My first camera

Mischa Konig has a photo of my first camera. A Starlet that my Dad gave me after he got his Pax Ruby. I think my bro used it too.

Choosing a DSLR (Quick Answers? Not really)

Image by penmachine via Flickr

In the DPR Beginners Forum, we often get beginners asking about which DSLR to buy. Invariably, although they think they are being unique and try to sound unique, their question goes like this:

1. Which is The Best DSLR?
2. Which is the DSLR with The Best Image Quality?
3. Which is the DLR with The Most Bang for Buck?
4. I’m buying my first DSLR, Which One Would You Buy?
del.icio.us Tags: DSLR

One might think, they should first read other posts before they pose the question. Because there are many posts around the same topic. No. That’s not a goer for them. For several reasons.

1. Previous posts seem too tailored to individual queries
2. Previous threads are too long and often spiraled by conflicting pontifications
3. They really can’t make sense of the language being used
4. They really believe there is a Best – why is everyone so clueless?
5. They want to settle the matter there and then, what’s the point of going to a shop and holding the thing?
6. They’re looking for some camraderie.
7. They’re looking to be served at the counter, ring, ring!

Let me try to address the questions as best I can, in broad terms.

Q: Which is the Best DSLR

ANS: There is no “Best” DSLR – there is no Best Car, there is no Best Wife, there is no Best House. There is a car you would rather drive, there is a wife that would suit you to bits but might not suit everyone, ditto for a house. What makes you think there is a Best DSLR? There are DSLRs that are so robust, strong, long lasting, solid, reliable, produce good images that they are chosen by the Professionals Who Earn A Living from photography. That may not be the one for you – as an amateur, you may not have the budget, you may not have the dedication or have an assistant to carry all the gear, and so on. So essentially, you’re asking, “What is the Best DSLR for me?” – to which we answer, we don’t know, we are not you. You can tell us who you are, what you want to shoot (and some beginners say anything and everything) but we may still get the choice wrong – we don’t have your size hands, we don’t at all empathise with your eyesight or lack of……

Q: Which is the DSLR with The Best Image Quality?

ANS: There would be one or two DSLRs with extremely good image quality. And the contender for the crown might be knocked off every other year. Take for example, that Leica S-System – it might be the best Image Quality DSLR one day, but would YOU buy it? Really? So, we might say a Nikon D3 or a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III. Would you buy those? Money no problem? Are you going to buy at least one lens with that body, sir? Ok, you may think I’m over the top? So you’re into the more plebian entry level DSLRs? That each brand has? Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Pentax? Which entry level camera has the Best Image Quality? Are you serious? If they are all entry level models, none of them can be The Best Image Quality. There will be one that does better than another technically, but economically, the higher model of a couple of years ago that is still on sale might be the same price but punching much better because it was a higher model. So you can’t even compare within one category – there are wildcards from previous years, higher end models, second hands and so on….

Q: Which is the DLR with The Most Bang for Buck?

ANS: Same as above - economically, the higher model of a couple of years ago that is still on sale might be the same price but punching much better because it was a higher model. So you can’t even compare within one category – there are wildcards from previous years, higher end models, second hands and so on…. Would you buy an older model? Would you buy a refurbished one? Would you buy a second hand?

But what does “Bang for Buck” mean? That you buy a firecracker that goes “boom” louder? But we’re not buying firecrackers. We’re buying cameras to take photos. A photo is a combination of lighting, subject selection, composition, where you stand, how quick you and the camera are to take the oppurtunity, whether that oppurtunity is well within the camera’s ability and your skill. A camera with more features to tick off in a product matrix may not necessarily be the better tool for you. Because for that oppurtunity or scene, it may not have the right strengths in the right areas.

Q: I’m buying my first DSLR, Which One Would You Buy?

ANS: Really, this is a howling classic. I can tell you why I would buy something. That does not make me, you. I might be dual faceted. I might want you to buy what I buy and persuasively say so. To vindicate my choice. Bring one more to the fold. Or I might so detest my choice I want the whole world to not to buy that in revenge and retribution. Really, you don’t want to buy the camera that I bought. Really.

