This podcast is for Vicky in Tulsa. Vicky is in the market for a new camera and wants to know if the extra features you get with a more expensive camera are worth it. Or are they just marketing gimmicks? So let's dive in and go through the options.
The biggest price difference that you'll see is between a full frame and crop sensor camera. I discussed the pros and cons and the differences in episode #54. Briefly, the larger format. will give you more resolution and therefore allow you to enlarge or crop your images more if you need to. It will also get better handheld low-light photos due to the higher resolution. If you don't need this, then you don't need to spend the extra money. And to be clear, a full-frame camera will not make you a better photographer.
Whether you decide to buy a full-frame or a crop sensor, there will be a range in pricing as well. The more expensive cameras are likely to have bigger buffers and bigger processors. Remember, we really are buying small computers these days. The buffer is the memory space that your camera uses while it's writing the image to the memory card. The bigger that space, the more images you'll be able to take before the camera stalls and you need to wait for it to finish writing. If you are shooting a lot of moving objects like birds or sports, you will likely want more buffer and faster processing, as it will allow you to take more images at a time. How much you need? That's a tough question. Again and again, it depends on what you shoot and how you like to shoot.
Another difference between lower-end models and higher-end models is the number of memory card slots it has. I love having two slots because it means I always have a backup of all of my images, especially while I'm out in the middle of nowhere shooting. This may not be important to you, but it certainly isn't a BS feature. And I talked about the pros and cons and the differences of one or two slots way back in episode #2. But what about the memory card form factor? In other words, what kind of cards does it use? This is a real issue. The cards with the fastest record times in order are CFexpress type B, CFexpress type A, QXD, and then SD. Even if you have a good size buffer, if you have a slow card, this becomes your bottleneck. Different manufacturers have decided to go with different card capabilities, so this is a factor. Even though I don't do a lot of high speed stuff, I do a lot of bracketing. And when I bracket, I'm firing 5 frames in a row. I like to take a lot of different angles, and getting stalled because the camera needs to write to the card? That stinks. But with my current camera, I find that I can take about 15 frames in a row at my pace and not stall out. With the newer cameras, I'm seeing that you can shoot about 30 frames. So being able to do more than that, it's not a huge sell point for me. But it is important.
Next, fast autofocus. I remember my first Canon digital camera. It was a 5D Mark II. And I remember telling a friend that it was Pee your pants fast I was so excited about this thing, but guess what? Since then, all the manufacturers have gotten the focus speed even faster. It's crazy. But, and there's always a but, there's still a difference from one camera to another. They can be slight, or they can be noticeable. There are a lot of YouTube videos that compare cameras for this element alone. I have to tell you that I love fast focus capabilities and I would certainly pay more for faster focus. And boy, it makes me so happy to be able to point and shoot quickly. Even though I don't shoot sports and rarely shoot animals, I want it to focus as quickly as my eyes do.
With autofocus, we also need to talk about things like face detection and eye detection. These things are now standard throughout the industry if you're shooting mirrorless, but beyond that, cameras have other tracking capabilities built in too, like bird eye detection, or car tracking, or now sports tracking. Canon just introduced the capability to track a player with a ball without focusing on the ball itself, but on the player's face. So if you're shooting these things, it's gonna be something you want. Having said this, even though many cameras have these technologies, they don't all perform the same. Some are much slower than others and some don't even work at all. Although what I'm about to say is old news, I wanna share a story. Way back 10 years ago when Sony released the A99, it had left or right eye detection. This was groundbreaking stuff, but guess what? If you activated that feature, it literally broke the camera. The camera would stall and you couldn't shoot, literally. So make sure you check out some YouTube videos and comparisons of new technologies before you buy. To be clear, everybody does eye detection pretty well now. The question is how quickly does it do it? To me, that's a factor.
There are a lot of people out there who are photography specialists doing YouTube videos. For instance, people who only shoot landscapes or birds or whatever, and they're doing hands-on in the field reviews so they can show how the camera is actually performing versus what the manufacturers are claiming. One of the things that manufacturers are claiming right now is superior low-light focus. For the most part, on the high end, everyone is pretty much making the same claim about an -8 EV. But I've noticed a huge difference between the cameras in the real world. I'm lucky because out on Photo Safari, I get to see pretty much everything on the market and I can tell you definitively that not all cameras are created equal. There's a camera on the market worth more than $3,500 retail that struggled to focus on the Manhattan skyline at night. That's unbelievable! So search around for YouTube comparisons.
Another thing that a lot of people are talking about right now is readout speed. Without getting into the weeds, the readout speed is essentially how quickly does the sensor capture the image. The easiest example is this. If you're photographing a golfer. Imagine the speed at which they're swinging their club. If you're photographing someone teeing off, you might find that the club has a curve to it. This is caused by slow readout speeds and usually in electronic shutter mode or silent mode. If you're thinking to yourself, I don't shoot sports. Well, what about the very fast flapping wings of a hummingbird? Yep, gonna have problems with that too. Now, if you're a studio shooter, guess what? This affects your flash sync speed. Yup! Another thing it's going to affect is light flicker. For the most part, this isn't a problem in the West, but it is still sometimes a problem. You see, when you're shooting indoors, sometimes the lights flicker at a very high frequency. It's not enough for the naked eye to notice, but your camera? It's gonna see that. And it will be reflected in your photos, and most certainly your video captures. Personally, I'm willing to pay a lot. But I'm not going to pay top dollar for high readout speed, because a lot of these issues can be resolved by using the mechanical shutter. Yes, I am talking about mirrorless. This has been less of an issue with DSLR.
What about megapixels? Obviously, high megapixel counts will also give you really great resolution, and will also help push your ISOs up further. But do you really need it? If you do handheld low light stuff, yes you do. If not, then not. The fact is that most people don't need this much resolution. Professional photographers are even being asked by clients to downscale their photos. So even pros don't need this much resolution. The issue with bigger and badder cameras is they tend to be larger and heavier. And personally, I'm not willing to put up with that weight. Those who have been listening to my pod know that I'm 5'4 and 115 pounds. I'm tired of carrying 11 pounds worth of gear every day. I'm over it. So size is definitely a factor for me.
Video. Well, I don't do video. If I could get everything I just mentioned and save a ton of money because the camera doesn't even do any video, guess what? I'm getting it. The fact that my camera does do video pretty well? Okay, I'll use it. And I have used it. And I'm okay with it. But for my needs, it's not a factor.
I'll spend one more podcast on this subject, but I'll go over some features that are really less important and generally don't affect the price. Well, I think that's enough to get most of you on the road to the right decision. In the next podcast, I'm going to go over some features that are a lot less important, and they won't impact your photography or budget as much. I hope that was helpful. Until next time, keep on shooting.
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