I’ve never liked CR reviews of cameras. They really don’t know much about photography. I use DPReview and DCRP and frankly the Pentax images are noticeably weaker to my eyes. They do a series of standard shots that allow for good comparison. It’s not just on low light shots, but even at ISO 100.
It’s not that the Pentax is a bad camera, but there are compromises to be made when making a bombproof model, and image quality is one of them. I use my cameras for skiing, hiking, and mountaineering and haven’t needed a crushproof weatherproof camera, so it’s not a trade off that I found necessary. If I kayaked or canoed more I’d look into it more seriously.
But read the reviews yourself, and look at the sample photos. These are opinions and we’re all entitled to have different ones.
One of the best things I’ve done to improve my photography was to seriously study the professionals. take time to find as many photos as you can of professional pictures of the type you want to take. If you want to be doing street photography, find pro street photographers. If you want to do architectural photos, look for those. By studying the professionals you can get a real feel for what works in a composition and what makes them dynamic and unique.
You’ll learn things about how to use diagonal lines and curved lines, you’ll learn how to use color to your advantage, you’ll even learn that the rule of 1/3s isn’t the end all be all of photography composition (it gives a particular look to a composition and sometimes you want something else. Don’t get caught up in always trying to do 1/3s.) And most especially, you’ll learn how to read and use light. (look for the shadows, watch the angles)
I’m also a part time photographer and I take time regularly to look at online portrait galleries of other professionals. I’m not looking to copy their work or their poses; I’m looking to see what works in the composition and how it contributes to the overall feel of the photo. You never really stop learning.
Take lots and lots of pictures and then take some more. 90% of everything is crap. Throw out the 90% of your pictures that are crap and the rest will look a lot better.
Decide the one thing that you are taking a picture of. Take that picture. If you take a picture of your husband in front of Buckingham palace, next to one of those guys in a silly hat in the setting sun and maybe a London taxi somewhere in the background, it will look terrible.
Nitpick: you mean depth of field. Depth of focus referred to the variation from where the film plane was supposed to be located…unless there’s error in the sensor placement when it was manufactured.
The wider the angle (smaller mm), the greater the DOF…go more telephoto and the DOF shrinks. Wider aperture (smaller f/) and the narrower the DOF…close down (larger f/) and the greater the DOF. At close or macro focus, DOF shrinks; get out toward infinity and it grows.
I always insisted on a 35mm with a DOF preview lever…too bad these p/s don’t have one. But there’s always photoshop etc. now, I guess, to throw things out of focus. Bringing them into focus…not so much help there.
As Dervorin points out, you actually mean to get closer to the subject. The markings on the old lens barrels would show this quite well to the OP.
About 30 years ago I remember reading Modern Photography’s appraisal of CR reviews. They said the weight inherent in professional cameras like a Nikon F3 caused it to be downgraded by CR…but if you’re a working pro and your cameras are subjected to extreme wear and tear, that’s why you bought a heavy camera in the first place. See below quote…for some, the extra weight and cost of the Nikon wouldn’t be warranted; for others, it would be prized and worth every penny.
CR, the guys who test mattresses, toothpaste, and everything else…I guess we can’t expect them to have game on this sort of thing.
Right…e.g. I picked up my little Olympus because it’s truly pocketable, has 3 in screen, a wide angle (to 28mm eq), cost about $120 with card. But it doesn’t have much exposure control, the imaging isn’t that great, it lacks some useful features that I have on the Canon, etc. You gain here, you lose there, and when you find the perfect camera, sit down before looking at the price tag.
One of the reasons that I bought my Canon was that it accepts some auxiliary lenses…a wide, tele, and a macro IIRC. I was mainly interested in the wide, but when I looked up reviews (later), I discovered that in fact it’s a POS. It blocks the flash, doesn’t add much to the wide angle before it vignettes in the corners, etc. :mad: OTOH mine will also use an auxiliary flash that basically doubles the flash range. I got it and am still messing around with that. Anyway when buying you might consider if other accessories are available.
Other advice…when you get the camera, take lots of pictures before you go.
Be really familiar with how to access the various features so that you can navigate quickly when you’re taking the important pictures over there. You don’t want to miss the tour bus because you were reading the manual trying to figure out how the self-timer works.