In later postings, I hope to come up with some affirmative points….

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The Kuala Lumpur set

del.icio.us Tags: Malaysia,Kuala Lumpur

A recent poster in the DPR forums was asking about places to shoot in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. I replied that different people shoot different things and there’s lots to shoot. Then I thought, since I started up this blog, I haven’t posted any Kuala Lumpur or Selangor shots. Here are some that stick in my mind.

This is a view of the Corus Hotel, dwarfed by the Petronas Twin Towers and the other skyscrapers. Taken from the Malayan Flour Offices on Jalan Ampang.

I remember this Ampang Taoist / Buddhist Temple – for many years, Mum and Dad would go there with me, especially during Chinese New Year. There was a courtyard there, with a wishing well – not actually, more a wishing pond with small figurines, bonsai – a magical place for the young at heart. Now, I think that atmosphere isn’t there anymore. No over powering smoke, no dark corners, not wall hangings depicting lost souls in hell.

From the top:

and inside:

This is the handsome messenger of the gods

The fearsome looking Laohans are now perched high and lit up

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12MP is enough (or was that 640k?)

del.icio.us Tags: Olympus,DSLR,FourThirds

Image via Wikipedia

The forums at DPR are going a bit ga-ga over the CNET PMA interview with Akira Watanabe, manager of the SLR planning department. He said - "We have no intention to compete in the megapixel wars for E-System".

It is quite common in conversations with self appointed gurus, to moan about how the small sensors in cameras keep being pushed into higher Megapixels whenever a new model is released. These people say that manufacturers of cameras should voluntarily step back from the Megapixel race. And now, when one manufacturer says so, the same people or other doomsayers step forward and say that staying at a plateau of 12MP for the Four Thirds sensor signifies the beginning of the end.

What people choose to skip, is the following remark by Watanabe-san - “Instead, Olympus will focus on other characteristics such as dynamic range, color reproduction, and a better ISO range for low-light shooting”.

It is also well espoused by reviewers and by the anti-Four Thirds opinionists, that the weak points in the Four Thirds cameras is about a stop of dynamic range and earlier onset of digital image noise (graniness). So Watanabe-san is simply stating that the company does recognise the challenges in this sensor size and they want to improve the performance of these aspects on a higher priority.

Certainly, if Panasonic (or less likely, Kodak) comes to the table and brings an even denser Megapixel sensor, it would not be logical to sweep such a gift into the rubbish bin.

Much is also made of Watanabe-san’s statement: "We don't think 20 megapixels is necessary for everybody. If a customer wants more than 20 megapixels, he should go to the full-frame models”.

Again, nothing surprising in that. Lots of people don’t need the 20MP. Look at the long sales life and service life of the redoubtable Nikon D40 – a 6MP camera. And routinely still recommended as a useful camera – with punchy colours, low image noise. Many people, including myself, seldom print now (again there are aged, veteran photographers who frown on this and insist that the object of photography IS PRINTING) – and certainly web images or screen images, as a output result, uses less than 2MP.

So, why the angst? Why the neurotic chest thumping? It’s because someone practical and pragmatic stood up and announced that there is a finite limit to real sensors and real optics and the Four Thirds design as at the time of the interview.

Will there be electronic and optical improvements? Sure. By how much and how soon?

Should aspiring pros and pro-like fans abandon Four Thirds as of now so that they can fill their bag with CaNikZeiss lenses? Maybe. If you must have the huge Megapixel, the wafer thin DOF, the super creamy bokeh that an 85mm f/1.2 lens will deliver, the ISO 2500 without digital image noise, then they should have left the station like, oh, a year ago.

For the rest of us, the practical niceties of the Four Thirds system daily proves it’s worth. And when the time comes, when the legendary 24x36mm “full frame” sensor DSLR sells at today’s entry level price, we’ll take our options then. Until then, Carpe Diem – don’t burden yourself with the perceived loss of assets that aren’t.

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