JT Spunk | Photography

Can someone explain some camera terms and examples of use?

I need to buy a digital camera to be used to shoot my wedding initially, and then close-up photography for my online sales after that. I have a maximum budget of $500 for the camera. I tried shopping for one the other day but all the terms were overwhelming. Zoom this, and megapixel that! Can anyone give me the lowdown on what all these terms mean and when/why I might need them?

Hello and best wishes on getting married! If you are thinking of getting a camera to photograph your wedding, I would caution you to step back and really think about it. Weddings are inherently stressful and chaotic, with too many tasks that need to get done. The last thing you need to be thinking about is how to operate a camera or whether or not your photos will come out. Since I truly wish you well and have your best interests at heart, I want your once in a lifetime memories to be properly captured; you may end up disappointed if you hand an expensive camera to someone who doesn’t know how to take a photo or operate the camera. If you can’t afford a professional photographer, you might consider looking for a photography art student or a skilled amateur who would be willing to photograph your wedding for the experience and a free meal. And those people should have the proper camera and lighting equipment already (not to mention the skill to use it), if they are truly serious about their work.

Now, since it also appears that you are serious about continuing with photography, given your desire to photograph items for online sales as well as your wedding, you should probably rule out point and shoot cameras (sorry, that includes the Canon S5 IS). For the absolutely highest quality photos of your wedding and your online items, a digital SLR (single-lens reflex) is the best choice. With a budget of under $500, there are really only two cameras to consider, the Nikon D40 or the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. In fact, I priced the Nikon D40 yesterday at US1photo.com for $462 with the basic 18-55mm lens.

If you need even closer shots of items, a set of 52mm diameter close-up filters are cheaply available. This lens alone will let you stay about 11″ away and still get a good magnification shot of small items.

For online sales shots, I would suggest you get a light tent and a tripod–this allows you to evenly light the object, provide a white background, and take a sharp photo. You can find examples of light tents on amazon.com

Now, to go over the terms you asked about…
Zoom: If you stand in one place, zoom capability is the ability for the camera to see wider or narrower (telephoto) without having to move farther back or closer. There are two basic types of zoom: optical or digital. Optical zoom is a true zoom, where the lens will get wider or more telephoto. Digital zoom is done by the camera, essentially cropping the photo to fake a zoom look. The images in digital zoom lose resolution if this is done; cameras/lenses should be judged by the optical zoom number, not by digital zoom. Zoom power is often expressed by a number followed by an “x” so that 3x is not as powerful as 4x or 5x. Note though that this X number doesn’t tell you how wide or really how much telephoto the lens will give you; it’s just a ratio of telephoto to wideness–i.e. the telephoto power is 3x more than the wide view or 5x more than the wide view, etc. Another thing to remember–the more power (10x, 18x etc.) the more optical compromises have to be made, so the poorer performance you get, particularly at the extreme ends (wide and far telephoto).

Megapixel: A pixel is a picture element or in simple terms, a dot of color. A million pixels is a megapixel or a million dots. Thus, a 6 megapixel camera has 6 million pixels. Note though that not all megapixels are created equal–a point and shoot camera with 12 megapixels (12 million dots) will not perform as well as an SLR with 6 megapixels. This is because the SLR sensor is so much physically larger, so it’s better at capturing light. For a point and shoot 7 to 8 megapixels tends to be optimal for performance in such tiny sensors; more doesn’t improve quality. For most digital SLRs, performance tops out at 10 to 12 megapixels, but even 6 mp is plenty in the SLR world.

Macro: this is a very mis-used term in point and shoot cameras. Most often, on point and shoots, it’s really meant to reflect closest focusing distance. In SLR terms though, macro reflects the ability to get a 1:1 magnification ratio; that is, the object being identical to life size on the sensor or film. A 1:1 ratio is huge when seen in a photo; for online sales 1:3 or 1:4 is often plenty. What’s nice with an SLR is that you get some working distance, allowing you to properly light your item attractively; too close and the camera lens casts a shadow on your subject or the lens distorts the object.

Aperture: This refers to the lens opening. It’ll look like a series of numbers with an “f” in front, like f/3.5-5.6. For your purposes, you don’t need to worry about this most of the time.

Exposure modes: again, for your purposes, you don’t need to worry too much about this–you can set the camera to do automatic exposures or program exposures or the special scene modes. In brief, exposure modes are how the camera controls the shutter speed and aperture to determine how to get a properly exposed photo.

ISO: a measure of how sensitive the camera will be to light; bigger number = more light sensitive = can expose with less light. With a point and shoot, anything above ISO 400 pretty much is useless; with an SLR, you can go as high as 1600 (more with some cameras) and still be usuable.

LCD: This is the display screen on the back of the camera, measured in diagonal size. Usually bigger is better. 2.5″ is the minimum you should get nowadays. SLRs use the LCD for viewing afterwards, not for taking the photo. Point and shoots use the LCD screen for both. The SLR is actually superior, particularly because the focusing and response time is so much faster than on a point and shoot.

CCD or CMOS: These are competing sensor technologies. Both have their pros and cons. Bottom-line: who cares, as long as you get good images.

Hot shoe: some cameras allow you to attach an external flash, which is done via a connection called a “hot shoe.”

Image processing: chips in the camera to make the image from the data off the sensor. Canon calls their Digic, Nikon has Exspeed, Panasonic has Venus, etc. Again, for your purposes, who cares, as long as the image is good.

Hope this makes sense to you and explains not only the terms, but the other things you have to think about.

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