Tips for buying a new camera and lens

I get asked this question pretty often, so here's my very short write-up.

Disclaimer: I'm just hitting the highlights and providing my own quick, generalized recommendations and tidbits about photography. It's better to exhaustively research equipment for your specific needs.

General Points

• Worry more about your choice of lens(es) than about the body

• Say you have $1.5k to spend. A $1,200 lens on a $300 body will produce better pictures than a $300 lens on a $1,200 body. Try to find some middle ground.

• You truly get what you pay for.

• The popular namebrands all generally make great products.

• Camera bodies:

Canon and Nikon are both excellent. There is no clear superior company. I prefer Canon. Sony is making some serious strides. Pentax currently has some ~$1,000 bodies that are more rugged than anything else at that price point, yet, SLRs are typically much more durable than you'd imagine. Instead of SLRs, mirrorless cameras are really nifty, too, as they kind of combine the best of both worlds: manual controls and lens interchangeability of SLRs, and compactness of point-and-shoots. Panasonic is currently leading this forefront.

• Whatever camera body namebrand you pick, plan to stick with it because you can't expect your lenses to work with other camera namebrands (e.g., Nikon lenses won't work with Canon bodies.)

• Lenses retain their value VERY well (and may increase in price over time), whereas camera bodies are like computers and degrade somewhat quickly (for example, I bought a new $455 lens from bhphotovideo.com. 3 years later, it was being sold for $490, and I sold it used on eBay for $460. At this moment, it sells on the same site for $579!)

• Cameras do not retain their value well: a entry-level camera body for $800 will sell for ~$250 used in 4 years.

• Used lenses are barely cheaper than new ones. So, unless you find some insane deal from craigslist or eBay, buy new.

• Buy from bhphotovideo.com -- they're 1 of the best companies I've ever experienced.

Lenses

• The key to buying a lens is to pick the focal length you want, then aim for the one with the largest aperture (smallest F/stop number). The aperture is the size of the diaphragm that lets in light. You want the biggest hole (smallest F/ number you can get), which means it let's in more light. This is good because it allows you to shoot in poorly lit conditions like when the sun is setting, and it also allows you the option of creating photos such that the background is nice and blurred out.

• Prime lenses (aka non-zoom lenses) are optically better than zoom lenses. This isn't to say that there aren't some amazing zoom lenses. For example, the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L is a very nice and expensive zoom lens. Yet, at any focal length in that range, Canon makes a prime (non-zoom) lens that is optically superior than what the zoom can produce at that given focal length. Zooms are handy for fast-moving, unpredictable environments like wild life and sports scenarios. See http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Zoom-Vs-Prime-Lens.aspx for more info.

• Canon and Nikon/Nikkor make comparable, excellent lenses. Leica and Zeiss lenses are typically the best that exist. Sigma is a 3rd party manufacturer that makes some great lenses that are on par with Canon/Nikon. I haven't tried Tamron, but they're popular. A moderately-priced (~$700) wide-angle lens that is highly acclaimed is the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. As mentioned, non-zoom lenses have higher optical quality compared to their counterparts, but for wide-angle shots, zooms can be handy.

• lenses in the 15mm - 24mm range are ultra wide-angle and good for landscapes and interior shooting

• lenses in the 28mm - 50mm range are good for most general-purpose situations

• lenses in the 85mm - 100mm range are good for macro, portraits, and almost telephoto situations

• lenses in the 135mm - 400mm range are good for telephoto, long-away situations

Research

Obviously, you'll read user reviews of the equipment before you buy it. There is no shortage of online literature; however, I find the following resources particularly useful:

