Your Most Important Consideration When Buying a New Camera

I can't think of a single digital camera manufactured today that does not produce excellent images.  Every digital camera today produces images that are better than any 35mm camera that was available 15 years ago, even the big professional Nikons and Canons.

It really doesn't matter at what level today's cameras are marketed, how inexpensive or expensive they may be, every digital camera made today is capable of producing very high quality image files. Yes, there are some with bigger sensors and smaller sensors, more pixels and less pixels, more features and less features, weigh more or weigh less, have a prism, are mirrorless or only an LCD, are highly customizable or cannot be customized easily. They all are excellent and produce excellent image files.  Even cameras contained inside your telephone are excellent!

Considering this fact, I suggest to you that image quality now should NOT be the major consideration, and certainly not the sole consideration, when choosing a new digital camera.

So, if image quality is no longer a primary consideration what should be?  I believe that your major consideration when choosing a new digital camera is everything except image quality.

Here is what I think you should do.  You should closely examine how an individual camera feels in your hands.  Does the camera feel good in your hands?  Does it fit easily?  Is it easy to hold onto?  Does the grip feel secure?  Is it too heavy in that after carrying it for a few hours you think your wrists will hurt?  Look at the styling.  Does it meet your aesthetic needs?  Aesthetics are important to us.  Think about all the effort that is put into design or everything we buy.  How a camera looks is important to how we connect with it.

You should try the controls and find out if how they are laid out feels right to you.  Is the shutter button right under your index finger?  Are the controls logical? Are the rotating dial tight or do they rotate too easily so they could accidentally be changed without your knowledge? Are the controls smooth?  Do they move without binding? Are the various buttons where you think they should be? Are the buttons, dials and controls logically placed?  When shooting in a high pressure situation, you may have to use your second nature and familiarity with the camera to make quick changes without having to hunt for the right control.

You should closely go through the menus and menu items and determine how easy it is to get to the settings you want and if the menus seem logical to you. Can you find the settings you use most?  Is there a custom menu screen that allows you to place your most used menu items on it so you can easily get to them without having to search though all the setup, shooting and custom menus?  Are the menu items in sufficient number to allow you to make the custom settings that you need to make to meet your photographic needs?  Is there a "help" function so if you forget something, you can press a button and up pops a help screen to refresh your memory?

How does it sound?  Is it clunky?  Is it smooth?  Does the shutter sound silky or like a 71 Chevette rattling down the highway?  Do the controls make any noise when moving them?

How does it focus?  Is it fast and sure?  Does it hunt? Does the focusing mechanism make noise?  Put a lens on it and listen if the lens makes any noise while focusing to be sure.  If you focus, then de-focus the lens, the re-autofocus, does it focus in exactly the same spot?  Is it consistent with focus, in other words?

Does the camera have a good number of function buttons that can be customized to your needs?  What items are available for you to program them?  Will the camera allow you to program the buttons with the functions that you need at your fingertips?  Where are the function buttons located?  Can you easily push one without taking your camera away from the viewfinder?

Finally, how many lenses, either from the camera's manufacturer or third party manufacturers, available in the focal length, quality and speed that will meet your needs?  Prime lenses?  Zoom lenses?  Wide angle lenses? Tilt-shift lenses? Extreme telephoto lenses?  Macro lenses? How about lens accessories such as tele-converters?  The camera is only the recording device.  The lenses, I can argue, are more important than the camera body.  Make sure there are the number, kind and quality of lenses that will meet your needs.

Think past image quality and think about every thing else that makes a camera a joy to use and examine all those things carefully before you buy.  In fact, if there is not a high grade camera store near you, rent the camera you have your eye on and try it out.  That is a small price to pay for possibly making a big mistake or finding much satisfaction.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


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