Selecting SLR cameras

While buying consumer or prosumer cameras are pretty straightforward, selecting a suitable SLR require a little more thought. This is because there are lots of different camera bodies and lenses to choose from and they don't come cheap.

Before commiting yourself to a SLR, ask yourself whether you really need one. If you are just going to get an SLR with just the standard kit lens (the lens that came with the camera) and not thinking of getting anything else, often a prosumer camera will be a suitable choice. The kit lens, while good, is not useful for many situations, such as close-up or macro photography. In some situations, a good prosumer can outperform a low end SLR at a lower price.

Additionally, if you're not going to upgrade or add more gear, its rather pointless to own a SLR. In my opinion, unless you are really serious into photography, go for prosumers.

These are the things you need to consider:

1. Budget

The amount of equipment you can buy when going into the SLR path is endless, so you'll need to know how much you can afford.

From this budget, you can decide what combination of equipments you can acquire.

For most beginners, a budget of $2000 should be a sufficient investment.

2. Purpose

There are many sub-specialities in photography, and more importantly so when considering SLR since the lenses are quite specialised.

Think about what you will do with your camera, is it:

• portraits
• macro/close-up
• sports
• events
• nature
• scenery
• holidays

The list may go on but these are the general ones. Each of these require their own set of lenses and other equiptment. Having said that, some of the equipment can be shared between them.

3. Research

With an idea of how much you have to spend and what you are going to spend it to do, you can now begin browsing for your first SLR. It is essentially a similar process as discussed in the previous article.

I will not discuss exactly which model or brand you should go for, since it is really a matter of preference. Instead, I will discuss in general the principles of a SLR so that you'll understand the terminology.

4. Brand

In general, there are 4 major brands that I know of that sells good SLRs.

1. Nikon
2. Canon
3. Sony
4. Pentax

There are others of course, but I do not have enough experience with them. I personally own a Nikon and have friends that uses Canon cameras. I feel that if you go for Nikon or Canon, it'll be a good choice because there are many people who uses them and you'll be able to talk with others about your equipment or even share lenses with your friends. These brands are also in the market for the longest. Sony and Pentax are good because the camera bodies come built-in with image stabilisers (nikon and canon places the component in the lens instead).

In general, you'll need to decide two components of your SLR.

The camera body,

and the lens.

Its really simple, the lens takes in the light and alters them (magnify, etc) and the body has the sensor which receives the light and convert them into digital information.
BODY

In general you can divide the body into three generations:

• First generation
• Second generation
• Third generation

It gets a little confusing (and stupid) here. For nikon, the first generation cameras has 2 digits (D40), second generation has 3 digits (D300), and third generation has 1 digits (D3). Now there's a new nomenclature with 4 digits (D5000, D3000), which is essentially a first generation camera. The Canon cameras are less confusing, first generation has 3 digits (400D), second has 2 digits (40D) and third generation has 1 digit (5D).

In general, the higher the generation, the better the body are in terms of dynamic range (discussed later), speed of action, megapixels and other small details. They are also significantly more expensive as you move up a generation.

For our consideration, a first generation camera is sufficient as a beginner. There are other stuff like full frame and 3/4 frames but that's complicated. A first generation camera is almost usually a 3/4 frame camera.

LENS

This is where your earlier consideration comes into play.

In general when buying lenses, these are the factors that comes into consideration:

1. Focal length
2. Maximum aperture
3. Vibration reduction
   

Focal length:
Focal length is pretty much how much you can zoom the lens. the numbers vary from 10mm to 500mm and pretty much a smaller number is how much you can zoom out (wide) and the larger number is how much you can zoom in (tele).

For example:

The Nikon D90 kit lens:


The markings you can see is: AF-S NIKKOR 18-105 MM 3.5-5.6G ED.

For this lens, the focal length is 18-105mm. 105mm doesn't really give you much a zoom, a good zoom should be about 200mm in a crop sensor. 18mm is wide enough for scenery, but a real wide angle lens is about 10 or 12mm wide.

Note: There are also 'prime' lenses, which are lenses that does not allow zooming, they are fixed lenses. A good cheap prime lens is the Nikkor 50mm F1.8 prime lens.

Lastly, there are also all purpose lenses for those lazy to change lens on the go, they are usually 18mm-200mm so cover both wide and tele. However, they usually perform less better in terms of colour reproduction, sharpness and other factors.

Maximum aperture:
If you look at the lens again, there's this 3.5.5.6 marking on it. That's the maximum aperture. Significantly, when they place the max aperture from one number to another, it means when you zoom in, the maximum aperture decreases. Basically the larger the aperture, the more light you can take in at night and the more bokeh you have. (will be discussed in detail later).

Note: the larger the number, the smaller the aperture.

In general, a good lens should have a fixed maximum aperture at F2.8. The Nikkor 50mm F1.8 prime lens allows a max aperture of F1.8.

Vibration reduction:

Vibration reduction VR (or image stabiliser in Canon) is an important aspect. It reduces camera shake and allows better pictures at night. It is also important to consider in telephoto cameras since shake is amplified the more you zoom in. However, these lenses usually cost more.

Brand

One other thing to think about when choosing lenses is the brand. In general there's the brand of the manufacturer of the chosen body (canon, nikkor) and there's also 3rd party lenses.

3rd party lenses are generally cheaper but in terms of performance may not match that of original lenses. However, there are some instances where 3rd party lenses outperform the original.

The better known brands are:

1. Tamron
2. Sigma
3. Tokina

I personally use a Tamron lens and it has performed wonderfully.

So in general:

• portraits --> long focal range, large aperture + external flash
  
• macro/close-up --> large aperture, specialised lenses + external flash
  
• sports --> very long focal range (300-500mm), large aperture
  
• events --> average focal range 200mm, large aperture
  
• nature --> very long focal range
  
• scenery --> wide angle (10-12mm, 17mm)
  
• holidays --> all purpose lens (17-200mm)
  

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If you don't want to commit to any particular style, you can go for something like:

Nikon D90 body
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8
Nikkor 55-200mm F4.5-5.6
External flash SB-600

That would cost a little more than AUD2000 but you can do most things with that.