Canon or Nikon ???

Every first-time DSLR buyer has this question in mind - Which DSLR to buy? Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sony...? Hell lot of options in the market. But when it comes to SLRs, Canon and Nikon are the preferable brands. Availability of wide range of (comparatively) inexpensive accessories, especially lens and filters, is the main reason for this.

Now the next question is whether to go for Canon or Nikon? Followers of both the brands have been debating on pros and cons of their gear since long. You ask anyone for suggestion and they will tell their own experience.

With DSLRs, one's experience and preferences may differ from others. And since buying a DSLR is not a cake-walk (it's expensive and requires planning your budget), no one can know where you stand. There is a very simple way of deciding what to buy.

1. Decide your budget.
2. Do your research on what is available in the market within your budget. Look for various options and brands. Check reviews.
3. Tweak your budget if required (Most of the times it is required). ;-)
4. Go to a camera store and check the cameras. Here it is very important to hold the camera in hands and take few shots (if possible). People with bigger or smaller hands prefer one brand over the other. And this is the most important deciding factor too.
6. Check for type, price and availability of accessories (lens, filters, tripod, flash, batteries and charger, memory cards, etc) for the camera that you selected.
5. Once you narrow down on a camera, go get it !!!

One more thing. While looking for options in the market, remember that your should spend more on a good lens rather than on a costly camera body. If Canon 50D without a good lens is in your budget, then go for Canon 450D with a good lens. Buying camera body is just a beginning. If you are serious about photography, you will have to spend much much more on adding lens and accessories to your gear.

Happy shooting... :-)

Beginning Photography - Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed controls the amount of light that falls on the sensor.

There is a shutter curtain (an opaque sheet that blocks light) in between sensor and lens. When shutter is released, the curtain opens to lets the light fall on sensor. The duration for which the shutter curtain opens is known as shutter speed. It is measured in seconds.

A values of 1/30 means that shutter opened for 30th fraction of a second. A shutter speed of 1 means that shutter opened for one complete second. Higher shutter speed means that shutter is opened for lesser time. Similarly reducing the shutter speed means increasing the duration for which shutter opens.

Shutter Speed of 1/400 is higher than 1/100 which is higher than 1/5 which is higher than 1 and so on...

Why is it important?
Shutter Speed is the most frequently used camera setting. When in low light, shutter speed should be decreased to allow more light to fall on the sensor. Similarly, increase shutter speed to limit the light.

What is the appropriate value?
Depends on light condition and other settings. Also remember, if you are hand-holding the camera and shutter speed is very low, then it may lead to camera shake and hence blurred images. Minimum shutter speed at which you can hand-hold the camera and shoot sharp images varies from person to person. For me, it is 1/60 as my hands tend to shake alot.

Techniques using Shutter Speed
Have you seen racing pics in which the moving bike/car is in focus and the background is blurred? That is shot with low shutter speed (1 or 2) and moving the camera as the bike/car moves (known as panning). Another example is photographs in which 4-5 crackers are bursting in the sky. That is also done by keeping shutter speed low.

Shooting at higher shutter speed gives better sharpness. But you cannot always do that. So, when shooting at low shutter speed, always use a tripod.

See how the background is blurred giving that speed effect in the first pic above. On the contrary, second pic is shot at high shutter speed; although subject is sharp but so is the background and hence it lacks that speed effect.

Beginning Photography - Aperture

Time to get familiar with Aperture. Here I am going to explain in layman language as you can find lot of jargon by googling. And you should do that after getting a basic idea about the concepts.

Simply explained, Aperture is the opening through which light enters the optical system and falls on camera sensor. In other words, aperture controls the amount of light that falls on camera sensor. Aperture can be compared to our eyes that open wider in low light condition to let more light enter inside and similarly become narrower or smaller in bright light so as to block extra light from entering inside.




The diameter of an aperture is measured in f-stops. A lower f-stop number (say f/1.8) opens the aperture so that more light can come inside. Also, wide aperture results in sharpness of light rays with the right focal length only. Now what the hell does this mean? It simply means that here the main subject will be in focus while background will be blurred. This is the concept of 'Depth of Field' which i'll take up in another post.

Similarly, higher f-stop number (say f/11) will result in narrow aperture that will allow lesser light to pass. Narrower the aperture, sharper will be the background in your image. Note that I am talking about background here, main subject should always be in good focus.

Confusing ??? Start experimenting and things will be clearer. Also, don't forget to google and go through some more tutorials to get your fundas right.

Beginning Photography – ISO (Sensitivity)

ISO is simply the level of sensitivity to light.

In conventional film cameras, the film rolls had different ISO ratings. The rolls for general use had ISO 100 rating, those for use in low-light conditions had ISO 400 rating and so on. This means that ISO 400 films were more sensitive towards light and so, could give better results in low light shooting as compared to ISO 100 films.

Now replace the films used in conventional film cameras with the sensor used in digital cameras. As you increase the ISO, sensor becomes more sensitive to light and vice versa. Many P&S (Point & Shoot) cameras and all DSLRs allow the user to change ISO setting when taking a photograph. The ISO range is typically ISO 100 to ISO 1600 but expensive high-end DSLR may provide setting as low as ISO 50 and as high as ISO 3200.



So what happens when you increase the ISO? When you increase the ISO, output of the sensor is amplified and so less light is needed. But unfortunately that also amplifies the unwanted noise. This results in more grainy pics. This is similar to listening to music. Sometimes with music you hear some hissing sound from the speakers. Increase the volume and music becomes louder and so does the hissing sound (noise).

As mentioned earlier, ISO 100 is the normal setting for most digital cameras.

My tryst with Photography - 1

Two weeks back I got my first DSLR - Canon EOS 450D with 18-55 mm IS lens. Although this model was released just few months and not many user reviews were available, still I decided to go for it. I am really excited and looking for opportunities to click some shots. As this is the beginning of my career in photography, there is lot to explore. So these days I am reading as much as possible.

There are some very good resources on internet like www.dslrtips.com. I have started understanding the terms ISO, aperture, shutter speed, depth of field etc, but all this is useless until I get some cool shots.

Soon I will give updates on my experiences with the camera.