You take a quantum leap when you move from the fixed lens world to the world of cameras with interchangeable lenses. At the same time, you get much better control over the settings on the camera (if you want). If you take this leap, the size of your pocketbook becomes important because you’ll need to lay out more money!
I should point out that interchangeable lens cameras are not a panacea. If you spend so much time changing lenses and manually adjusting your settings, that bald eagle you were about to film on a tree branch may have flown away! As many a photographer knows from bitter experience, time can be of the essence!
The Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera owes its origin to the days of 35 mm film and I used one for many years, in my teens, when I was an amateur wild game photographer in East Africa. The light coming into the camera was reflected by a mirror and prism into the viewfinder so that it provided you with an exact image of what is seen through the lens; unlike the point and shoot cameras which, at best, may provide you with some rectangular boxes in the viewfinder to give you an idea of what you’ll get if you zoom in or use a wide-angle feature. The mirror flips out of the way for a brief moment when you press the take-a-picture button.
SLR cameras offer a tremendous advantage because when you change lenses, you’ll see exactly what the camera sees. This can be of paramount importance when you are using telephoto or zoom lenses. Its equally important if you are taking pictures of small objects such as bugs, ants, beetles, butterflies, etc. It’s also important for panorama scenes and portrait work.
Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras are simply the digital versions of the SLR cameras, which I discussed above. The mirror is still present to let you see through the lens and it very quickly flips out of the way when you take a picture.
To put it another way, with a DSLR camera, you are looking, via the mirror and a prism, at the object you are about to photograph without any electronics “getting in the way”.
High end digital cameras still employ this technology, however, the “flipping mirror” presents a challenge when these cameras are used to record high definition video. Ingenious techniques have to be used to get around this challenge.
The question for interchangeable lens camera designers became: can you do away with the mirror? Is there another way of “seeing” through the lens? Not really!
Without the mirror, such cameras have to rely on an electronic viewfinder which is not strictly looking through the lens or alternatively, through an LCD similar to those found on point and shoot cameras.
To use a computer monitor analogy for the Graphical User Interface (GUI), it’s akin to WYSIWYG (pronounced “Wiz-E-Wig”) is an acronym for “What You See is What You Get”. In the personal computer world, it lets you see on your computer monitor, the text that you have entered on your keyboard in word processing (or other programs) in a similar way to how it will be printed on your computer printer. It’s a rather crude analogy, but apply this to ILC-M cameras and you are seeing on your viewfinder or LCD (equivalent to a “monitor”) is what you are processing and hopefully, what it will look like when you print your photo.
The electronic viewfinder image in some mirrorless cameras has some advantages. First, it could adjust for low light conditions as opposed to real light entering via a mirror and a prism and this could help you get a better view of what you are taking.
Secondly, some can zoom if they are synchronized with the zoom lens. Thirdly, it’s much better for shooting video, if your camera offers that option.
The disadvantage for purists, is that you may get some colour aberrations caused by the electronics which you would not get from light reflected off a mirror and a prism.
One feature offered by most interchangeable lens cameras is the ability to take multiple shots in quick succession. I’m sure you’ve seen fashion photographers taking pictures and their camera goes click, click, click as they take a succession of shots from which they can choose the best at a later stage.
A DSLR camera will enable you to do this without any problem. The bad news is that with a mirrorless camera, the electronics have to adjust between each click and this limits your ability to fire off a short burst of pictures in quick succession. This could be detrimental if you are photographing sports events, kids, animals, etc.
The shutter speeds of some of the DSLR cameras can be quite amazing. For example the Canon EOS 7D has a shutter speed of 1/8000 second plus it can shoot at 8 frames per second. This is great stuff for filming fast moving subjects.
The mirror-prism combination in a DSLR camera tend to add to its “bulk”. This is further accentuated by the sensors which have to capture the light, adjust the aperture and focus. By way of contrast, the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera relies solely on electronics to perform these same functions, in the same manner as a point and shoot camera, which in turn, means that the size can be more compact, except of course for the lens.
Since this is a book for beginners, I’m not going to go into all the technical details about the controls; suffice to say that they are equivalent to many found on point and shoot cameras but on a mega dose of steroids!
Since this chapter is about cameras with interchangeable lenses, I would be remiss if I didn’t give you a very quick briefing on lenses themselves.
