Talking cameras

This is what I call my "walking around camera".  It's an Olympus PEN E-P3.  It has a 12 MP micro 4/3 sensor and several automatic settings as well as some built-in 'artistic' processing functions.  It has interchangeable lenses, with the one shown being a 17 mm f/2.8, which works out to a 35 mm focal length on the m4/3 system due to the crop factor.  Don't worry about what that means right now, but the 17mm to 34mm conversion is important.

Important features of this camera include:

• It's small and lightweight.  It will almost fit in your pocket.
• It has interchangeable lenses
• It has a pop-up flash
• It has ability to control shutter speed and aperture
• ISO range is 200-12,800
• You can get a 14-42 zoom lens (that's 28 - 85 essentially) pretty inexpensively
• can shoot raw images in addition to jpg output

There are a lot of cameras in this range, and this one is pretty dated (I bought it in 2011 I think).  In fact, there are improved models of the PEN camera that are probably cheaper and more capable.  But I am not going to buy any of them because this one does everything I need without being very obtrusive.  

If you want to see how well a camera like this works, check out this album on my Flickr site.

You don't need this specific camera, of course.  It's just an example.  But if you want to really be able to exert some control over your photography from the camera side, you need:

Ability to control the shutter and aperture yourself, either fully manually or at aperture priority or shutter priority.  Here's why:  if you set the camera on the P (program) mode, which will actually give you good results in many situations.  But the camera will decide an appropriate combination of ISO, shutter and aperture settings for a generic pleasing result.  That won't allow you to capture quick movement, such as people walking by or sports, etc. - for that you need fast shutter speeds.  It won't allow you to blur the background - for that you need a large aperture.  

My recommended settings for most photos:  Aperture priority, auto ISO.  In this setting you choose the aperture, which controls the depth of field (blurriness of the background) and the camera provides a reasonable combination of shutter speed and ISO to give you the least noise in the shot.  If it starts to get dark, then go to manual and make your own decisions.  A news editor once told me to not worry about noise, because post processing programs can minimize that.  Just make sure you get enough light on the exposure.  In most cases this is a good rule of thumb.

Ability to change the lens focal length, either through zoom or changing lenses.  As in film, you get better resolution if you don't crop too much.  So thinking ahead, you should use a lens that fills your frame mostly with the shot you want to get.  I always go a little wider so I can crop to straighten the frame or whatever.  The most convenient way to do this is through a zoom lens.  But, zooms are slightly lower in quality to a fixed lens most of the time, and they sacrifice aperture to get the zoom action.  Kit lenses (lenses that come with a camera) are almost always a medium wide to medium telephoto zoom, because it's the most versatile.  They will work most of the time.  Kit zooms usually add a couple of hundred dollars to the price of the camera, and often come in a bundle.  On the other hand, a really good say, 28-80 f/2.8 zoom will cost more than the camera body, in all likelihood.  

If you don't use a zoom, you will need a wide angle lens (24, 28, 35 mm equivalent), a 'normal' lens (about 50mm), and an intermediate telephoto (135mm to maybe 200mm equivalent, unless you want to do nature photography like birds, where you need something really long like a 400mm or 600mm).  The good news is, these lenses are individually much cheaper than 'good' zooms and work better as well.  The bad news is, you need multiple lenses, so the cost factor may offset.

My lens recommendation: Start with the kit zoom and as you gain experience either move up to a better zoom or start collecting fixed lenses that suit your subjects.

I am really a Nikon guy, so for advanced amateurs I recommend something on the order of a D7500 or something in that range.  There are also some good cameras in the D3500 range.  In fact, if you look on Amazon, for example here, you can get a complete D3500 kit with everything you need for about $400.  

It's a good place to start. 

Next time we will talk about how to set up the camera to take different types of photos.