What kind of camera should I buy? Part 1 of 3

I constantly get two questions from people when I’m photographing an event.
They are, “What kind of camera should I buy?”, and, “Have you ever photographed a bridezilla?”.

Today I’d like to answer that first question because it is an important one for you to think about and decide.
(Question #2 No, I haven’t yet)

I usually begin to answer their question with a few questions of my own:
1. What are you planning to use your camera for?
2. What style/type of photography do you want to photograph?
3. Are you a hobbyist or wanting to become a professional photographer down the road?

Depending on how they answer these qusetions, I’ll suggest a few different types of cameras to look at.
FYI I’m a huge canon fan, but I won’t be a hater on the other brands that are out there.

Part 1 of 3 of this blog will answer this question for the hobbyist with a budget under $200.
The normal hobbyist photographer: looking for a simple point and shoot digital camera. Here are a few examples all in the $199.95 range… (these prices are from B&H photography http://www.bhphotovideo.com you might be able to find them cheaper else where, but B&H in my opinion has the best customer service and is a more trustworthy site – I wasn’t paid to say that, I just like them a lot).

1. Nikon Coolpix S4000 Digital Camera. This camera has the lowest Mexapixels of the group (12.0 Megapixels) The biggest sized display screen of the group (3″ screen, very nice). This is so nice compared to what I started with, I believe the point and shoot my parents owned that I got to use had a 1” sized screen. It has a 4x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom (middle rated of the group). The ISO is 3200 (the average for this group of cameras). It can record HD 720p HD movies at 24fps (the lowest for the group).

2. Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FH20 Digital Camera. 14.1 megapixels (winner in the pixel competition). 8x Wide Angle Optical Zoom Lens (winner in this area as well). 2.7” display screen (smallest of the group but still pretty nice). ISO is 6400 (winner winner chicken dinner). With an ISO that high, you can photograph in all kinds of difficult lit areas where the others can’t. I really like this feature about this camera. This camera can record video at 720p HD at 30 fps (tied for the highest with Canon). However, this Panasonic has 3 different options for recording video (it records in other formats other than HD, i.e. standard definition) that the other two didn’t.

3. Canon PowerShot SD780 IS Digital Camera. The canon has the average in Megapixels weighing in at 12.1 (in reality, anything over 8 Megapixels is going to create a great photograph, print wise that is). 3x Optical Zoom (lost in this category). 2.5″ screen (lost in this category as well). ISO is 3200 (tied with the Nikon). Records 720p HD at 30 fps (like I said early it’s in tie for first place in this category).

Each camera has an image stabilization mechanism built in the camera (comes in handy in bad lighting situations). Each camera has something that is equivalent to a face detection technology built in. This basically is that it will focus on people’s faces in a photograph of people and not the background or foreground object that might distract from the auto focus.
All three of these camera’s are slim enough to put into your pocket, which is nice and convenient.

Some cool (nerdy) facts:
1. B&H photography said the following about the Nikon- “The Coolpix S4000 incorporates 16 scene modes that cover some of the more common difficult shooting situations to maximize the image quality”.
2. B&H photography also said this about the Canon- “The PowerShot SD780 has 20 easy-to-use shooting modes including a wide selection of Special Scene modes such as Portrait, Indoor and Night Snapshot, and you can quickly access these modes via the Touch Control Dial”.

I couldn’t find anything on the Panasonic camera on this subject.

So the camera I would purchase would be…
To my very own surprise, I’d choose the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FH20. It has 14.1 meagapixels (bigger and better print possibilities). A great 6400 ISO, which is remarkable to me for a point and shoot. The camera shoots in HD too and has more options that it’s two competitors (for standard definition video capturing). It had the in-between sized display screen at 2.7”.

So next week I will tackle these same questions for the intermediate hobbyist photographer who want’s to get better images and might like to eventually become a professional photographer.
Those will be in the $1,000 budget range (fyi, start saving up your money if you really like photography, it’s expensive.)

Than the final week ,part 3 of 3 of this series, I will explain what a professional photographer should own camera and equipment wise.

Thanks for reading!
Tim