As I look through the dossiers, I noticed some of you list "photography" under "hobbies." For those of you who love photography, what camera(s) do you like? If you have a particular preference, can you tell me why?

Jeanette Isabelle

The digital cameras available now is nothing short of amazing. You can do quite well with just about any of them...but I will give my preferences anyway.

I have two digital cameras that are my current choices.

My most recent is a Canon G9. This is a compact high-end point and shoot. It easily fits my shirt pocket (large shirt pocket) and has all the controls that I require in a camera. It has a very good lens, 6x optical zoom, excellent user interface and takes great images. It is quite expensive as point and shoots go, but in my view well worth the cost.

My main camera is a Nikon D200. It is a DSLR and uses all the lenses I have collected for my Nikon bodies for the past 3 decades. It is an exceptional camera in my view...now supplanted by the D300. For a DSLR I choose to keep within my system as the lenses are the most valuable thing.

I am more than happy with both of these digital cameras. I highly recommend the Cannon series of point and shoots as they seem to have a very easily mastered user interface. I started with a Canon S330 and found it to be a great little camera but lacking some controls that I have to have. I also have a Nikon 8800, again a nice camera but not nearly as convienient as the G9.

You can do quite well with just about any Nikon or Canon in my view. There are simply too many to choose from. You can spend hours reading about cameras at such sites as dpreview.

http://www.dpreview.com/

It is daunting to choose, but make a list of your absolute needs and then we can help sort out a few good choices.

Even narrowing down the format helps....P&S vs DSLR. About the only thing I would avoid now is a film camera....as much as it pains me to say it, digital is the way to go.


Over at JM's Outdoors magazine I have a few articles on my camera support gear. I have not written anything specific on the cameras themselves because the articles would go out of date almost before I could put them up.

http://www.outdoors-magazine.com/spip.php?rubrique27

These will give you a view of some of my equipment though and they do discuss some of the details of how I have set myself up.

Cameras are only the beginning....

Good luck, it is a fun hobby.

Here is Castle Geyser in Yellowstone Park....from my D200 with 12-24 f4 lens.

I like cameras which use film.

My main interest is landscape photography. The price of excellent digital cameras is coming down, but I'd still need to pay way too much to get a digital camera which can equal the enlarged prints I get from pro film shipped across the country to be scanned on a way-too-expensive scanner (which I don't own) and printed on an equally expensive printer. Heh. But then that's starting to argue for using digital rather than film. I will go there within 5 years probably, once full-frame sensor SLR's are around $1,500 or less. If money weren't an issue, I'd probably be using only digital right now.

I own a small Pentax 35 mm SLR. I chose Pentax because it was less money for the same features which cost much more in other products.

Digital is nice for everyday snapshots, travel, and portraits though. It's hard to beat being able to see the photo immediately. Most cameras for sale can easily take a photo which looks great printed at 8 x 10.

I also use a wooden 4 x 5 large format camera. (The film is single sheets measuring 4 x 5 inches.) When conditions are just right and I can take the extra time it requires, I can take photos which capture detail only people who use cameras like this really notice in the final print anyway.

The camera is only a tool. The photographer is the one who makes the photographs.

Here's a site with excellent wisdom and information:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm

Bought my wife a Canon S3 IS last year. Its a high end point and shoot that is almost an DSLR. Runs on AA batteries so I can keep a couple sets of sanyo eneloops around for power instead of a $ lithium ion pack. It also does movies at very good quality. Lets you swap lenses like an dslr and use several manual modes as well as full auto like a simple P&S.

I use 2, both digital.

A Casio Exilim S880. It's thin, has lots of features and is easy to use (all features I can appreciate after slugging SLRs for years)

I also have a super cheap Samsung 4MP model (forget the model number). It's practically disposable and runs on AAs. Perfect for in a canoe, fishing, or anywhere else I'd rather not lose or destroy a few hundred dollars worth of camera.

My next purchase will be one of the freeze/drop/water proof models that are out there because the more I spend on something the rougher I seem to end up treating it.

I've enjoyed photography for many years. My first SLR was a college graduation gift from my folks back in the early 80's.

