Cameras, cameras, cameras
Lately I’ve been pretty enamored with the idea of getting a new camera. What am I saying, “lately”? I’ve wanted a Digital SLR about as long as I can remember.
As I was telling Stephanie over IM and Mark last night, camera shopping is less about which camera to buy, and more about who I am and who I want to be. Hence my last post.
I really value portability and unobtrusiveness. And convenience. Though the more I get into photo taking, the more I value greater configurability. When I think about the person I want to be, I want to play with settings like aperture and shutter speed. I want to (re)learn more about the technical art of photography. I’m open to change. I’d like a better lens. I like the road less traveled.
So it’s not the eternal question of whether I should get a Canon or a Nikon, but what type of camera matches who I want to be next. How do I want to change? What camera out there is the least like the rest of the pack?
It turns out there’s one really unusual camera that comes pretty close to fitting the bill. It’s not an SLR, it’s just another “crappy” point and shoot. It has a fixed focal-length, wide-angle lens (that means it doesn’t zoom) which is completely unheard of outside the SLR lens market. It has manual controls like those found on an SLR. And it’s only about 25g heavier than my Canon SD400. You’ve probably never heard of it, at least I never had, until I went searching to see if a fixed-focal length P&S even existed. It turns out yes, only one does, the Ricoh GR-Digital—and then I remembered reading about it recently on Tim Bray’s blog of all places. Actually he was more interested in the GX100, a recent upgrade of the GR-Digital with a zoom lens.
Here’s the rub. The GR-Digital was announced in 2005 and has been on sale since 2006. It’s over 2 years old. It doesn’t have image stabilization. And most reviewers have poo-pooed the level of noise and lack of sharpness in the photos it takes. I have to agree. If it was cheaper, I could call it an experiment, but at $650, it costs about as much as an entry-level DSLR body. And given its age, I have to believe Ricoh would be priming for a GR-D2 sometime soon. Right?
The other camera I’ve been thinking seriously about is the Pentax K10D. Pentax has some nice prime lenses for their DSLRs (unlike Canon, Nikon, or Olympus) which are even more irresistible due to their “pancake” profiles. I could very easily pick up the DA 21mm (though I wish it had an maximum aperture in the 2-range) and be happy as a clam. Outside of the expense (which is actually very reasonable given that Pentax’s competition charges twice as much), I just can’t get over the fact that the combined weight of this kit would be two pounds! Five times my current fits-in-the-palm-of-my-hand bundle of joy. This is where I bump up against the vision of myself as I want to become. I have a hard time knowing whether it would get the same kind of rambunctious use as my pocket cam. Or whether it would be a $1100 boondoggle.
Well anyways, here’s a chart:
| Camera | MP | Weight | Cost | Pros and Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon SD450 | 5 | 175g | $0 | This is my current camera, for reference |
Canon SD870 IS |
8 | 185g | $332 | Pros: Image stabilization, wider angle lens, 3″ LCD, no viewfinder, very small/light
Cons: Wide angle blurry at corners (judging by SD800 IS), functionality similar to SD400, limited manual controls |
Ricoh GR-Digital |
8 | 200g | $650 | Pros: Non-zoom!, wide angle lens, manual controls, light
Cons: Noisy image quality, 2 years old, pricey for point and shoot |
| Pentax K100D + DA 21mm  |
6 | 822g | $815 | Pros: Inexpensive for an SLR, image stabilization, lighter than K10D, Pentax prime DA lens
Cons: No LCD live-preview, noisy shutter and zoom, only 6MP (maybe a pro), requires 4 AA batteries |
| Pentax K10D + DA 21mm  |
10 | 945g | $1104 | Pros: Inexpensive for feature class (compared to Canon 30/40D), Pentax prime DA lens
Cons: Very heavy compared to point and shoots, still significantly expensive |
If you were interested in remaining with film, I’d suggest looking at a rangefinder. They’re lighter and easier to carry than SLR’s, and typically much less kitted out with configuration options. Lenses are smaller, too, so you don’t look like you’re pointing a weapon at people.
The Ricoh isn’t a rangefinder, but it shares some of the characterstics.
One of the hassles with using a DSLR to learn fundamentals like “aperture and shutter speed” is that the zillion things you can play with get in the way of learning. The best way to learn, then, is to turn most of them off, or set them benignly and leave them alone for some time.
Of course, the big advantage of a DSLR is the ability to swap out lenses.
But, the flip side of that is this: Any DSLR and its lenses can be a pain to lug around.
So, think about what kind of photography you think you will be doing, if you will need those extra lenses (a DSLR with one lens is the equivalent of a fixed lens camera), and if you really want to walk around with all that stuff hanging on your shoulder.
Odds are you know someone with a DSLR and a bunch of lenses. Ask to testdrive their camera bag. Walk around wearing it for a few hours.
billg, yeah, given that nearly all of my photos are exhibited online, I’m pretty well-entrenched in digital. You heard about this digital rangefinder, the Epson R-D1? Sounds like it’s a little pricey and hard to come by tho.
As far as learning, I feel like my Canon SD400 (and a Kodak DC3400 before that) was the equivalent of “turning off the bells and whistles” and just getting down to the business of photo taking.
You’re right, my biggest hangup with the DSLRs is the weight, and the probability that I’d only use it with one slightly wide prime lens (e.g. the DA 21mm Limited). I’m ok with that.
One other option I haven’t really been seriously considering is Canon’s new flagship point and shoot, the PowerShot G9. Weighing in at only 388g with the battery, that’s only about twice the weight of the SD400, with pretty much all the manual controls you can shake a stick at.
I have the original Pentax *ist-D, which is pretty well the K100D minus a couple years’ worth of tech add-ons. It’s very light. I have the 21mm but also the 40mm pancake. The small DSLR with the pancake on is easily held in one hand, I can walk around and shoot like one of those cool Leicaholics. I could use a few more pixels because I crop a lot. I could really use more sensitivity, like those magic new Nikons that shoot at 6400 with almost new grain. See my lens write-up.
The great thing about this combo (light weight, prime lens) is that you can shoot fast, composing with your body and hardly fiddling at all. The Pentax user interface is not equaled by the big names I think.
Tim, the K100D definitely sounds like it could occupy that sweet spot between weight, cost, and lens flexibility. That’s part of the reason I included it in my chart, though didn’t get around to mentioning it outright. I have to admit that there really isn’t anything the K10D offers that I’d miss on the K100D. (I have heard that the K100D is pretty loud…)
At this point I think it’s time I schedule a date with a local camera store.
Thanks for the link to your DA 21mm post, I remember reading it previously, but that was before I started thinking serious about upgrading (let alone considering anything other than a Digital Rebel).
Updated some of the pros and cons.
Pentax just announced their holiday rebates, which include $100 off the K100D Super, and $50 off a number of lenses including the DA 21mm. That brings the price down to $761 (without batteries or memory card, which would only add another $40-60). Doesn’t change the weight or the lack of a live LCD preview.
I don’t know, I’m torn. My original 2MP digital camera weighed about 475g with batteries (4 AAs) and I always remember it being just a little too heavy to carry everywhere. Hence the SD400. Jumping up to 822g is a whole new world.
When I think about how I/we already use the SD400, I’m having a hard time mentally inserting a camera that’s more than 4 times as heavy into that picture.
On the other hand, I kind of think, life’s too short for this much hemming and hawing. In the end, the only way I’ll know whether this camera fits into my life is by buying it and trying it. If it’s such a miserable failure, well, there’s always eBay/Craigslist.
I’ve not looked back since getting my 40D