• BHPhotovideo's user reviews.
• fredmiranda.com's forums -- incredible community of hardcore photo gear heads.
• the-digital-picture.com's tools -- view actual comparison images taken w/ tons of camera/lenses setups.
• reddit.com/r/photography -- good, diverse community of photographers.
• lensrentals.com -- #1 source for renting lenses. (although, shipping is expensive.)
• calumet -- few locations in the USA. they rent lenses, sometimes cheaper than above.
• pixel-peeper.com -- view sample images that were taking w/ your equipment.
• dpreview -- good review/article site. so good that amazon bought them out in 2007.
• keh.com -- #1 source for buying used equipment. again, buying new is usually worth it.
• table of all canon SLRs and table of all nikon SLRs

Exact Buying Suggestions

To very specifically answer the question of "what to buy with $X money," this is what I'd recommend for the common person (i.e., one who isn't looking to specialize in only food photography or say airplane photography):

If you're willing to spend less than $1,000:

• lens: buy the Canon 50mm f/1.8 for ~$110
• body: spend the rest of the money on the best Canon body you can afford.

If you're willing to spend $1,000 - $2,000:

• lenses: buy 2 lenses: 1 somewhere in the 30mm - 50mm range, and 1 in the 85mm - 100mm range. I highly recommend the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for ~$450 and the Canon 100mm f/2.8 for ~$480.
• body: spend the rest on the best Canon body you can afford.

If you're willing to spend much more:

• body: buy a high-end full-frame body from Canon or Nikon (they currently cost $2,000+).
• lenses: spend the rest of the money on high-end lenses such as Canon L series lenses. I highly recommend the Canon 35mm f/1.4L and the Canon 135mm f/2.0L, but all Canon L series lenses are great. If you deem 135mm to be too long of a focal length, the Canon 85mm 1.2L and Canon 100mm f/2.8L are also highly acclaimed.  Alternatively, if you prefer wider-angle shots as opposed to telephoto, the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 II L is a spectacular lens, too.  If you feel comfortable shooting in manual-focus mode, Zeiss makes manual-focus lenses for Canon and Nikon which often outperform anything Canon and Nikon can offer for a particular focal length.  Specifically, the Zeiss 25mm f/2.0 ZE, Zeiss 50mm f/2.0 ZE, and Zeiss 100mm f/2.0 ZE are world-class and unparalleled in performance.  I currently own the first two of these Zeiss lenses and enjoy them immensely!

If money is no object:

• please buy me a Leica body and/or some Leica and Zeiss lenses.

Other Accessories You Might Want to Eventually Buy

• Back-up batteries
• Filters (e.g,. polarizing, UV, ND, etc)
• Remote Shutter Release (they are as low as $5 and allow you to remotely press the shutter, which helps because it shakes the camera less than when touching the button. also very useful for long exposures)
• Good Tripod (at least $150. I highly recommend Benro A-1690 Travel Angel)
• Camera Backpack (I highly recommend the Lowepro Flipside 300)

General Starting Tips

• fully read your camera's manual
• take a LOT of pictures
• think about what you're trying to capture and convey
• learn to shoot in Av and Manual mode
• shoot in RAW mode
• get good/comfortable with a powerful photo editor (I recommend Lightroom)

travellin

i haven't updated in a while, but for record-keeping purposes, here are some highlights from the past 40 days:

1. kazi -- a good friend from the undergrad days -- visited me in boston.

back in 2006, we both visited boston together for what would be the first time for each of us. it won us over back then, and this visit was like the reunion.

• i housed kazi and showed him around boston.
• did a lot and had a good time.
• kazi landed a summer internship w/ my employer, and he'll be conducted research similar to mine.

2. i flew to dc for work purposes, again. i also extended the trip into a personal trip:

• visited my good friend, dan for a day:

• stayed w/ my good friend, g francis for a few days

g francis and i randomly decided to experiment w/ light painting photography one friday night. it ended up being a blast. we learned how to take long exposures and shine light onto subjects in the dark, thereby taking a complete additive approach to the lighting aspect.

this experience has motivated me to try night photography more:

3. visited brown's 3-day open-house event in rhode island.

amazing school and campus. founded in 1764, it's officially "old school."

