Owning Multiple Cameras – Part 2

…different cameras for different uses

By Marc B

Owning Multiple Cameras – Part 1 explored street photography and special occasion photography. Below are some suggestions of camera types that are suitable for specific situations. Remember, any camera is better than no camera at all!

Landscape Photography
Landscape photography is all about wide open spaces, detail, sharpness and rugged equipment. You can use a few different cameras for this type of photography.  The only essential would be a camera that can use filters as landscape photographers have a need for a few different types of filters (ND, ND Grads, circular polarisers etc.).  A Compact System Camera (CSC) is ideal for this as they are light, some are weather resistant and have some high quality lenses that can take a filter.  Another advantage of a CSC is that they are compact enough to go in a backpack if you are hiking, but good enough quality to get awesome results.  The lens selection is great and there are plenty of cameras to choose from.

Everyday Photography

There are times when the phone camera just doesn’t cut it (indoors, low light, if you need to zoom) and you need a camera that can far outdo the results from what your phone can do but you don’t want to lug around a big DSLR.  For this there is a range of small but high quality cameras available with built in Wi-Fi so you can still share those moments instantly.  But now you can do it with awesome quality.  Some cameras that fit this category are the Canon S120, the latest in a long line of ‘S’ series cameras that are known for their low light performance, the new Fujifilm XQ1 which is the smallest Fuji camera yet to feature their very well respected X-Trans sensor and it also features no low pass filter for extra sharpness.  Other cameras are the Sony RX100 II which is very small but with a larger sensor size than most other compacts for exceptional image quality.  All of these cameras feature Wi-Fi and all have apps available to stream your images to your smart device for uploading to your social networking site of choice.  The main difference being that your photos will be of a much higher quality than your friends’ photos.

Travel Photography

Travel photography encompasses such a wide range of photography styles (architecture, portrait, landscape, street and general photography) that it is impossible to find one camera to do it all.  The best option here is to take two cameras (this article assumes photography will be a major interest when you go on holidays), one of them should be your DSLR or CSC with appropriate lenses, and the other should be a good compact super-zoom camera.

The DSLR is the go-to camera that you use for the majority of the trip, these photos are unrepeatable events and you should use your best gear to capture them.

The compact is your back-up camera and is the camera to take with you if you find yourself going to events that do not allow (or you simply don’t want to take) a DSLR.  The compact should have a big zoom for those times when you need to get in close and Wi-Fi for transferring to your smart device to share the moment with friends and family.  Some good options here are the Panasonic TZ40 with a 20X optical zoom, Wi-Fi and NFC.  This comes from a long line of very successful travel zoom cameras from Panasonic.  The Olympus SH-50 also features a slightly bigger 24X zoom lens with an advanced 5 axis image stabilisation feature when using video to really steady those hands.  It also uses a 16 MP BSI CMOS sensor for great low light ability.  Nikon also has the popular S9500 travel zoom which features a 22X zoom, 18MP sensor, Wi-Fi, GPS for tracking where you took the photo and full HD video recording.

These are just a few options of cameras available for these photographic styles, there are plenty more in-store so come on in, call us or check out our website to see what else we have on offer!