What Camera do you recommend for a graphic designer?
You know how frustrating it can be to search for stock images.
Often, you can't find the image you have in mind.
For instance, now I'm working on an ambient ad that is to be placed on stairs, and I still can't find a decent picture of stairs.
Basically, I'll be capturing textures, making rough comps for ads, putting up a portfolio...
I'm thinking Canon EOS 400 D. Any recommendation?
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The Canon's a nice sounding
The Canon's a nice sounding unit. Used an Olympus at my last position, which was fairly easy to use and had good results.
I'm also in the market for an SLR digital. I've been eying up the Pentax K10D. I've always been a big fan of the their manuals. Let's see what others here recommend.
ttfn!
3dogmama
What kind of price range are
What kind of price range are we talking about here?
We've been loyal to canons but got a fuji a few years ago. I really really want a canon rebel though.
Digital Camera Reviews
These days there is such a flood of new models coming onto the market, it's hard to keep up. This website has terrific in-depth reviews of most cameras & even allows for comparison with other models:
http://dpreview.com/
Camera reviews My wife has a
Camera reviews
My wife has a Kodak camera (got it at Best Buy) and it works great. Basically, get any camera that works on a mac (if that's your platform) because not all of them do.
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Powerpoint is not a design application
My latest web design work
totally depends on requirements
like resolution, budget, long-term use, capability of the photographer, if it's an SLR, do you already own one and have lens investments?
i went with a pentax k100d about a year ago because i have about 10 pentax K mount lenses and i wanted an inexpensive entry into digital SLR. i got a body only for $400 (dirt cheap a year ago, not terrible now).
SLRs will give you more and easier control over your shots, and generally better quality because most have very good sensors and you can have better quality glass (good lenses). but it's a far more expensive investment, since you'll need/want to buy lenses, and good lenses are expensive ($300-400 and up for prosumer, $1000 and up for professional). you can very quickly go well over a grand with even a basic body and a couple of lenses.
point and shoot cameras can give you pretty decent shots, but you lose some control over things like aperture (and thus, depth of field) and manual focus/exposure. but significantly less cost.
one thing to keep in mind: megapixels are overrated. sensor quality is underrated. manufacturers are cramming more MPs onto the same size sensors, thus creating cameras that make really big images that have a tendency to get noisier, especially in lower light or with a lot of zoom. 6MP is often more than enough physical size. if you go to 10MP+, but give up image quality in the trade off, is it really worth it? so do some research on the quality of the sensor and the images people are getting before buying and avoid being unhappy with image noise in the end.
some sites generally considered the best for reviews are www.stevesdigicams.com and www.dpreview.com.
MP vs. sensor size
gwells makes an excellent comment about megapixels being overrated. My experience has been that about 6MP is about all the "true" resolution you can get from a point & shoot, but you can go higher with a digital SLR, since the actial image sensor is several times larger than those in p&s cameras.
I do a lot of product photography at my day job, and I use a Nikon D50. It's very easy to use (even for an inexperienced person like me!), and delivers very nice results. My biggest complaint is that I'd like a longer zoom than the kit lens provides, but that's picking nits. I still see the D50's on the big auction site, craigslist, etc. for about the price of a new D40. (The D40 doesn't have auto-bracketing, which is a deal-killer for me. YMMV)
The newer versions of the Canon digital Rebel seem to be very good value... the earlier ones seemed very "plastic-ey" and poorly put together IMO. I will say that the d Rebels are kinda small, and my hands felt cramped when handling them. For this reason, I really suggest going to a camera store and handling the models you might be interested in.... no matter what type camera you are looking at.
In a similar vein, a DSLR is more cumbersome to haul around with you, whereas there are some p&s cameras that capture relatively nice images for something that fits in your shirt pocket.
But when it's all said-and-done, in my own experience, lighting makes all the difference in the world for my images, no matter what camera I'm using.
Interesting
It's interesting to me all the hats we find we must wear as graphic artists at times to get our perfect message across.
Sometimes we have to play as copy-editor
Sometimes we have to play photographer
Sometimes we have to play marketing salesperson
Sometimes we have to play programmer
I just thought your post was interesting because many a time, I've scoured through our company's sometimes crappy selection of stock images and just got frustrated, grabbed the company camera and went out and shot my own photos in the angles, etc. that I was wanting to use.
I'm a personal fan of Canon cameras. My brother in law is a professional photographer and he swears by Canons. (Not sure which model he's using, but you can bet it's one of the more expensive ones since that's what he does for a living).
The one we have here at work is just a Canon PowerShot and it does a fine job.
I have three cameras:
- Canon EOS 400D - 10MP - This is for big work, studio days, little projects etc.
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX12 - 7MP - Tiny compact camera, big screen, stays in my bag all the time and is great for grabbing shots if I see something while I'm out and about.
- Canon PowerShot Pro 1 - 8MP - This stays at work all the time, it's got the power of the EOS without the bulk and produces good results, especially for low light indoor product shots.
I wouldn't be without the Lumix, The EOS is a great camera, but it is big to carry around all the time, the Powershot is a good backup camera, but I wouldn't rely on only that.
I strongly recommend Canon, they make fantastic cameras.