Equipment - Snapshot Chronicles

I am not a professional photographer nor a photo guru- I am a computer hobbyist. What this means is that most of the people I know (often including family members) ask me questions any time they need help with anything even remotely connected with computers, including tech items that can connect with computers. This includes digital photography, of course.

I have the feeling that a large percentage of Snapshot Chronicles readers will already have a camera, but in the hope of helping someone who is still in the process of choosing one, I am going to write a few entries with some of the suggestions I give to people when they ask my opinion about cameras. Normally it does NOT take me long to narrow things down to a range of cameras, but that is “conversation” compared to writing. I’ll try to hit all of my bullet points here.

My first posts are going to address the plethora of available digital cameras and how in the WORLD to pick one.

The first step in choosing a digital camera has nothing to do with the camera itself; it is about how you plan to USE your camera. What you want to do with it, what you want it to be able to do and exactly where your priorities lie. To get the results you want, you first have to well and truly understand what your digital photography goal IS.

The most common photography is the easiest- snapshots. Quick and easy pictures that can be taken with little or no effort and without having to read a 200 page manual. Turn it on, press a button and voila: picture! Digital cameras of this type range widely in price and features but will be easy to use and, with the cameras available now, generally provide good quality at a fairly low price. Digital snapshot cameras range in price from under $100 (USD) to around $300 (USD). Snapshot cameras are similar to traditional film cameras in that they are not so good at action pictures, and will have a “sweet spot” in picture taking range: too close or too far away and the quality will suffer somewhat. Since most snapshots are taken between maybe 5 to 20 feet this will not usually be an issue, BUT- If you plan to do extreme close-ups or a lot of panoramic landscapes you may be better served by a camera with more features.

The cheapest cameras that would be considered “snapshot” cameras usually DO have a setting for either close or distant (usually signified by a portrait or landscape image) but results vary widely. These cameras are the cheapest and fit at the bottom of the category generally called “consumer” cameras.

The upper range of digital cameras are the Professional cameras- the kind photography pros use to earn a living. Pro-level digital cameras are amazing, but have the same caveats that professional film cameras have: high cost and the college course required to operate them…

Kidding, of course but the Pro-level cameras are complex and to really get your money’s worth is likely to take some time and effort. But at least you won’t have to waste a lot of money getting pictures that turn out to be garbage developed while you learn how to use one. 🙂

The middle of the range digital camera is sometimes called “Prosumer” level. Pretty much anything between point-and-shoot and the Pro cameras. Most digital cameras fit somewhere in this category, with style and features varying widely. Choosing which prosumer camera to get is still complex, but if you have a good understanding of how you REALLY want to use your camera it will be a lot easier.

Next post: my “hot points”- the questions I consider most important in choosing a digital camera.

While I don’t plan to write product reviews on this blog — not my thing at all — we use a variety of equipment here in Geek Central and now is as good a time as any to give you the current equipment list. Everything on our list (located at the end of post) has been purchased at retail, except for one printer which I acquired in a charity auction. When we add gear to our inventory, I’ll update this post, and indicate whether it was purchased or donated.

Apart from the fact that I really don’t like writing product reviews, a major reason why I will not do them here is that I occasionally do projects for HP. While I expect I will mention the company and its products on this blog, for me to write detailed reviews of their gear, or anyone else’s, would be a conflict of interest. Ain’t gonna happen here, folks.

I will however be using all sorts of hardware, software and “consumable” products in the course of writing this blog, including things from HP. I’ll always clearly state if something I am writing about is related to my professional work, and you, dear readers, can evaluate my words accordingly.

My brother, who is even more of a gear head than I am, has expressed some interest in writing the occasional post for Snapshot Chronicles. His posts will be more about features and functions than mine will ever be, but on the lines of buying advice — what features you should look for in a camera or software if you wish to do certain things — than comparative product reviews. There are tons of other places you can go for those, and we’ll have some in the blogroll eventually.

The Gear List, July 4, 2007

Printers: HP LaserJet 4ML (this baby’s almost an antique), HP Photosmart 375 compact photo printer (from charity auction, autographed by actor Alan Cumming), HP Color LaserJet 2550n and an HP Photosmart C6180 All-In-One. We’ve had other printers, and they just don’t hold up the way the HP ones do. I think I bought the original LaserJet in 1993, and the thing is still chugging away. To put it in perspective, I had a Mac SE or Mac II when I first bought the printer, and have since burned through those machines, plus maybe another Mac and at least two Windows machines. The computers couldn’t keep up but damn, the printer can.

Computers: Three Sony Vaio Laptops of various sizes and configurations and a Compaq Presario tower.

Cameras: Susan, a Canon SD450 Digital Elph; Douglas, a Nikon CoolPix 775 (David’s old camera); David, a Sony CyberShot 5.0.

Update, July 13, 2007

Thanks to the fine folks at HP, one of my clients, we are messing around with an HP Photosmart A716 compact photo printer, an HP Photosmart Pro B9100 printer and a Photosmart R837 digital camera that has in-camera red and blue eye removal. And Douglas has his own M537 digital camera, which looks a lot simpler and easier for him to use than the hand-me-down Nikon from his Dad.

We’ll see if we can get some pictures of the dogs that don’t look like they are possessed 🙂

Too Many Cameras, Part One

Gearheads Are Us