What Is the Best Camera for Me? Part 1 - Questions
Well there’s a question, this can be the cause discussions and confusion with everyone having their own opinion, down to what should be even a called camera. The main thing to remember though is what are you going to use it for, together with how and when are you going to use it. This is the first consideration.
OK, got that is mind, well let’s get on then. Everything from the camera in your smart phone all the way through to DSLRs and medium format cameras may be your best camera. The simple answer is the best camera is the one you have right when you need or want to take a picture. Right, that doesn’t really answer anything, so let's now look at a couple of things to think about:
· what camera do you have right now
· what are you going to use it for / what do you want to take a photograph of
· how much do you think you’re going to use it
· how much would you be willing to spend to get a new camera
· do you want something to take the odd snapshot, some photographs, get right into this game of photography, or looking to be enthusiast or you’re looking to progress from enthusiast to a semi-professional or professional photographer.
Right let’s break this down a little bit more. The first question is do you have a mobile phone, in all likelihood it’s probably a smartphone of some kind which already has a camera.
Now the thing to remember about all of this is what are you going to do with the picture? Are you going to simply upload it to Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook or going just to share the picture on your phone or send it to someone else’s phone? If that’s all you going to do, well then you might not need an image with more information and it might already be enough for what you want.
If you want to do some minor editing there are plenty of aps to allow you to do that editing in on you smart device. So in this case, this may be all you really need in the way of a camera. Of course, this could be that you needed a camera now and this is the only one that you have available to you, so on that basis, the best camera is what you have right now as it's the only one you have in your pocket.
Hang on a sec..... what was that about image information? A picture is a picture, isn't it?
Well, yes ... and no. This is a whole other subject and it can enter into this whole, what camera should I choose. Lets leave that for next time, as its more that just the 'number of mega pixels' argument you probably have heard of. For now, have a think about how you use the images you capture today with whatever you are using to take them. Do you want to be able to do more with them, or what you do now is fine? Its all subjective and what s right for you is different to me, and the guy beside you. If what you get now as an image and how you use it is fine, you are happy with what you use it for and have no other needs, then you already have your best camera. If not, stick around, next time we will take a little about the key differences in camera types and what all the weird technical details and sales pitches in the camera stores and in the manufacturer ads really mean.