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How to Choose The Right Camera
It would be terrific if one camera could do everything. But different tasks
call for different cameras. For example,
if you need to make really big blow-ups, the larger negatives and transparencies
produced by bulky medium- and large-format cameras are ideal. If you do architectural
photography or tabletop work, where perspective control and lots of depth of
field are needed, field and view cameras are what you need. And if you require
a camera you can tuck unobtrusively in a pocket and take anywhere, a compact
digital or 35mm model is just the ticket.
For most readers of Photographic, though, the camera that comes closest to being
able to do it all, the camera that can handle the widest variety of subjects
and situations, is the autofocus single-lens reflex (SLR), 35mm or digital.
The wide range of available lens focal lengths lets you handle subjects from
shy wildlife and distant sports action to tiny macro subjects. The wide range
of shutter speeds lets you shoot fast action and in the dark. The autofocusing
systems can handle fast-breaking action, even birds in flight. (There are also
several AF medium-format SLRs, which offer similar advantages, although they
are somewhat bulkier and generally have more limited lens lines—but they
do produce larger, finer-grained images. This guide, though, is about 35mm and
digital cameras.)
AF SLRs are the most versatile camera type available today. While the AF 35mm
SLR has “ruled the roost” for serious shooters, today there are
also more than a dozen digital SLRs on the market that are equally versatile
(albeit somewhat more costly). Professional and serious amateur photographers
use higher-end AF SLRs for photojournalism, advertising, sports action, portraits,
close-ups, wildlife, landscapes, special effects...pretty much everything. These
photographers want full manual control when they need it, but also love the
speed and convenience of automatic focusing, exposure control and advance. And
the AF SLR gives them all that and more. But every AF SLR on the market also
offers fully automatic operation, making it as easy to use as any point-and-shoot
camera.
Each AF SLR model offers something for everyone from point-and-shooter to serious
photographer. All provide fully automatic point-and-shoot operation—even
the top-end pro models. But nearly all also let you set everything yourself
when you want to do that. So as a newcomer grows in photographic skills and
ambitions, he or she won’t have to buy a new camera to continue his or
her photographic growth.
One huge advantage of the AF SLR is through-the-lens (TTL) viewing—what
you see in the viewfinder is what you’ll get in the image, regardless
of lens focal length or shooting distance. There are no parallax problems, and
you can see the effects of filters and confirm focus because what you see in
the viewfinder is the actual image formed by the lens.
For many, the biggest advantage of the AF SLR is the focal-length versatility
provided by its interchangeable lenses. AF SLRs allow you to remove the lens
that’s on the camera and replace it with another—a fisheye, superwide-angle,
supertelephoto, or a wide selection of zooms. Many manufacturers also offer
specialty lenses: true 1:1 macro lenses in normal, short-tele and telephoto
focal lengths; soft-focus lenses; shift lenses; lenses with built-in image stabilizers;
and more. Whatever your focal-length need, AF SLRs can meet it—no other
camera type offers such a great range of lens options. And lenses for AF SLRs
are also generally much faster than those built into point-and-shoot compact
cameras (especially zoom lenses), allowing you to shoot hand-held in dimmer
light. The downside, of course, is that you have to buy each lens you want separately.
Photographers on a tight budget often buy one or two wide-range zoom lenses,
such as a 28–105mm and a 100–300mm, or a 28–300mm, while pros
generally prefer fast high-end single-focal-length lenses.
There are, of course, manual-focus SLRs, too. But the AF SLRs can do everything
the manual-focus SLRs can do—includng focus manually. And with the AF
SLR, you also have quick, convenient autofocusing whenver you want it. So we
think they’re the best choice for most photographers.
For strict point-and-shooters, today the way to go is digital. Today’s
consumer digital cameras offer all the features of film point-and-shoot cameras
and more, at not much higher cost. And the advantages are many, as you’ll
see in the section on digital cameras.
Note: At the end of each SLR camera write-up, we’ve listed
the issue in which our full User Report appeared. You can also find many of
these User Reports in the archive section of our website, www.photographic.com.
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