I went digital many years ago. I loved being able to take lots and lots of pictures without worrying about the cost of the film and processing. I also like that I can get some sense of the quality of the picture taken right away.

These days I use two cameras: a Nikon D70 digital SLR and a Nikon Coolpix L15 point & shoot.

I especially like the digi-SLR for the exposure control, the ability to use much more powerful flash units, and the complete lack of shutter delay (I HATE shutter delay). It also just feels better in my hands. I use my mid-range telezoom much more than my bigger telezoom. If I were to purchase again I'd probably go with the the D80. The drawback is that it is kind of big and can get in the way when active.

Hint: best SLR camera strap: Op/Tech Pro Strap ... a great strap!! (not to be confused with the Super Pro Strap intended for medium format cameras.

When I need a more compact camera I take the L15. It is tiny and uses regular (or lithium) AA batteries so that I don't have to worry about charging batteries on longer camping trips. The L15 gives great pics, but I have experienced shutter delay (did I mention that I HATE shutter delay?).

My view on photography is that so long as you use a good quality camera (brand name), the person behind the camera has more to do with the quality of the pics than anything else. I urge folks to use a tripod too!!

I'll recommend use of Adobe Photoshop Elements as a great product to download, store, organize, and edit your pics. I've used it for years and really like it. Tons of editing power for a very low price.

If you want to share pics with friends and family, then I'll recommend http://www.smugmug.com and a great web site for creating galleries and displaying your pics. Folks can view, download (if you choose), and even purchase prints. It costs about $40/year, but the service is great, its VERY easy to use, has not pesky adds, and I never have to worry whether it will be around next year (most free sites seem to only survive for a year or two).

Will also recommend the canon or a nikon, these two are the big players in the camera world. If you are new to this bad habit i would recommend a point and shoot, if you use it and get the "bug" you will be upgrading cameras along the way. But having a point and shoot means that you are more likely to carry it with you to take pictures, which is the point of having the camera anyway. As an example, i went for a boat ride up the St. Johns river with a friend. Didn't bother to drag my camera because it's not little, i use a sony 828 which is the size of a small DSLR, and while we were out a bald eagle picked up lunch out of the river about a 100 feet in front of the boat. Then came around and landed on a channel marker post 10 feet from the boat. I was 10 feet from a bald eagle in the wild and didn't have my camera with me, yes i always take my camera in a dry bag now.

Something else to look for is for specific accessorys you might need for a camera, little brother just bought a cannon point and shoot with a water proof box that will allow the camera to be used in over a 100 feet of water (think he paid a little over $400 for the camera and the box). There are waterproof boxes for DSLR's but i have bought pick up trucks for less money so these things are not cheap.

If you are on a budget try buying a used camera from someone else upgrading to something better. That is how i wound up with sony, a shutter bug i know was upgrading to a DSLR and i bought a year and a half old camera for a very good price and it also came with extra bells and whistles that i would have bought eventually. Good luck on your quest.

One thing which stands out with a quality film camera is that it, in of its self, is a work of art such as an intricately made side arm or watch. Of course Nikon does have a good selection of digital cameras for today's amateur photographer.

Jeanette Isabelle

My wife has an older Olympus pocket digital that gets carried around all the time.

I still have my Pentax Spotmatic and a handfull of lenses I bought when in the USAF in 'bout 1967, but don't use it all that much anymore, since we bought a

Nikon D80 last year, along with several lenses, the largest being a Nikor 80-400 zoom with vibration reduction (VR). Still trying to figure out how to use all of the built in features, but we are very happy with it.

A friend loves his Pentax digital SLR for it's built in VR, so the VR works with any lense he owns.

Jeanette - Nikon also has a selection of digital cameras for today's professional photographer that rival the old film cameras. The D3 is an amazing camera, and new features are being added to lenses as well.

I have a D300 digital and FM2 film camera; I never use the latter any more, though it's a lovely relic.

Some of my photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nazdarovye/page3/

Photos from our latest backpacking trip here:

http://www.brilliantmedia.com/bp/lc08/

(Some taken with the D300, some with a Canon digital point and shoot.)