Q and A: Full Frame or Crop Frame DSLR?

Question:

Should I get a full frame or crop frame digital SLR camera?

Answer:
The key deciding factor between full frame and crop frame boils down to how often you think you'll shoot in dim available light.

While full frame cameras do offer a wider field of view (which is great for landscapes and interiors) their real advantage is the minimal noise they produce even at high ISO settings.

The larger sensors handle noise much better, so you can shoot at ISO 1600 and be hard-pressed to see deterioration in image quality.

If you don't think that you'll be shooting a lot in dim light without flash, then the reduced size and portability of crop-frame cameras is a big advantage. Plus, you pay a huge premium right now for full frame.

I expect the price of full frame cameras to drop in the coming years, and you can certainly get a crop-frame camera now and upgrade to a full frame later on down the line when the prices are more reasonable.

Canon DSLR Portrait Lens

A lot of people write in to the Digital SLR Guide asking which lens they should get for their camera.

These are folks who started out using the kit lens that came with their camera, but have a sense that there might be something a little bit better out there.

Today, I'll begin a series of posts on the lenses that I find most interesting for all of the different camera manufacturers.

To kick it off, I'd like to talk about my favorite Canon DSLR portrait lens: the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD.

There's a lot that I like about this lens:

• Zoom Range: 28 to 75mm is a great range for portrait photography, allowing for large group shots as well as individual head shots
• Wide Aperture: the f/2.8 maximum aperture lets you take pictures in very dim available light without having to boost your ISO too much
• Constant Aperture: the aperture is constant throughout the zoom range and doesn't change once set
• Superb Image Quality: the sharpness and color capture of this lens rival some that are significantly more expensive
  

Finally, there's the price: you can pick up a new version of this lens for about $430 USD, which is extremely reasonable given the quality and the performance that this lens offers.

Adorama iPhone Contest

If you've got an iPhone and have been snapping images and manipulating them with photo apps, then here's the contest for you.

Dubbed the APPOS™ (Photo App Awards and Photo Contest), the contest seeks reward both interesting photos taken with an iPhone as well as innovative iPhone apps designed for photographers.

This is the first time this event has been run by Adorama (a NY-based camera retailer) and it promises to be an annual event from here on out.

Winning photo apps will be chosen by a panel of judges along with winning photographs captured on iPhones in a variety of different categories.

The contest runs for a month from January 15 to February 15.

So get out there and start snapping some iPhone photos!

Contest Press Release

Contest Web Site

Beware Online DSLR Scams

I've said it on the Digital SLR Guide and I've said it in my newsletter, but this one bears repeating:

If you're thinking about buying your DSLR online, BEWARE of the SCAM companies.

Unfortunately, there are lots of people out there trying to make a buck out of unsuspecting consumers. These scam artists set up web sites that report to be selling name-brand cameras.

Once you make a purchase, the nightmare begins.

They'll call to say they don't have the product you ordered and will try to upsell you to something different. Or they'll say that the product has no accessories - like a lens - and that those things will cost more.

How do you quickly spot an online scam?

The price of the camera will be HALF of what it is on other legitimate online retail web sites.

The scammers use these low prices to lure in buyers, but don't take the bait.

How do you protect yourself?

Once you've found an online company selling the camera that you'd like, look them up on resellerratings.com.

If the company has a bad reputation for misleading customers, you will find out pretty fast.

Another way of protecting yourself is to know the AVERAGE online price for a DSLR camera. I update my page of digital SLR camera prices often, so use that as a reference.

If you see a quoted price that's half of the average online price, DO NOT BUY from that retailer - it's almost certainly a scam, and not worth your time or trouble.

OutdoorPhotographer.com Breaks Down HD Video

If you're feeling baffled by all of the video options springing up on digital SLR cameras these days then you're probably not alone.

After all, it's hard enough to keep track of the features that the cameras offer to enhance STILL images and how you have to figure out how to handle MOVING images.

To compound the problem, the world of video capture has its own jargon that you have to pick up in order to objectively compare different options.

Terms like 1080p, HD, SVGA and MPEG-4 compression are tossed around with nary an explanation.

Well, OutdoorPhotographer.com solves all that, with their HD Video Primer.

It's a great introduction to the terminology that you'll hear with regard to DSLR video, and it includes a breakdown of all the current DSLRs that can capture both motion and stills.

December Newsletter

Happy New Year (and new decade)!

The December issue of the newsletter has been mailed out and is also available on the site.

In this issue: how to get better results from your camera's built-in flash, new intermediate lessons in the works and what to do when you get a shiny new DSLR as a present.

Read the December newsletter

Thanks to all the Facebook fans who suggested ideas for the tips section of the newsletter.