Photography Basics

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Soft Skills

Technical

According to Thomas Hogan, this is the list of imporatnce with regards to image quality. I woudl tend to agree with him.

Canon or Nikon

I would pick either the Nikon D70S or the Canon Rebel XT. The Nikon D50 is nice but is missing the D70S's commander mode which is a nice ability to trigger remote flashes with your D70S's built in flash. This might not sound interesting right now, but if you ever decide you want this feature and you went with a D50, it will cost you about $300 dollars to regain this feature. As of December 2005, this makes the D70S "cheaper" ($830) than the D50 ($570) but only by about $30 dollars.

What else do I need

What does a "pro" camera offer me over the Nikon D70S or Rebel XT?

A good question since someone has to be buying these cameras. Is it purely for bragging rights? Not entirely. Although, as all things in life, a pro body has diminishing returns for most individuals.

Of course there might be other benefits such as a "full-frame" sensor or more megapixels. Histograms might be more details and there might be more dynamic range. It's important to list your own priorities. For some people a high end pro body will not provide any features you may value. For others, the features are mandatory for their work. Only you can decide what is better for you.

Raw or Jpeg

Short answer, RAW will give you superior image quality and allow more options. However, the cost of doing so might not be worth it to you

Everyone seems to forget that everything in life can be boiled down to cost analysis and return on investments. Camera equipment is no different.

Filters

Protection Filters

The dreaded protection filter question. This is quite debatable. One school of thought is that protection filters rarely provide additional protection and can diminish image quality. (Please note, how much image quality loss is generated will vary greatly. It may or may not be worth it to you. I suggest you try shooting with and without to test). The other school of thought is, you spend thousands of dollars on a lens, it should be protected with a $100 dollar protection filter.

Other Filters

When it comes to conventional filters though such as a neutral density filter or circular polarizer, most would argue that the quality does matter. A poor quality filter will rear it's head when you do head to head comparisons. It seems really silly to buy a $5 dollar filter for a $1000+ lens but some people do it.

Which lens should I buy

The correct answer is "the one the best fits your style of shooting". However, if you are a beginner, just what is your style of shooting? Depending on who you ask, you will get different viewpoints.

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