Camera

I am very interested in photography, and up until now I have been using a traditional digital camera. I don’t know a whole lot about vintage or classic cameras, so what are the cameras that every photographer needs for their collection? Oh and I have a polaroid too.

The amount of cameras and lenses that I have had come and go from my collection over the years would easily reach three figures. Some I kept for just a few days before selling on, some a few years, others I still have and use now. I have whittled it down to about eight or nine cameras and quite a lot of lenses.

It really depends on how much money you have to spend, what type of photography you intend to do and how much space you have to store them! )

If you ask me what cameras/lenses you should consider buying then I will tell you to buy ones that can be used a modern day DSLR either with or without an adapter. I currently shoot digitally with a Ricoh GR Digital as a compact and a Canon 20D as my more serious tool. The beauty of Canon is that it allows me to use several older manual focus lens systems with my camera body and achieve infinity focus. Therefore I look for cameras and lenses that are also compatible with my DSLR body.

I currently own a few SLR bodies but the film ones which I currently use are a Sigma Mark 1 (M42 mount) and Contax RTS (C/Y mount.) I have quite a large number of lenses for these cameras, all of which I can use with my Canon. After using many, many SLR bodies, these two cameras are now my ‘final two’ which I am so happy with, I don’t ever see myself selling them. If you see them for a good price (and the Sigma can be very cheap) then don’t hesitate to buy them.

As for compacts? Well I have always liked the Olympus MJU II (my carry everywhere camera), Olympus XA and XA2, Olympus Trip 35 is an essential in anyone’s collection, and Leica Mini II.

I think that owning and using a TLR is a great photographic experience. I loved mine but sold it after it got little use. You should certainly use both 35mm and 120 film cameras to gain experience in MF shooting. Be sure to experiment and use many cameras which are fully manual, no electronics, manual everything! It will help you with your photographic technique and skills.

There are no cameras that everybody should have in their collection, it is all down to personal taste and the other reasons I listed above. Good luck with the collecting! Be warned though… Gear Acquisition Syndrome can be very expensive!

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I have $200 for a nice, cheap SLR camera. I want it to be digital and easy to figure out how to use because I am a beginner photographer. I just need it for taking photos of people and clothing for my hand made clothing projects. It doesn’t need to have any crazy settings or a perfect lens. What kind of camera would you suggest? And where would I find one for my price range? Thanks!

The cheapest new DSLR costs $500.

I’m interested in buying this camera, and was wondering if anyone has any reviews on it? Or any suggestions for similar cameras of about the same price? (around $270) All opinions are welcomed Thanks!

Personally I would NOT want this camera because it has NO manual controls – it looks nice, but is a VERY basic camera.
Without manual controls you are very VERY limited in what you can do, and very limited in how much you can learn from and grow with the camera. It also not possibly to attach a decent external flash, so all you’ll ever have is that very inadequate little thing on the camera.

If you’re happy to forever stay on Auto, take simple little snapshots and let the camera decide what to do, then you’ll probably be happy enough with it, especially if you intend to only take photos in excellent light conditions – they’ll turn out quite well then.

If you want to learn, improve and get creative, then this is not the right tool for you. You need something with more options and more controls.

I suggest you read a few reviews….. they don’t seem all that good for this camera.

My personal choice would be a Canon Powershot SX30IS, but it is more expensive.

I accidently changed the camera settings in my player mode. I do nt know hot to change it back to to the original camera. I know hot to change the camera I just do not know how to change it back to the default camera.

How do i change the camera settings in NBA 2k11 my player mode back to the default camera?

I want a nice camera. I have the budget for a camera no more than 600 dollars. I want them to look professional. It’s just a hobby of mine and I am just wondering what camera is the best out there, well the best for 600 dollars.

Up your budget to $700, you can buy one of the best entry level cameras at this time.

Look at the Canon T1i (500D) or Nikon D3100

Whether your photos look professional or not is up to you, NOT the camera

im looking for a camera that takes professional pictures.
please give me different price ranges.
im looking for a camera that takes professional studio pictures.
clear pictures, like ad pictures and billboard pictures. very clear
not like regular camera pictures. also, how can i know
if this camera takes these kind of pictures?
i dont want to go buy a camera and return it
after not liking the quality.

For the 1000000000000000000th time.
Cameras don’t take pictures – people do.

Professionals use all sorts of different cameras from mid range Dslrs through to Hasselblads or large format cameras costing many thousands of pounds/dollars.

They get the quality from knowing all about their trade.

Hi, so I know the settings on a digital camera but I want to understand how a digital camera works. So, how do they work? Where can I get more information to understand the mechanics of digital cameras? Thank you.

