What Camera to Buy

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By William Smith

Budgets are getting cut and photography just became another part of your expanding list of responsibilities as a communicator. “Just great,” you say, “I’m not a photographer!”

Today, I’m going to walk you through what to look for when investing in a camera system for your communications department, PR agency or your own freelance practice.

The first question I will pose for you to think over, what kind of photography do you require for your projects and campaigns? Will the images be predominately for web or print applications? Will you need to shoot video too for event? Today’s cameras can do both with some limitations with video.

In some cases hiring a professional is unavoidable depending on the assignment and your skill level, always set aside some cash in the annual budget to bring in a pro photographer for the really important jobs.

So what’s out there? To start there is the camera on your Android, Blackberry or iPhone and they are great for taking an on the spot shot and uploading immediately to Facebook or Twitter. That’s perfect for building real time buzz on social media channels however while the photos might be ok for web, they will not be print quality for brochures, and annual reports for a while yet. Camera phones are displacing the digital point and shoot cameras on the market.

The next level are the Lumix,IOlympus, or Sony micro four thirds systems. Their sensors average around 12 mega pixels and will cover all your requirements for the web and some print applications. Micro four thirds systems are very compact and excellent for business travel.

There are two drawbacks with micro four thirds systems, they aren’t so great in low light so an external flash is a must and the other is you are focusing with the rear screen which some people like, others not so much.

To get a camera that can be an all round workhorse take, documentary, portraits, event photography and you are getting into DSLRs or digital single lens reflexes. You can get one starting about $600 with the cheap kit lens or go upwards $8000 for a Nikon D3 pro body, lenses sold separately. Reality is your purchase will come in somewhere in the middle with all the accessories.

DSLRs come with two sensor sizes, the most common being the APS-C which frame size is the same as the defunct APS film format. Most DSLRs come with this format, which is great for general use and most Communicators this sensor size will be fine on what they need to do.

The second sensor size is FX or full size which is roughly the same as 35mm film frame, the image quality goes up exponentially and so does the cost. Full frame bodies (lenses sold separately) start at $2700 and go up from there.

My advice regardless if you go Canon, Nikon, Pentax or Olympus, you’re getting decent technology. Now here is where it gets a little tricky, you are not buying so much a camera, but a lens system. With Canon, Nikon and Pentax there is some backwards compatibility with their old film cameras, but that is subject for another blog post.

Get a halfway decent body and spend the serious money on really nice lenses because at some point camera bodies wear out, the lenses you keep.

So what to buy? A decent camera bag that does not scream “I’m a decent camera bag, please steal me” for starters, a DSLR kit bag with the camera logo on the side will disappear fast when left unattended at an event.

As for which brand, the best advice I can give is play with a friend’s DSLR, and see how the ergonomics work for you, are the controls intuitive? From there you can make an informed choice going forward.

Finally a word or two on lenses, as mentioned above this is where you want to spend the money on your camera kit because DSLR bodies do have a lifespan. You can spend more on a lens than a whole camera kit. What you want to look for is a lens with vibration reduction if the system is not built into the camera. You can get away with one focal length like 18-105mm for APSc sensor sized DSLR’s and 24-120mm for full frame DSLRs.

Photography can be a fun part of the job and provide that added punch to your campaign to be a success. Next time I’m going to quickly walk through what’s available in terms of photo editing and what to be mindful of when you touch up an image.

William Smith graduated from Ryerson University’s PR program in 2009 and is currently looking for permanent or contract opportunities at corporate or agency. William has strong writing, research, planning and project management skills.

Photography is one William’s passions and documents IABC/Toronto’s events on occasion. His personal work can be seen at funwithcameras.blogspot.com.

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