Well written, Pankaj. Thanks for sharing your valuable experiences in a simple manner. This useful episode is going great!!! Look forward for more such nicely written articles on the subject. Keep it ON!
Regards Vijayasankar Raman National Center for Natural Products Research University of Mississippi On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 12:45 PM, Pankaj Kumar <[email protected]>wrote: > How to SELECT? > > Before selecting, the foremost thing is to decide your budget. You may > be lured by better cameras once you started knowing about them hence > you will have to limit yourself with the budget, i.e., stop looking at > anything beyond your budget. You may at times feel like, "ok if I add > few more thousands to my budget then after 2-3 months I will buy > another and better camera!!". But remember, companies keep on > releasing new models throughout the year and hence better models keep > coming. After 3 months you may realise that there is still a better > option which you have to wait for another few months and this goes > on.....so STOP AND LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE AVAILABLE AT THE SHOPS, > unless you are planning to go for a very high end camera. > > One more thing you should remember that buying during festive seasons > may give you lot of discounts and other accessory offers. For people > living outside India, especially in Europe or USA, the best time to > get many offers are during Christmas sale. You really get some > extraordinarily cheap rates. > > Once you have fixed your budget, its time for setting up your priorities: > > 1. Sensor Size (Bigger the sensor size, better better should be the > result. Sensor can usually be of two types, CMOS or CCD. There is no > clearcut distinction about which is better, but CMOS use less power, > are faster and comparatively cheaper than CCD). > 2. Megapixel (at optimum size, 10 megapixel is good enough, you may > think of 12 megapixel too, but always remember, that you need an > external storage device for all your pictures and a bigger flash card > too. Most of us are not planning to get a door size printouts of our > pictures, hence limiting yourself to 12 megapixel is a good idea). > 3. Body Size (some cameras are heavy and in field at times you really > find it to be too heavy and curse yourself for carrying it especially > on long or high altitude treks.) > 4. Modes: Look out for the MANUAL mode. Any camera with MANUAL mode > gives you more option to create your own modes for taking shots. If > you are looking for closeup shots then look for availability of MACRO > mode and also look for the minimum closeup distance of the lens. Its > usually written on the lens or the camera body. Also look for the > placement of FLASH on the camera at the minimum closeup distance. > Because if you want to use flash on macro mode then it castes a shadow > of the hood on the subject. Ability to use flash in macro is always a > good option. In compact cameras and prosumers, if you have a camera > with lens which doesnt pop out then its always good. This technology > is called INTERNAL FOCUSING (IF) and its written on the lens or body > for DSLRs. For compact cameras, this is a good option as it doesnot > caste shadow of the hood on the subject. > 5. Attachment options: Some lower end camera also comes with accessory > lens (attaching other wideangle or telezoom lens) and extra flash > attachment options. So if such options are available then its good to > enhance your creativity as well as the usage of you camera. > > REMEMBER, A GOOD CAMERA WILL NOT GIVE YOU GOOD RESULTS. IT ALWAYS > DEPEND ON YOUR OWN ABILITY TO USE A CAMERA PROPERLY TO GET THE BEST > RESULTS OUT OF IT. > > Regards > Pankaj > > -- > *********************************************** > "TAXONOMISTS GETTING EXTINCT AND SPECIES DATA DEFICIENT !!" > > > Pankaj Kumar Ph.D. (Orchidaceae) > Research Associate > Greater Kailash Sacred Landscape Project > Department of Habitat Ecology > Wildlife Institute of India > Post Box # 18 > Dehradun - 248001, India >
