrait) or 85 f/1.8 (specifically for portrait) 3. if three lenses, you may get a 17-40 f/4L (for landscape), 50 f/1.4, and a 70-200 f/4L IS or 70-200 f/2.8L IS.
Note the aperture size really made a big difference in the price tag, f/4 normally is good enough for both portraits in ordinary lighting conditions, but for low-lighting condition like in a church or in the night, you may need to get a lens at least f/2.8. For more details about aperture, shutter speed and ISO, as i mentioned above, you need to spend some time to learn about it. If you really want to know my advice on the lens aperture, I have to say, always get the fast (larger aperture) lens if possible.
*Curtesy of Limeng Chen for photography
Q3: Is it necessary to purchase a filter? If so, what filters I need to purchase? A3: My answer for this is yes in general. At least, you might need to buy a high quality UV filter to protect your big investment on the expensive lenses. The recommended brands are B+W and Hoya. Prefer the MRC (multi-coated) version if budget allowed. Cheaper ones will bring negative effects to your final images taken, like creating halos or vignettes to your images or even decreasing the sharpness, color vibrance and contrast quite a lot. So invest a high quality UV lens will always be a good idea for any casual DSLR user that has a nice lens on the camera body. And if you plans to take a lot of landscape pictures, then purchasing a CPL filter is also necessary. Recommended brands are the same as above, and you can google to know what it is used for and how to use it. They are very simple to use, and the effects are quite obvious if you buy the right (top-quality) one.
Q4: Do i need to purchase any other accessories? A4: Yes, the most necessary ones have already been listed above. Now we carry more details about them.
1. You need a good camera bag to protect your gears during the traveling. For ordinary users (or even for a serious photographer like me), I recommend the Amazon Basics backpack. This bag is sturdy and large enough to carry all of your gears with extra space to put many accessories you might think of, even a tripod. And it is compact and not looking like a camera bag for your safety. For most professional cases, people will choose Tarmac or Lowepro, but they are more expensive and normally unnecessary for most ordinary users with tight budget.
2. You need some high volume memory cards. Remember, your DSLR never came with a memory card. So you need to purchase one in advance. Or when your camera comes, you can't use it. Usually you need to get at least 8GB, 16GB will be preferred if budget allowed. And if you plan to use movie functions on the camera to record high-resolution videos, I have to say, the larger the better. At least 16GB, period.
3. You always need to carry an extra battery with you in the shooting event. An OEM battery is preferred for stability and longevity.
4. You may need a tripod for landscape work. In this case, my suggestion is to get a sturdy one if you plan to buy one. Mine is made of aluminum and it is stupidly heavy. But it is very sturdy, even shooting in a typhoon. If your lens is expensive and heavy on a camera, then you also need to buy a good tripod. If you just casually used it with light lens and camera, then a 30-buck tripod might fulfill your needs. Just remember, estimate your gear weight first and make your decision. Never buy one because of its price and weight!!!
5. You may need to buy an external flash to take portraits. Most people will ask me, why I need a big external flash when my DSLR already has one on the body? The fact is, your built-in flash is a piece of crap in general. In a word, serious photographer never used built-in flash! That's why no flash is ever built in any professional full frame cameras. Flash photography is very complicated and totally a long story to tell about, but the basic idea is never directly pointing your flash towards your subject face to face. The right way to use flash is to bounce it and soften it. In order to do so, you need to make flash head be able to rotate and tilt, which is impossible for any built-in flash. Thus your flash on the camera is totally useless and waste of money!!! If you need to take good portraits outside or inside, you need to purchase a better external flash gun to fill the light or creating shadows for effects.
*shot with Limeng's Canon T1i
6. You also need some professional software to do some simple post-processing works. Post-processing is another big story to talk about, and it is complicated to some extent. Professionals used a few workflow tools to simplify the whole process and speed it up. For normal users, they also need to learn part of it, at least know how to tweak the exposure, contrast and vibrance to make your own images more vivid and attracting. And if you know how to do it and do it correctly, it makes a huge difference! Well, I used "huge" here to emphasize the importance for post-processing, but not mean to turn your poorly taken images into a masterpiece. Remember, post-processing might makes your image look better or professional from some aspects, but will never makes your works to be really professional or highly acclaimed! Even some "purists" never fight against to adjust the image exposure or contrast in photoshop, it becomes more and more common and necessary to be able to post-process your images before you upload them to share with your friends. I used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for 95% of my workflow, and I also recommend it for any DSLR users since it really can make your post-processing quite easy and fast. You even don't have to know how to play with those parameters like tone curves, color panels, etc., all you need is some presets. Presets are like cooking recipes, you purchase them and use them, they will make your dishes taste like the ones cooked in the restaurants in no time. In lightroom, it is a one-click movement, and everything turns into a totally new world in front of you. For iPhone users, if you ever used any camera apps like the recent popular Instagrams or Camera +, you may get an idea that how presets work by applying those effects in the apps on your pictures. More and more "lazy" people need it, and the business market for presets are expanding! More and more professional photographers or software developers began to cook new recipes to make money. And in this post, I applied some simple yet effective YSA LR presets on some of my previous jpeg images. Though you might find some free presets to use, but in my personal experience, they are never quite useful and well tuned, which may make your images look even worse than before. I suggest to purchase some professional ones, if you determine to use some of those from your start point of post-processing. And you always need to twark your white balance, exposure, contrast and vibrance, etc., i.e., any parameters in the basic panel of develop mode in Lightroom. Never apply them blindly, or you never made any progress on your own processing skills.
And you may need some hard drives to store your growing images. If you take raw format images, which I always prefer for easy post-processing, you should consider to purchase an external hard drive of at least 1TB. For raw or jpeg pictures taken, you might need to google for more details. JPEG is not a good option for any post-processing, raw makes it more flexible for tweaking. But raw file is large and requires larger memory cards and larger external hard drive.
Q5: What is most important for photography in your opinion? A5: I've been asked this question a few times. My answer is always: It's you, the photographer. No matter what camera you use, what lens you have, or what software and presets you use, your ability of creation and visualization makes the biggest difference from others. This is the only unique characteristics you might never sell or buy from others. Once you hold up your camera, you should think what is interesting in your viewfinder, and how you prepare to capture it. From the first day I began to learn photography, I was told by many many photographers that never shot pointlessly. Yes, you need to shoot with a motif in your mind. A picture with no motif is useless and has no life. That's why you need to learn from shooting and criticizing. But above all, your interest, your passion and your happiness is all you should care in the end. No one requires you be a photographer if you play a DSLR. As long as you feel happy with it, then go with it. Don't feel ashamed for the pictures you have taken, since they might mean nothing for anyone else except you. So never feel pressure on it, get a DSLR and shoot freely with open heart. Most of the pictures shown in this post were shot with my earlier DC model Canon A720 IS by myself unless noted. It is not a DSLR, but I still like these images like others after processing. So it really doesn't matter what gears you are using, all you need to think about is how to use them in a your own unique way.
**shot by my iPhone 4