Deciding on your first DSLR Camera or even upgrading later is of course fun, but it might be daunting. The choices are plentifold and the lists of features are wide. How do you decide on what camera choice to make? The primary decision is the brand choice… Nikon VS Canon DSLR, One of the Four Thirds brands?
This first DSLR Camera decision is perhaps the most important because it limits your future choices to the brand. From here on you should invest in lenses that will be compatible with your DLSR Camera choice.
If this is your subsequent DSLR Camera investment, your brand decision was probably made before and you most likely own a few lenses. Your choices will be limited to a model within the brand choice.
Near everyone spends a lot of time carefully studying the Camera Body features and tend to focus too much on the obvious features such as the camera’s megapixel size. There are a lot of other, wider considerations to focuson. Most of such considerations go beyond the Camera body.
The ultimate aim surely is to take good photographs and to do this you need to look beyond the camera body. One needs to evaluate your investment in Lenses, investment in your own skills and when it comes to digital photography, photo editing is an essential part of the process. These extraneous issues are more important that the money you invest in the camera body.
The first is the lenses you will be using:
- Today’s DSLR cameras are all state of the art and all will give you most of of the capability to take world class photographs.
- Camera body technology advances very rapidly and more powerful models with more features become available every year.
- These days it is easy to upgrade your camera body. If you take care of your DSLR and keep the packaging you can sell the camera on EBay for very close to the price you paid for it.
- Over time you will probably spend significanly more money on lenses than the nearly fully compatible across the Canon Range. Nikon lens compatibility varies. Different Nikkor lenses are only compatible with some of the Nikon Cameras. Pentax, Sony, Minolta and others that have embraced the 4 thirds architecture and have lens compatibility across brands, but they also need careful studying.
- Lenses stay around a lot longer and will be in your bag for much longer than the camera body.
- Light weight vs. ruggedness of Camera and lens.
As a general rule of thumb, spend more time and more money on your lens choices. The lenses determine the brand you are going to live with. If necessary go for a lesser featured camera .The lenses will outlast the camera every time and you are likely to upgrade.
The second issue, beyond the camera body has to do with photography skills.
Taking good photographs takes more than the kit, even lenses. Too few people spend time and money on learning to operate their sophisticated equipment. Unfortunately you cannot buy skills like you can equipment. You can buy training, but if you do not invest in the training time it is money wasted. Fortunately experimenting on the guidance of a good course is time and money well spent once you commit yourself and it is one of the most rewarding things you can do.
Another area where people typically under-invest is in Photo Editing technology.
This is where you can become very creative and turn ordinary shots into art. Spending money on software is less exciting than shiny Camera kit, but it does make an enormous difference to the end product… Making good photos Great!
In summary, when considering a DSLR Camera purchase, consider looking. Good photography in my view is 20% camera body, 20% lens choices, 20% photography skills. 20% post processing and 20% luck. The Camera body is only a small element in the mix
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