The first thing you will have to sort out is will the lens mount onto your camera. You’ll find this a frustrating area because different camera manufacturers offer lenses that are specifically designed for their cameras. In other words, you can have interchangeable lenses but not between different brands although I’ve heard that there is a move afoot to standardise lenses amongst some of the mirrorless brands.
The good news for the consumer is that some independent lens manufacturers are producing lenses with different mounts that will fit a number of different brands.
Don’t forget that the aperture setting is on your lens. If you are using a powerful telephoto lens, the amount of light getting back to the camera is reduced by the lenses it has to pass through so, generally, you’ll need larger aperture settings than you would with a “normal” standard lens.
There are quite a few categories of lenses for different purposes. Since many photographers have migrated to the digital world from the world of 35 mm film, they still refer to lense sizes in the latter. Just be warned that strictly, the focal length is not the same in a digital camera.
Standard Lens: in the 35 mm world is a 50 mm lens. This is the common garden “full frame” or standard lens which would come with your camera.
Wide Angle Lens: as its name suggests, permits you to photograph a panoramic vista, however, I should point out that some of the higher end cameras will permit you to take a series of pictures using a standard lens and then electronically “stitch them together” to produce a panorama. In the old 35 mm world, these would be 28 mm lenses.
Telephoto Lens: start off at 80 mm and continue on up. In the “old film” world, I used a 200 mm lens for many years and then was able to double to 400 mm by using an additional intervening lens. This was great but I had to use a tripod or something to lean against when taking pictures. The slightest hand wobble produced a disaster! However, there is some good news. In most interchangeable lens cameras, image stabilisation is now incorporated into the camera case but with some newer telephoto lenses it is incorporated into the lens itself.
Macro Lens: which are great if you are photographing bugs, butterflies or beetles. They let you get very close up to your subject.
Telephoto Zoom Lenses: which allow you to zoom in on your subject. Some even feature a wide angle capability so you’ll get soup to nuts wrapped up in one lens.
Pancake Lens: these are “flattened lenses” which are designed to reduce how much is protruding at the front of your camera. These are ideal for the smaller mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras which (as I said earlier) tend to be less bulky than their DSLR cousins. You can make them even more compact by using one of these pancake lenses.
If you are going to operate in a dusty or moist environment, I’d suggest that you look out for lenses by Canon with a red ring close to the mounting. This indicates that they are dust proofed and weather sealed.
Almost all interchangeable lens cameras will let you manually focus but also feature autofocus which can be simple or elaborate. An example of “elaborate” is provided by the Canon EOS 7D which I referred to above. It can autofocus from 19 different points which is quite amazing!
The autofocus feature is something you will have to take into account when you are buying different lenses. In some cameras, autofocus is achieved by a drive in the body of the camera itself. Some lenses have a micromotor installed to focus and some of the latest models are controlled ultrasonically.
The camera sensors are where the light is “processed” when the shutter is opened i.e., when you “click”. Most run of the mill DSLR cameras use a 24 mm by 16 mm sensor. The latest top-of-the-line DSLRs use larger sensors measuring 36 mm by 24 mm, which is the same size as the old 35 mm negative and they are commonly referred to as “full-frame sensors”. This makes for an amazing quality of output and these sensors are incorporated into a couple of new high end cameras that I will talk about next.
At the time of writing, both Canon and Nikon had just come out with a couple of cameras which will blow your socks off. They will certainly be on the top of the shopping list for any news photographer as well as for many movie camera crew members.
Canon 5D Mark 3: uses the 35 mm sensor that I referred to in the last section. It can also produce HD Video and is being used by professional movie makers for HD television broadcast. You can shoot images both in RAW and JPEG format at the same time. I’ll discussed this earlier in the book. The camera can take up to 1,000 photos using its existing memory. This little toy will set you back about, three grand just for the case and then you have to add lenses. So, you won’t have much change out of $5,000 but if you’re a professional or serious amateur, this is the way to go!
Nikon D800 SLR Digital Camera: is a top-of-the line camera which will also take broadcast quality video. Just the case alone will set you back about three or four grand, but if you’re a professional photographer or very serious amateur this is for you. Don’t forget that the lenses could add another couple of thousand to your total cost.