Which cameras and when

- Now I'm pretty sure that no photography course would really be complete without a segment on cameras, and this, this course here is no exception in fact, let's begin things with this very topic. Let's talk cameras. Now I'm going to divide this thing up into three categories, cellphone, pocket and what I'm calling pro-level cameras and each of these cameras have strengths and weaknesses in relation to what designers might want from them and I'll be keeping a score card of these pros and cons in terms of cost, portability and capability. Let's start with our cellphone cameras, okay cost wise, I'm going to score these things positively since they come with the phone and with the apps that were already going to buy right? And besides, these things are pretty much a necessity these days anyway. And of course, cellphone cameras scored highly in portability too and that leaves capability, how capable are cellphone cameras? Well it's important that we talk about this and I've got some good news and I got some bad news. And we'll start with the bad, okay. These are all cellphone images that you're looking at, some look pretty good and some don't look that good. Some are sharp and clear and some just aren't and I'm going to say, it wasn't operator error here, it just mostly came down to which shots were taken where there were plenty of light and which shots were taken when the light was a little bit lacking, in which case my cellphone was struggling. Okay and keep in mind, that I am shooting with a cellphone camera that's got a high megapixel rating, that's a quality model, it's just that not all megapixels are created equally and cellphone cameras, I'm telling ya they just can't compare with pro-level or even pocket digital cameras when it comes to recording megapixels that are worthy of upper-level print media and large scale electronic display. And let me show you exactly what I'm talking about here. Okay, I shot this scene three times, once with my iPhone, once with my pocket camera and once with my pro-level mirrorless camera and it is a somewhat challenging scene with its lower levels of light but that's life, right? We don't always get picture perfect photo ops. Now first off, you can see that all the images, they look pretty good when viewed like this and that's because you're probably looking at 'em on your laptop or on your tablet or on your phone at a size and a resolution that works in their favor. But if we zoom in, were going to see some real issues with that cellphone image, just look at the mushiness going on here. Quite a difference right? Okay, this unpleasant look of the cellphone photo it'd be glaringly evident if we were looking at this image at say eight and a half by 11 in print, right? Now, the pocket camera, though it did a little better than the cellphone camera, its photo is still far inferior to that image that was shot by the pro-level camera. Now getting back to cellphone cameras and the good news about these things. Don't get me wrong, I love my cellphone camera, I actually use it more than my other two cameras combined. It's a super fun device, especially when it comes to spontaneous, creative exploration for practicing photo skills, for improving my eye for photo opportunities. Also I mostly rely on my cellphone camera when it comes to populating my Instagram feed, works great for that but I simply can't and I don't and I won't rely on my cellphone camera when it comes to shooting professional looking, print-ready images or for photos that are expected to look sharp on hi-res monitors. That's just not a sensible expectation to have for a cellphone camera and as a professional designer, we need to know this and sometimes I'm surprised at how few professional designers do know this. Alright so that's why, in addition to having my cellphone camera with me all the time, I also make sure to have at least a decent quality pocket digital camera at hand, pretty much everywhere I go and the beauty of having this camera with me practically always, is that whenever I come across a photo opportunity which happens all the time, I know that I'm going to be able to capture an image right there on the spot and just as importantly, I know that the image, though not as high quality as one that would've been taken by a pro-level camera, it's still going to have a better than average chance of working out for either modestly sized print pieces or for large on-screen presentations. And with this camera, I am continually able to build my extensive and my wide-ranging catalog of images for all kinds of current and future client jobs and for personal work or to populate my books. And you know I can't even remember the last time I picked up a stock image from somebody else, my pocket camera does all that for me and because of that, it's more than paid for itself believe me. So cost-wise, these cameras actually cost about the same or less than a typical smartphone, the downside being that while you can take pictures with a smartphone, you can't text or call your friends with a pocket camera, right? Okay, portability-wise, four stars and that's because my pocket camera won't actually fit in my pocket but then again they do fit in my courier bag so I'm going with five stars here. And also, this thing it's capable of taking shots and have a good measure of on-the-job potential. Good rating there. Now which pocket camera should you buy? Well Google that one, I mean type in best pocket digital camera and read up on the latest news, that's all I can tell ya. Give it an hour, maybe two, sooner or later you're going to get a sense for which people and which sites are giving ya the best and the least biased information. You'll also be able to search for comparisons between specific cameras too and I find that super helpful. I have successfully researched all my camera purchases in this way and I have yet to regret a single buying decision. Oh and also, make sure to ask your picture-taking friends for their advice too, that's always a good one and here's one more specific piece of advice that I want to share about pocket cameras and it's the single most important factor to me when I'm looking at pocket digital cameras, it's the Aperture rating of the camera's lens and sometimes this is called its F number. This one is F1.8 to 2.8 and that's good, the lower the numbers the better the camera is going to operate in low light. It gives me a camera that's going to work in a wide variety of lighting conditions. And Aperture specs they also determine how a lens performs when you're aiming for those shallow depth focus shots. Other than that, I like a pocket camera that's got an intuitive user interface, strong video capabilities, a high-quality image sensor, good ergonomics, dependable durability, you know the usual stuff. Now finally, let's get around to talking about pro-level cameras, DSLRs and mirrorless models and we're talking ones that are mid and upper-range in terms of quality here. Okay right now, I own an older model Canon 5D Mark two, it's an oldie but it's a goodie, this thing is still going super strong and it's never missed a day of work, takes great photos too. Also got a newer and more richly featured mirrorless Sony A7R2. This one's got a bit of a learning curve but I'm tellin' ya this is a fantastic camera and of course I've got a bunch of lenses too and that, by the way, that's usually the real expense when it comes to pro-level cameras. And here, once again, I'm going to direct you to the world wide web when it comes to researching the latest in terms of what camera and what lenses you might want to buy. So do you need a pro-level camera and some good lenses? Well let me put it this way, if you truly want to shoot professional looking images of the highest quality, then yeah you're almost definitely going to need a high-quality DSLR or mirrorless camera, along with a few must-have accessories which I'm going to get into in the next video. Now because lenses are so critical when it comes to a pro-level camera, let me just go ahead and spend a little extra time talking about these things. One lens I'd strongly recommend for your pro-level camera is a better quality, all around work horse, standard zoom lens. This is the lens that you're going to have on your camera like 80 percent of the time, 'cause it can be used to shoot big, wide, landscape shots. It can also be zoomed catch distance scenes, it can also be zoomed to zoom in or real tight, close up detail photos, very useful lens. Now a second lens that I'd suggest getting as soon as possible is even a modestly priced 50 millimeter lens with an Aperture rating of about 2.5 or less. And these lenses are notoriously great for portraits, for still-life images and for product photos. And once you've been able to pick up these two lenses, then yeah start saving for some of the other lenses that you're going to hear me talking about in the videos ahead. Alright then, here's our score card for our pro-level camera and it's pretty much what you might expect. There's tough news when it comes to cost and they're not super portable either, especially when you add up all the lenses and the accessories that you might want to be bringing along. But, when it comes to image quality and overall photographic capabilities, that's where these things rule, there's no doubt about that.