4. visited santa barbara, california for 5 days for a conference.

on the way to and from airport, i took some pics.

iPhone 4 revolutionizes my life in a mere 5 days

i'm rather slow to adopt new technology -- i didn't get a cell phone until feb 2006, and up until last week, i still had a $20 cheap, camera-less GoPhone from bestbuy. i had never been able to share cell phone pictures, download ringtones, or anything like that.

i decided to get w/ the times, so 5 days ago i bought an iPhone 4 for $80 (cosmetic refurbished, but it looks perfectly fine).

i've already found it to be really useful:

1. FaceTime - i was able to video chat w/ one of my best friends who is currently in law school in indiana. he was in his campus' library and i was able to see it. likewise, i showed him around my boston apartment! (below is not my friend.)
2. Mobile Internet - while at costco, i was curious how good of a deal a certain product was. i knew how much i usually pay for a similar product, but was unsure of the # of servings it contains. using google, i found it within 1 page click, which allowed me to discover how good of a deal it was at costco.
3. Subway/Bus times - instead of driving my car, i take public transportation to/from work each day. it's almost 3 hours total. i only have to wait less than 10 minutes for any subway/bus. but, boston's vehicles now all have GPS, so thanks to an app, i can track them! today's temperature was 1 degree outside. so, saving me a few minutes of waiting outside is very useful!
4. Sleeping - there's an app that monitors your matress' vibrations to detect how soundly you are sleeping. it wakes you up when you are in your lightest sleep within a 30-minute window that you tell it ahead of time. wake up more restful! here's my 1st stats from night 1 of using it:
   
5. Gym - for the past 7 years, i've logged my workouts. during the past yr, i would handwrite my workouts, then would transcribe them online to my private blog during my peak times, this would require 15 extra minutes each day. i found a great app -- Gym Buddy -- which is perfect for logging weights very quickly. it literally takes me less than 4 seconds to log any exercise. the app records histories of everything you could want, and it even includes stopwatches! this saves me SOO much time.
   
6. PDFs - i have copied PDF slides of a textbook and of course letctures to the iPhone, which allows me to read them during my commute. realistically, i'll probably just stick to hardcopies on this one, but it's still very handy to have this as a backup for times that i don't have the hardcopies on me!
7. my todo-list on the go! - i use google tasks from multiple computers. it's good to always have access to it while at a computer. now, i can take it with me anywhere! because the list loads as a webpage, i can even load it before leaving my apartment, go offline while outside, and still view the pre-loaded page. of course, i can contribute to the list anytime i want, too. this is very helpful to me.
8. graphical search - you can take a picture of something that you are unsure about, and google will do an image search for you! this is incredibly useful, although i haven't used it yet.
9. barcode reading - you can scan barcodes of anything, and it'll search for that product. if it's food, you can view the nutritional info. if it's a product like shampoo, you can see others' prices and info. haven't used it yet. definitely will.
10. outings - there are a myriad of apps to use for going out, obviously. from yelp, FoodSpotting, Ubranspoon, google maps, google places (hotpot), etc. this will come in handy for when we want to be slightly more unprepared and whimsical.

after just having the iPhone for 5 days, i pretty much believe that it's the most powerful mainstream computer that exists. when i say powerful, i mean not so much its computational abilities, but its degree and variety of utility. sure, a modern laptop has a faster processor, but you can't take it everywhere so easily. moreover, it can't do everything an iphone can -- from its webcam (which as i said, can be used for things such as scanning barcodes to taking pics to live video streaming) to having built-in gps and calling abilities, the doors are obviously open for a somewhat unlimited range of utility -- hence the plethora of apps.

it's obviously a superset of an iPod too. i could ramble on for a while.

basically, i'm sold. i've set ground rules for my usage of it, for i refuse to let it interfere with my normal-day living. yet, i appreciate its power and ability to assist in my daily life, and i plan to use it well.