Shooting From the Hip: Digital Cameras

We’ll never look back and talk wistfully about ‘The Glory Days of Digital Photography’. The sheer pace of progress ensures that today’s wonder-camera is tomorrow’s paperweight. That said, we’re in a real sweet spot right now – the latest digital cameras are way ahead of those from just a few years back.

While even the simplest cameras boast a long features list, spending more than the entry level price gets you better quality lenses with extra zoom and additional width. You’ll get built-in image stabilisers for the sharpest possible photographs as well as bigger and brighter LCD screens, blink and smile detection systems, intelligent scene modes or even advanced manual controls.

Some of the best modern compact cameras have 10MP sensors that capture better overall images than the older 12 and 14MP models. That may sound illogical but squeezing more pixels onto the small sensors found in compact cameras leads to noisy images, just like the ones taken on mobile phones. Less is more, especially in low light conditions.

Advanced ‘prosumer’ compacts are available that are so good that they’re used by professionals as backups. They offer full manual control, extra-fast lenses and frankly astonishing images but their price tags are high, so they’re quite a specific niche product.

Superzoom compact cameras,

Superzooms are a subset of the compact camera category. They may not actually be compact in size but because the lenses can’t be removed, they’re definitely compacts. These comparatively inexpensive cameras deliver much of the zoom range of very pricey professional DSLR lenses in a much easier to handle package, complete with user friendliness. With zoom levels getting up into the 30x range, they really can reach way into the distance.

Hybrid cameras

Hybrid or EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) cameras make up an entirely new category. By dispensing with the mirror mechanism and optical viewfinder found in traditional DSLRs, the size of the body has been dramatically reduced. They still allow the use of a wide range of lenses, which are also smaller than the DSLR equivalents. So hybrids basically tread a handy middle ground between compacts and DSLRs.

In addition, hybrids have a major advantage over compacts because they generally use larger Micro Four Thirds or APS-C sensors, which means they’re capable of DSLR-like image quality and excellent low light performance.

The lenses are specific to the format, so you can’t easily make use of older lenses from the same manufacturer but modern hybrid lenses are very good indeed.

DSLR cameras

The modern DSLR or Digital Single Lens Reflex camera gives the photographer access to interchangeable lens systems that cover the full range from ultra wide to monster zoom and everything in between. In addition, huge selections of accessories are available, from remote controls to flash guns.

The more expensive DSLRs shoot faster, have more effective autofocus systems and are extra tough. They need high quality professional grade lenses to perform at their best, though, and once you get into the semi-professional DSLRs, you’re at the point where the only major limitation is the photographer.

HD video

More and more cameras can shoot HD video, some at up to 1080p resolution. Look for a camera where the optical zoom can be used in video mode and check that this zoom is near silent. Also pay attention to the audio quality; some cameras have stereo microphones, others have sockets for high-quality external microphones. Test it in store to make sure.

•  
•