Camera Recommendations

AutoMechanic

AutoMechanic

Active member
Hello everyone,

I’m wanting to upgrade my camera from my little Nikon Coolpix point and shoot. What do you guys recommend? I see several excellent pictures here so I know there will be some good recommendations. I’m open too all brands. It will be a little while before I get one since I want to save up for it and to make sure that I get the right one for me. Also let me know if there is anything you recommend me get to go with it like extra lenses or something. I take a lot of action shots of airplanes and other various things, also night shots so that’s something I definitely want it to be good for. Thank you.
 
AutoMechanic said:
I’m wanting to upgrade my camera from my little Nikon Coolpix point and shoot. What do you guys recommend?
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This is a great question and there are many books written on the subject.

Where to start....

I think the most important question you have to answer is for what type of photography do you want to use the camera?

If your intent is taking pictures on occasion indoor, outdoor, action, portraits, landscape, vacations, etc. and you want to simply point the camera and shoot the picture, meaning you want the camera to be in auto mode and do everything for you, then you already have a good camera for that purpose. I use a point and shoot for lots of pictures, because I just want a quick picture and at that time for that situation I specifically don't want to take the time to shoot with my Sony A7 in a mode other than auto. My point and shoot is my iPhone 10 :-) and frankly it takes great pictures. A modern mobile phone or a point and shoot camera like yours is much easier to carry when hiking, sightseeing, etc. I do carry my A7 on a pack strap adapter and after about an hour I can feel my shoulder getting a bit sore, after a couple hours my shoulder starts to hurt and I want to get the camera off my strap, so I end of carrying it or just using the neck strap. My iPhone in my pocket has never made my shoulder or any other part of my body sore no matter how long I carry it.

Let's say you want to do more advanced photography and be able to adjust your images in a program like Lightroom. What is advanced photography you ask? Well a short list of things that you might do; manual adjustment of the exposure triangle for almost infinite purposes, short depth of field, focus bracketing, exposure bracketing for HDRs and HDR panoramas, manual time-lapse creation, etc. The list of possibilities are only limited by your imagination and the time you have to learn and I'm talking LOTS of time. Oh and learning Lightroom and Photoshop is at least another hundred hours of your time just to get somewhat proficient in how to use them, which doesn't mean you are 'good' at using them.

If you were to decide to buy a 'good' camera that is more capable than a point and shoot, then I would suggest you spend months learning about what's good about the more advanced cameras and what's not so good about them. An example is the current rage with full frame mirrorless cameras. Full frame cameras aren't crop frame and they are smaller and lighter, so they must be better, right? Yes, in some aspects, but worse in others.

Let's not even get into the how many pixels topic, because for most photos having a zillion pixels vs. a fraction of a zillion pixels will never make a difference to how your end photo looks, it just doesn't. My A7 takes RAW images that are roughly a zillion X zillion pixels :-) and about 50MB in size compressed, but when I post photos online, I compress them down to 70 DPI jpgs that are about 250kb. Why, because the giant size photos don't look any better than the 70 DPI jpgs when they end up going through the plumbing of the internet and get displayed on your browser. Now if you are going to take a picture and blow it up to poster size and hang it on your wall, you'll want to start with a 50MB RAW image.

Lenses are another misunderstood topic that I believe most people don't understand when buying a full frame vs. a crop frame camera. When you buy the 'best' (of course I mean full frame 8-) ) camera you'll be spending a lot more on lenses vs. lenses for a crop frame camera. Why, because the full frame cameras have a physically larger sensor and require a physically longer lens, it's the physics of light and you can't get around physics. Physically larger lenses cost more money, sometimes lots more for exact same effective focal length of a shorter crop frame camera lens. An example would be to get an effective 300mm zoom with a full frame you'll need a 300mm lens, but to get an effective 300mm zoom with a crop frame camera you only need a 200mm lens. When you start chasing longer focal lengths you start emptying your wallet quickly. Oh, and remember the weight problem from above, yeah, my full frame A7 with a 24x240 lens gets really heavy, not because of the camera body, but because of the physically large lens. I wish I had understood this better before I bought my A7.

