Whether you are an amateur photographer or a professional photographer, the question of
digital photography equipment always arises. When you decide to learn about photography, you very often ask yourself the question, is there really the perfect choice of camera? A better choice of DSLR camera, compact camera, bridge camera?
The purpose of this page is to help you get the equipment you need, particularly if you are looking to buy a camera or a lens. I’m only looking at these two topics on this page, for other camera accessories please look at my article called: camera accessories !
So what can we hope to find on this page?
Choosing your camera : it may seem like a simple question at first, but the choice is huge. Choosing between the best smartphones (which ones take the best pictures), digital compacts, bridge cameras, hybrid cameras (with their interchangeable lenses which allow you to take beautiful pictures), Polaroid cameras, and of course digital DSLRs, is a huge task as there is no longer one obvious choice. Which camera to choose is the question that many people ask themselves.
The choice, therefore, will depend on many factors: what do you want to photograph? Is the size of the camera important to you? Is this your first camera? Do you prefer to use manual mode or automatic mode? Would you like to film with your camera? Are you looking for something versatile, which does a little of everything? Do you want to practice macrophotography? Are you going to edit your images afterwards? Do you want a particularly small camera? Are you looking for a compromise between an expensive camera and one of the cheaper low-end models? Do you want to take adventurous photos, street photos, photos at night? I’ll stop there, but you get the idea! It’s obviously quite tricky to answer all those questions and then say, “take this one, it’s great.”
I have already started writing about the difference between a full frame camera and an APS-C sensor and I will come back to it in more detail another time. I will also look at other issues which affect your camera, such as dust management, mildew, maintenance, etc.
Photo lenses : Like choosing a digital camera, choosing the correct lens is no easy task either. Different lenses have different qualities and uses, and they don’t all have the same advantages. Some are clearly of better quality than others, for example.
This is the topic I will spend the most time looking at on this page in order to help you choose, for example: a telephoto lens, a macro lens or a wide angle lens. I will also give you some information on the difference between a fixed focal length and a zoom lens, as well as advice on which lens to choose for landscape photography, how to take pictures with a wide angle lens, which focal length to choose for different situations, the benefits of a stabilizer on a 200mm or 300mm lens, etc.
Finally, to fully understand both topics in this article, I also suggest you read my page on the basics of photography, which provides precise details on concepts such as; depth of field, how the diaphragm works, aperture, autofocus, framing, shutter speed, etc. all of which are related to either the lenses or the cameras.
If you have any specific topics in mind regarding the photographic material you want me to cover, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I wish you luck in taking beautiful pictures,
Sylvain