I assume you want the basics;
Film and digital photography is broadly the same idea to start with;
light ‘rays’ are focused (brought to sharp points) from distant objects, thru the lens, onto a receiving strip, situated close behind the back of the lens, inside the light-tight camera body.
The strip can be a film or a CMOS/CCD chip, which is a glorified transistor that picks up pin pricks of light.
Film is a strip of chemicals, which responds to pin-pricks of light. The film has a coating which receives light and chemically changes – later the chemical baths are used to develop it, to bring out the shades, colours, outlines, etc.
The digital sensor is charged up by the battery and the light is registered (in pin-pricks all over it) and the computer in the camera ‘maps’ all the results as a big file. The more pin-pricks, the better the resolution will be (more tones in the final picture, more colours, sharper more realistic images). Generally, that is, the more mega-pixels (pin pricks) the better though small sensors can have a problem with ‘noise’.
Noise in film is the clouding of chemicals which, in a big enlargement, we see as gritty ‘grain’, if they are severe they can spoil a shot unless it’s one of Robert Capa’s.
Noise in digital world gives unwanted signals (like a mis-tuned radio) which we see as blobs of unreal colours, fuzzy or jagged edges that should be straight, or just (usually blue) grittiness.
So, to the photographer, there is hardly any difference between film and digital capture, other than speed and convenience when related to transmission or storing on a PC or Mac.
Really cheap film and digital cameras (and most phones) have issues with focus accuracy, lens quality, tonal range, all resulting in unreal smudgy unsatisfactory results unless all we want is a tiny web picture on the PC screen.
=Wide open lenses (’f’ numbers under f 2,8) using all of the glass area, very high receptor or film speeds, meaning very sensitive to light (such as equivalent to ISO 800 and above, so we can take pix in very poor lighting), result in more noise, grit (grain) and colour shift problems more or less the same in both film cameras and their digital cousins.

I’ll leave out blur due to slow shutter speeds, dodgy cheap lenses, badly made mass produced cameras that don’t have their lenses accurately in line or at the right distance from the receptor.

Even the lens coatings matter – digital receivers hate internal reflections even more than film, so the glasses have to be multi-coated with layers of exotic materials that are a quarter of the light wave-length in thickness; we are talking very expensive nano-thickness vacuum coating technologies here.

Enough of that, the camera manufacturer does all that design for you, and puts it into mass production.

Now here’s the rub; film or digital, the guy who makes a modern computation/design and production that gives pix that look like hi-fi has to charge you. Currently, any new camera and lens less than say £500 (UK) will not be able to give pix that can satisfactorily be printed out at A4 and above, unless you don’t care about quality. That last phrase is critical!
If you want to be published in Life, Time, Vogue then start your kit at the £ 25,000 level upwards. The work involved in making this stuff is fantastic.
Back in the real world;
Most amateurs want reasonable results where the picture quality doesn’t ruin the enjoyment of the picture; that can be done either film or digital for the £500 I mentioned.

Second Hand.
There are now many pro kits for film at knock down prices which will yield tops results and because they were highly priced pro cameras originally, will now stand amateur use with ease, maybe after a service.
With digital cameras, we’re faced with second hand being even better value (BIG depreciations) but as the inventions have moved so quickly, we will always get ’second best’ if we go that route; a Canon 5D was a superb machine with ‘L’ lenses on it, but the processor inside (the computer) was limited; the latest one is miles better but of course is still full list price.

Food for thought, as in all Life, you have to find the most convenient cost-effective compromise. Suggest you look at established top photographers exhibitions and really look at the picture quality, decide where your quality tolerance level is with respect to their masterpieces, and consider your purchases accordingly.
Do not, however, get hung up with techno kit thrombosis

Hi, everyone. I want to know what a digital camera is compared to a film camera. What exactly are digital cameras, and what are film cameras?

Thanks!

film cameras use film, most commonly 35mm film

digital cameras use sensors to create a picture

this really shouldn’t be hard to figure out on your own

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_camera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_camera

I have a Canon PowerShot SD 1300 IS and the lens on the camera will not come out. I turn it on, and it says "Lens Error Camera will now restart" The camera lens is not out of the camera like its ready to take a picture. Help?

Lens errors are fairly common. Usually it’s sand or grit interfering with the lens extension mechanism. Or the camera’s been dropped with the lens extended. Or the camera has been powered on, but the lens had been blocked preventing its extension. Or the battery ran down with the lens extended …

Here are some troubleshooting steps that you can try that may (or may not) correct it. They only seem to work for less than 40% of the lens errors, but if the camera is out of warranty (or repair cost approaches that of the camera), they’re worth that try. Some of the later steps do involve some risk to the camera, so carefully weigh your options before deciding to conduct them:

http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/12/fixing-lens-error-on-digital-camera.html

One of them is called: Sony film camera attachment VCR 16C
and a lens that is a Kowa prominar anamorphic 16-h 58141
How much are these worth?
are they anything of interest or are they just some lenses ?

$25 at most. These are film or video camera ttachments, little value in those