There are trade-offs for everything, knowledge is your best purchasing advisor.

I'll bet @T & R Willson might have something to add or maybe we have other photographers lurking? :-)
 
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Man what a great read. Yeah my new iPhone takes some excellent shots it’s the 12 Pro just upgraded from the XR and the thing takes some excellent shots I was able to capture a clear shot of my dog walking which I never could with the other one. Haven’t tried it for the airplane shots but my point and shoot doesn’t like to do the action shots. Both my mom and my sister have those big “fancy” cameras but they are both about a decade old. My mom has a Nikon D5100 I think that’s what it is, and my sister has a Canon Rebel and my dad well he still has his old Minolta film camera 🙂. That Canon camera has been through the ringer and what I mean is it’s been dropped, dropped in the lake, fallen off a bed and many other things and the thing is still great.

I definitely have some reading and research to do, which I expected to do. I take action shots of planes taking off and landing and of trains or maybe a car or something. Lots of outdoor shots too. Some turn out really grainy because of the zoom so I am looking for something with a long, wide zoom. I’m definitely not a professional photographer but I do take lots of pictures between my phone and my camera. I post a ton on Flickr too so I definitely like a quality shot.

We do have a photo store here that has used cameras so I maybe able to find a nice used one as well. Same with the pawn shop selling used cameras some of which look really nice. The lenses is definitely something to consider as well. I know they aren’t the most cost effective for sure.

I know I will at least step up to maybe a bigger point and shoot.

I will be researching and studying over the next few months and also hopefully looking at some in person.
 
AutoMechanic said:
Some turn out really grainy because of the zoom
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Probably because your getting past the lens's optical capability and into the digital zoom, which makes the pictures get grainy. Try stopping at the limit of the optical zoom.

AutoMechanic said:
I take action shots of planes taking off and landing
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You may get less blur if you set your camera to 'action' mode, which will increase your ISO and shutter speed. There are times when all cameras need a hint about your scene to adjust the exposure to take a better picture. Or, you can start using the various manual modes and tell the camera how to take the picture, but that's like pulling the thread on a sweater.
 
Wayne said:
Probably because your getting past the lens's optical capability and into the digital zoom, which makes the pictures get grainy. Try stopping at the limit of the optical zoom.


You may get less blur if you set your camera to 'action' mode, which will increase your ISO and shutter speed. There are times when all cameras need a hint about your scene to adjust the exposure to take a better picture. Or, you can start using the various manual modes and tell the camera how to take the picture, but that's like pulling the thread on a sweater.
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That’s new to me. I didn’t know it would go further than it’s maximum optical zoom. 🙂. I will have to look and see if I has action mode. I’ve learned lots about cameras from this forum alone. I know when we went to the beach about 6 years ago and I seen some ships it took excellent far away action shots of those.
 
If all you want a good 'vacation' photos stay with your phone or a good point and shoot. When using a real camera pixels do count in the end product. If you want to post them on social media or get a fine print there is a huge difference. I personally will not give up my 'big' Canon and the lenses that go with it. And yes Wayne, I do pull threads on a sweater!!!
 
Yes I want to put most on Flickr and if they are outdoors or camping related I’ll post them here. I was looking at some at Walmart I really liked the Canon Rebel one I didn’t look to see what model it was.
 
I should also add I like filming things like planes taking off and landing too. It would be used for that as well.
 
AutoMechanic said:
I was looking at some at Walmart I really liked the Canon Rebel one I didn’t look to see what model it was.
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How about if you if use your phone and spend some time in the next few months studying photography, then if you feel it's justified to buy a camera, buy one? Your phone is a great point and shoot, that is sufficient until you know you need to spend money on a more capable camera.
 
