How do I choose my first DSLR?

In this article I will try and help first time buyers choose a DSLR. I will also articulate what I think are some pre-requsistes for good photographs as many believe that buying the latest camera will bring them instant nirvana. However, I would like to mention that I have no idea about Olympus and my knowledge of Nikon lenses is very limited so I might not be able to give you a balanced opinion on certain points. I can however extensively speak of the pros and cons of investing in Canon gear. I will try and not do that here

Firstly, you might have heard that if you are entering DSLR land, you must choose your first camera wisely because you are not just investing in a DSLR, but in a system of lenses and accessories. This means once you purchase a Nikon camera you are tied to Nikon lenses and accessories and switching to Canon later would prove expensive. Canon lenses do not work with Nikon cameras and this is true of any brand. So you are not just buying a DSLR, you are tying up with a brand.

Here in India our choices are limited. The first question anyone should answer is – do I want to buy in grey or should I buy with bill? Generally the difference between a camera with and without bill is quite large and hence many new comers are prompted to buy without bill. However, these days camera prices have come down so people don’t mind buying with bill, at least for entry level cameras like the Nikon D60 or Canon 400D. Once you decide on whether to buy legally or grey, you can narrow down the models based on your budget.

The next decision point is regarding your areas of interest. What do you want to shoot? Birds, nature, wildlife? Then you need at least 300mm at the tele-end. You want to shoot landscapes and people? Then you need a good wide angle and mid range lens. This is where the real advantage of a DSLR comes in  – the ability to change lenses suited to the subject you are shooting. If your idea of investing in a DSLR is to fit in a 18-200mm lens and never change lenses then I don’t have much advise to give you because deciding on such a camera system is creatively limiting and not very different from investing in a P&S with 12x zoom. Some members of forums do recommend newbies to invest in a lens like a 18-200mm and although I have nothing against that, I’d like to emphasis that if you want to use the camera as a creative tool, then you must be ready to invest in time and lenses. Here is a good example of photographs taken with a P&S but done very tastefully. It conveys the point that the camera is just a tool: http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_payne/

Something which many new DSLRs buyers forget is that camera bodies come and go and it is the lenses that are a photographer’s priced investment. So in my opinion (and may not vibe with what others think) there is no need to invest in the latest camera. If you ask me, anyone getting serious about photography should think about spending 40% on the camera and 60% on lenses. So what if the older cameras don’t have a 3″ LCD screen? That is not what makes a good photographer. So what if the older cameras don’t have live-view? Live-view technology on new DSLRs is so nascent that they serve no practical purpose apart from manual focusing when the camera is fixed on a tripod. You will not find this kind of info in the camera’s marketing material so many think that buying the latest camera with the biggest LCD screen, fasted fps, most number of metering types and live-view will get them award winning photographers. Wrong.

Another area of photography which first time DSLR purchasers don’t consider is post-processing. Before I bought a DSLR I had never seen a RAW file but when I did for the first time I was in for a surprise. A RAW file, in short, looks boring. Saturation, sharpness, contrast-wise it is nothing close to what you see as the end result. So to take a RAW file from camera to print you need to have strong post-processing skills. Again, the learning curve is pretty steep here.

In short, you must make time to study your camera and the various elements of photography without which DSLR buying will be no different from buying the newest mobile phone in the market or buying the best car. So if you think that you have that kind of commitment, and you have an idea of what kind of photography you want to get into, you can narrow down your choices.