It seems every­one wants a bet­ter cam­era and I am often asked for advice on what cam­era they should buy. Con­sid­er­ing the sheer num­ber and vari­ety of cam­era types, I tend to respond with a series of ques­tions. Will you be cre­at­ing seri­ous art or casu­al­ly doc­u­ment­ing your fam­i­ly vaca­tions and how much mon­ey can you spend are usu­al­ly the first few. Sev­er­al more ques­tions fol­low before I sug­gest some inter­net search­ing.

But I have recent­ly added a ques­tion to that list that I often ask myself when­ev­er I get the urge to pur­chase the lat­est tech­ni­cal­ly advanced offer­ing. Am I get­ting the most out of the cam­era I own? Do I under­stand every­thing my cam­era can do? Am I tak­ing advan­tage of those fea­tures I have? Am I get­ting excel­lent pic­tures and, if not, is it the cam­er­a’s fault or mine?

Be hon­est. Will I use the new fea­tures? Can I afford the acces­sories, the addi­tion­al lens­es, the tax and the ship­ping and insur­ance? Will I auto-mag­i­cal­ly get bet­ter pic­tures?

To me, pho­tog­ra­phy is about com­po­si­tion and expo­sure. All cam­eras help with expo­sure but they have their lim­its. You will often get a bet­ter pic­ture if you take some lev­el of man­u­al con­trol over the expo­sure set­tings. Your present cam­era will most like­ly allow you to do that. Com­po­si­tion is entire­ly up to you and has lit­tle to do with the cam­era. And again, you want the abil­i­ty to take con­trol over the auto­mat­ic func­tions, like focus­ing for exam­ple, as you com­pose the pho­to­graph. More zoom is nice, but you can move clos­er too. You will need these skills with the new cam­era as well.

So, study your cam­era first. Read the man­u­al. Under­stand every mode and how to push your cam­er­a’s lim­its. Two things will hap­pen, you will con­firm what you real­ly need in a new cam­era and bet­ter yet, you will instant­ly take bet­ter pic­tures.

Get more out of your cam­era by exper­i­ment­ing. Pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­phers would save the last frame on their film to exper­i­ment with set­tings. Do that any time you have your cam­era in hand (and after you get the impor­tant shots you went out to take).

If you tru­ly need a bet­ter cam­era for an event, rent what you are con­sid­er­ing buy­ing and test it out. You just might find that your present cam­era is not so bad. I find the claims a bit exag­ger­at­ed on all the cam­eras I’ve rent­ed. Then search the forums for the opin­ions of oth­ers.

Maybe take that mon­ey and upgrade your com­put­er or soft­ware. Take class­es. Study com­po­si­tion, col­or and Pho­to­shop. Invest in a new lens. A qual­i­ty lens on a mediocre cam­era will take bet­ter pic­tures then a ter­ri­ble lens on a good cam­era.

Once you are get­ting every­thing you can out of your present cam­era, a new one can take you to the next lev­el. Check out this arti­cle by Scott Bourne to help your search. But first, con­sid­er these thoughts. They might make more dif­fer­ence to your pho­tog­ra­phy then a new cam­era body.

Part 2 — Some Point and Shoots are Bet­ter Than Oth­ers