1:37 AM
A buddy asked me lately for some photo tips about lens choices for a digital camera â€" what to bring along on her trip to the Far East. She was concerned about not only weight but having to do too much changing of lenses while photographing.
Airline rules have made the chore of culling your carry-on gear into rocket science. It used to be that if you had the strength, you could drag the kitchen sink along if you could manage to lift it. No longer. While in America, the TSA will permit photographers a camera bag/pack in Addition to a purse/computer bag and a typical carry-on, many airlines pretend not to have heard this.
Once you venture onto a long-distance flight, it's still the Wild West â€" some airlines have liberal carry-on allowances, but others are more restrictive. Therefore it pays a photographer, whether amateur or professional, to carry the minimum amount of equipment critical to get the job done.
A typical error photographers make is to carry too many zoom lenses of overlapping focal lengths: for example, an 18-55, 70-300, and a 28-80. Ideally, you need as little overlap as possible so you are not always delving into the case for a new lens & therefore miss the photograph. I employ a Canon 24-105 lens as my main 'walking ' lens, shooting on either my Canon 5D MKII or 7D (the 7D has a sensor size similar to the Canon Rebel). My other wide angle zoom is a 16-35. If you require a telephoto to shoot wildlife, as an example, simply add a 100-400mm or similar-sized lens.
The point is to have a lens that covers 90% of the situations you're likely to encounter so you don't have to contemplate changing lenses or carry 2 cameras. That being said, with fewer lenses, you will learn quickly the correct way to pre-visualize a shot with little options. It just means you've got to be smarter at repositioning yourself before the shot!
Though having a digital camera with a non-interchangeable lens like the Nikon Coolpix can be an advantage size, weight and unobtrusive-wise, these smaller cameras lack the degree of control over the 'standard SLRs'. One thing that you have to keep an eye out for is shutter lag, where there is a delay (even of one or two tenths of a second) between tripping the shutter and the photo taken. This could kill any 'capture the moment ' type photos.
Most smaller camera do not have through the lens viewing or even any viewfinder at all, but rather depend on employing an LCD screen to compose & shoot. This kills any chance of accurate composition or capturing subtle movements or expressions, as you simply can't see the details clearly enough. If you're in bright sunlight, this is particularly true.
An SLR gives you an undistracted, clear view of the scene. It also, correctly operated, allows for much more sophisticated control of where you focus in the scene â€" vital for 'street ' photography of people (& wildlife, for what it's worth).
As you can see, I'm aficianado of the SLR as a digital camera for serious photo work, though come to think about it, I've had tons of fun with my iPhone camera lately! Talk about traveling light!
Airline rules have made the chore of culling your carry-on gear into rocket science. It used to be that if you had the strength, you could drag the kitchen sink along if you could manage to lift it. No longer. While in America, the TSA will permit photographers a camera bag/pack in Addition to a purse/computer bag and a typical carry-on, many airlines pretend not to have heard this.
Once you venture onto a long-distance flight, it's still the Wild West â€" some airlines have liberal carry-on allowances, but others are more restrictive. Therefore it pays a photographer, whether amateur or professional, to carry the minimum amount of equipment critical to get the job done.
A typical error photographers make is to carry too many zoom lenses of overlapping focal lengths: for example, an 18-55, 70-300, and a 28-80. Ideally, you need as little overlap as possible so you are not always delving into the case for a new lens & therefore miss the photograph. I employ a Canon 24-105 lens as my main 'walking ' lens, shooting on either my Canon 5D MKII or 7D (the 7D has a sensor size similar to the Canon Rebel). My other wide angle zoom is a 16-35. If you require a telephoto to shoot wildlife, as an example, simply add a 100-400mm or similar-sized lens.
The point is to have a lens that covers 90% of the situations you're likely to encounter so you don't have to contemplate changing lenses or carry 2 cameras. That being said, with fewer lenses, you will learn quickly the correct way to pre-visualize a shot with little options. It just means you've got to be smarter at repositioning yourself before the shot!
Though having a digital camera with a non-interchangeable lens like the Nikon Coolpix can be an advantage size, weight and unobtrusive-wise, these smaller cameras lack the degree of control over the 'standard SLRs'. One thing that you have to keep an eye out for is shutter lag, where there is a delay (even of one or two tenths of a second) between tripping the shutter and the photo taken. This could kill any 'capture the moment ' type photos.
Most smaller camera do not have through the lens viewing or even any viewfinder at all, but rather depend on employing an LCD screen to compose & shoot. This kills any chance of accurate composition or capturing subtle movements or expressions, as you simply can't see the details clearly enough. If you're in bright sunlight, this is particularly true.
An SLR gives you an undistracted, clear view of the scene. It also, correctly operated, allows for much more sophisticated control of where you focus in the scene â€" vital for 'street ' photography of people (& wildlife, for what it's worth).
As you can see, I'm aficianado of the SLR as a digital camera for serious photo work, though come to think about it, I've had tons of fun with my iPhone camera lately! Talk about traveling light!
About the Author:
Randy Green is a pro photographer and naturalist who leads wildlife tours around the planet. He enjoys sharing photography tips in the field.
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