Yes I do use the phone a lot. Until it runs out of storage space like my other one did. 🙂. I definitely will do my phone and my little camera till I figure out if it’s really necessary but I am hoping to get a little bit better one. I also found my old Sony point and shoot that my grandma gave me when I was a child except I have no idea where the charger is or if it still works.
 
I would post some pictures of what I mostly photograph but I know that takes up a lot of website space so I won’t do that. I was looking back at some from my current camera and from my old iPhone and they definitely are clear. The only ones that I could of done better on is the night shots but the camera didn’t like night time. This iPhone has a night mode which I did take a picture of my house and a few local stores at night and they look really good all lit up and very clear.
 
AutoMechanic said:
The only ones that I could of done better on is the night shots but the camera didn’t like night time.
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Night photography is tricky at best and you'll have to spend thousands to get a camera that has a 'night' sensor. My point is the Canon Rebel isn't a low light camera, so don't let that criteria be what makes you buy a Rebel.
 
Wayne said:
Night photography is tricky at best and you'll have to spend thousands to get a camera that has a 'night' sensor. My point is the Canon Rebel isn't a low light camera, so don't let that criteria be what makes you buy a Rebel.
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Thanks Wayne. That’s good to know. Yeah I’m definitely not looking to spend thousands on something like a camera. I have been researching some of the more advanced point and shoot cameras that have a little bit bigger zoom and pixel count. But before I buy anything I’m going to total up the cost for everything to go with it to make sure it’s really worth investing in.
 
Photography and cameras can be a black hole and a Pandora's box.
Weight can be a real consideration with the cost the biggest restraint. Not only is there many different sizes of lenses, there is a difference of the f stop of the lens and quality of the lens. A full frame or crop frame again depends on what you want to shoot and how much money you have to spend. Most of the professionals use full frame, yet I have seen beautiful work with a crop frame. Just take your time and try to understand each camera and their abilities before you lay out a large sum of money. So many people lay out a bunch of money for a fancy camera and never take it out of 'Auto' mode, thus only using a tiny portion of capabilities that you paid a lot of money for.
It sounds as if you are on track with looking into the point and shoot, they are making many advancements in that area.
A good place to look is adorama.com you will see the huge variety that is out there as well as prices.
 
Thanks. I will definitely check out that site to see all the different ones. I was unaware of the different frames so I appreciate you mentioning that. 🙂
 
T & R Willson said:
So many people lay out a bunch of money for a fancy camera and never take it out of 'Auto' mode, thus only using a tiny portion of capabilities that you paid a lot of money for.
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That's why I suggested you learn about photography first to determine if you really want to be able to shoot in other than auto mode. If you do, then you consider going to a more expensive and capable camera.
 
I have been taking lots more with my phone. Man am I impressed at the sunset picture I got today. It’s not blurry it’s very clear. They have come a long way with phone cameras that’s for sure. I’m still looking at all the options for the cameras and have been researching and weighing the pros and cons of having it versus not.
 
Here is what I do for my kids,

Canon > refurb > buy the camera with the highest OPTICAL zoom.
I spend $200 at most each time,

My kids have lost one already (another story) but if they do, I am not sobbing for days, only for a few hours :)
 
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I took these pictures on Memorial Day drive and man I tell you I’m very impressed with the way they turned out. I posted them on my Facebook and nobody believed my iPhone had taken them. For now I will probably stick with my phone as a main thing and my small camera. After talking to my sister who is a pretty good resource for photography she said that might be best as well. I might save up for a new laptop instead since mine is getting old and isn’t supported any longer. I will probably consider a camera in the future too unless they keep making phone cameras better. I took more than this I just don’t want to take up too much space with non related pictures. I may consider a nice refurbished camera too at a lower price than new just to experiment with to see if it’s really for me too. Considering my phone has wide, ultra wide and telephoto then that’s pretty much everything I need. And has a few other camera features too.
 
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