Get a feel for how it reacts (over- or underexposure, focus capability, etc.) How is it on battery consumption? What should you pack? Do you need a voltage converter for recharging batts overseas?
You want to make sure it works. Don’t order it to arrive at the last minute only to discover you got one that’s broken or whatever.
Most of these point and shoot cameras have a “backlight” flash feature these days. If you’re shooting people, try putting the sun behind them using the “backlight” flash to light them. They won’t be squinting, and their hair will look stellar. Just be careful that the sun isn’t shining directly into the lens or you’ll get a terrible wash or flare. Get close enough that you can take the snap with the camera in the subject’s shadow so the lens is dark. It’s a tiny bit tricky, but the results when shooting people are worth it.
I wonder if it would benefit to have a list for the OP…a checklist of “how-to” things to be learned. Some suggestions:
How to…
turn on/off the flash, turn on fill flash or red-eye reduction
set the self-timer
switch to manual focus in low light
set exposure compensation (e.g. for backlighting)
protect good exposures, erase bad ones
adjust aperture or shutter speed in preferred modes
change ISO, image size, compression
how to use focus lock, exposure lock
how to change the white balance for fluorescent, incandescent, etc.
Also, OP, you might consider how much memory you’re going to need. If you plan to take a laptop or have another means of offloading pics from the camera (e.g. internet to photobucket while you’re there), that’s less critical. If not, and you’re planning on making videos (for which the tripod would be handy to avoid the Blair Witch syndrome), you’re going to eat up a lot of memory. That means a bigger card or more cards.
I routinely shoot 50-60 still images at events, set @ 2Mb captures. That’s maybe 125 Mb, or 8 events to a gigabyte. So if you’re there a week, shooting the same per day, a 1 Gb card might do it. The difference in cost isn’t that great…I’d probably go at least 2 Gb, and more still if you want bigger captures.
Lots of flash images means battery consumption. One selling point for a camera is when it uses AA batteries, but either way, you’ll probably be packing a charger. My Canon is nice b/c it takes 2 AAs, so I can charge four (I have a 15 minute recharger) and change on the fly. My Olympus is a special batt, has to be charged by its own unit, and I’d need to buy an extra battery ($15-$20 IIRC) to do this. Worse, a full charge takes 5 hrs.
I’m an “okay” photographer but I’ve gotten really good at photo editing, which (so long as you’re not wanting to compete in photo contests where editing is very limited or altogether forbidden) can be on par with being a good photographer. I’ve never made any serious amount of money for photos but I have had them published in a couple of magazines you’ve probably heard of and some of my photos of historic sites have been in and on the cover of textbooks.
I’m using Washington D.C. in these examples mainly because they’re the well known landmarks I’ve taken the most pics.
1- Really wide shots with high resolution so that you can look at the image on the computer, decide which part works best, and cut out the parts you really don’t need
2- Different angles on familiar objects- e.g. everybody who’s been to DC has the regular picture of the White House and Capitol and Washington Monument, etc., but it’s easy to get the same “everybody knows them” objects from a different angle (e.g. the White House through tree limbs, or a duck floating on the shadow of the Washington monument in the reflecting pool, or the profile of the statue of Lincoln at the Memorial taken from the corner of the monument). For the regular shots, well you can take those too, but at best they’ll look like the postcards.
3- Details. Pics of the White House and Capitol are everywhere, but not as common are zoom-ins of the chandelier on the White House portico or the statue of Freedom on the top of the Capitol.
And of course pics of yourself in front of them- those are what you and friends will really be interested in 20 years from now.
PS to the above: a quick and super easy photo editing trick for some striking photos is to combine b/w and color versions of the same shot. Example: This is a photoI took last year of a house on the farm where I was brought up (one which has since been torn down after 130 years so I’m glad I took a ton of photos) and the dogtrot (the open hallway) and flowers made nice delineators for the color/bw.
Memory is CHEAP, you should never run out. You can buy 8G SDHC cards for $10 so buy a bunch and don’t worry about running out. Take lots of shots, always shoot in highest resolution, and then take a few more.
I shot 2000+ shots on a week long vacation, I can take up to 1000 a day on some big skiing events. I never want to worry about running out.