Some musings or ramblings on Digital Camera Choice and such

In the Good Old Days of Photography, well when was that?, it was much more easy to choose a camera and lenses than today. Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Minolta, Olympus and a few others. Most lenses were “prime” and propriety with a few “pirate” lens makers such as Sigma, Tamron and Vivitar.

A serious photographer would not be seen dead with anything like a pirate or zoom lens.

All that has changed..........

Though a few camera manufacturers have fallen by the wayside and Sigma and Tamron has graduated beyond producing “pirate” lenses the choice of camera models have increased to such an extent that nobody can claim that there is not a model suitable for them.

Olympus alone currently offer 29 different camera bodies which include no less than 18 “Point-n-Shoot”, 5 Mirroless interchangeable bodies and 6 “current” DSLR bodies.

Bewildering to say the least.

On their website Olympus call their Point-n-Shoot models “Digital Cameras” and have 4 categories covering 18 different models. These sporting 3.6 X to 30 X Zoom, freeze proof, shock proof, crush proof, HD Video, up to 10 frames-per-second shooting, GPS, Dual Image stabilisation and Eye-fi compatible.

Image compiled from various sources.

The PEN bodies offer 5 variants with 7 Micro Four Thirds lenses and adapters for Four thirds lenses from the DSLR range to be used on the mirrorless bodies.

Image compiled from various sources.

Then, just to make matters worse, the DSLR E-Series offer 6 “current” bodies including the newest flagship model, the E-5. To suit about every pocket, added to this are 8 “Standard”, 7 “Pro” and 6 “Top Pro” lenses with increasing prices to match. The flagship E-5 DSLR Body with the flagship ZUIKO Digital ED f 2.8 300mm lens will require an investment of $8699.98

Image compiled from various sources.

As if all this is not bewildering enough, even for the average amateur, the post-processing possibilities that can be done on the pictures just taken, just boggle the mind. It seems as if digital photography has made photography more difficult rather than easier :-/

But...

There is help and support at hand.

The internet not only offer porn but luckily also so many photography tips and forums and user groups that photography becomes a field so vast that the preference and needs of any photographer from absolute novice to pro will find the answer to a “difficult” question without having to even leave their home :-)