Digital camera progression and reccomendations: Part 1

Old school cameras...

I was reflecting on the the cameras I've used, and have used and thought that it might make a decent blog so here it is. We'll call it part 1.

My first real experience with digital cameras came with a Sony Mavica which saved images onto a 3.5" floppy disk. Those were the days... I think I had access while working a summer job in San Marcos Texas and it was used for photographing manhole layouts as we surveyed them looking for open conduit. It is a whopping 0.3 megapixels but still pretty great for it's time. I wound up getting to play around a little with it at the office and got to experiment creatively with pretty decent results, all things considered.

Yup, these were still relevant media back then... wow.

This model was still way above my available budget so my first owned digital cameras were glorified webcams with batteries and something like 8-16MB of storage. Just in case you're needing a point of reference as to how small that is, one photo off my current camera would take out about 12MB alone. The quality was dubious but it took photos and could stream small video as well which for the time was pretty revolutionary.

I still used film for pictures that might actually need to look nice in print, an old Canon point-and-shoot that I eventually had to retire thanks to one end of the battery terminal breaking off. The ability to shoot many pictures without having to get them processed to view them was addictive and I finally purchased my first proper digital camera that could produce print-worthy images in what would be my last year of college.

San Diego area, taken with a Canon point & shoot

It was a Toshiba PDR-M60 and boasted a magnificent 2 megapixel sensor and it took me through the next 2 years. The main drawbacks that eventually became clear was the limit on the memory card size. This camera took me from Longview to Austin and helped pass the time in what would turn out to be my new home town. It took some very decent pictures when it came down to it, they just weren't big. At this point it did everything I needed it to do and as it was the best I'd used to that point, I was happy with it.

About that time I was also given a donated Minolta film SLR that had some issues but was still usable.The inner lining was torn and for some reason I couldn't verify the film was loading right which led to two instances of me shooting a full day only to learn after trying to develop it that the film was blank. That was not fun. It did however get me interested in SLRs, it was a taste of things to come.

After about a year being in Austin, I did get megapixel fever and upgraded my Toshiba to the Kodak point-and-shoot (Kodak EasyShare DX4530 5MP pictured at right) that would eventually land me my first professional photography job and usher me into the world of DSLRs. I actually got hired to do a wedding with that Kodak but I knew just enough back then to know that a point & shoot like that would not have the recycle time to grab as many quick moments as would occur for that sort of event. As a further indictment of my absentmindedness back then, I'll tell you how I stumbled into Nikon...

Taken with the Kodak at a KOA in Wisconsin

As the wedding was fast approaching, I wound up popping by a Ritz camera shop. I talked to the salesman and wound up mentioning I had a film SLR and asked if the lenses might work on the digital body. Somehow discussing the finer points of this like whether Nikon mounts fit Minolta lenses didn't come up. Thinking that they would, for no reason in particular, I picked up a Nikon D50 with a kit 18-55mm lens. It wasn't until later that I discovered that the brands the merged were not Nikon/Minolta, it was Konica/Minolta and there weren't even adapters to make those two brands speak to each other. I might have started with a Canon, which were and are cheaper had I known this. Still, it turned out just fine. I wound up shooting with that D50 from Beginning of 2006 until late 2009 when I upgraded to my next Nikon DSLR.

I now shoot with a Nikon D90 which is a great camera. I've now had it for around three years and have officially started my professional career with it. As you can see from my work, it is quite capable of producing some fantastic images. It was the first camera body I had that could remotely trigger flashes, the first with high definition video capability, and the first that got me up to 12 megapixels which is great for enlargements. I can got into more detail later but suffice it to say, it has served me well. With that said, I am finding myself bumping into some ceilings. Talking with some other pro photographers at a networking event, I was given the first of what would be a few nudges that are pushing me in the direction of full frame sensor cameras.

When it comes out, and I have the necessary funds, the Nikon D800 is in my sights. Currently the camera in that first tier of the upper echelon of full-frame sensor cameras is the D700. I mentioned the funds because this camera body (not including the lens) is $2700. As much as I'd love to be rolling in cash from a booming business and appreciation of my art, I'm not there yet and that body is having to wait. It really is about just getting that little extra wiggle room in difficult lighting situations as well as pulling that little extra pop that full frame sensors afford. Many may not notice an appreciable difference between full frame and cropped sensor cameras because they view most images via the internet or photos that are 16x20" at most. Still, used correctly, the full frame cameras can do things you just can't do as easily with cropped sensors. When you're photographing in fast paced, lower-light environments, the difference is especially appreciable to the photographer at least. But I digress...

I aim to write a review of the more recent cameras over the course of the next several blogs so you can learn a little about my experience with them and hopefully it will help inform you if and when you go out to buy a camera. If you do go with one of the cameras I write about, please consider clicking on the image/link of it which will help support my endeavors in the world of photography. Thanks!