Thinking About Getting a DSLR Camera

For those of you who aren’t regular readers of my blogs, let me start by saying that in one of my earlier career lifetimes I was a sports photographer. My training with photography was with SLRs (I preferred Nikon FE-2’s) and fast lenses—that is, the lenses were able to be used in lower light conditions than the usual consumer versions. I rarely used a flash and honed my skills to be an available-light photographer. My photography career had wound down some years before digital cameras became the norm for professional photography. As a result, I had no career-based need to invest in new equipment.

As you all know, film is dead. It was clearly on its way out more than a decade ago when I got my first digital camera. Because there was not then (or will be) a digital back for my old SLRs, and because the usable DSLRs at the time were freakin’ expensive, I had to decide on a point-and-shoot. I’m now on my third, and it’s definitely showing its limitations.

It also doesn’t help that a couple of years ago a friend (and former boss) of mine asked me to help out part time at her photo studio. While it could be dastardly hard work on some high-traffic days, I did get to be reacquainted with professional-level equipment. The camera of choice was a Nikon D-70s. It felt like an old friend from the minute I held it. A Nikon today still feels a lot like a Nikon of yesterday.

Let’s fast-forward to last November (two months ago). Tess* had asked me to take some headshots of her. My photographic tools were my point-and-shoot, Photoshop, and my experience. Though I never tire of spending time with any of my DLTs, from a task point of view the entire shoot was one of constant frustration. I just didn’t have the right equipment. Never mind the camera (a big never mind, by the way), but I also didn’t have the lighting or the assistants I was used to having on a model shoot. Nope, I was going to have to find a balance for the raw shots and then rely on my years of Photoshop experience to correct my intentional “mistakes”. Here’s an example:

Perhaps my biggest headache was focus. Point and shoots are notorious for not being manual-focus friendly. As a result, I had to rely on the auto-focus. On this day, auto-focus kept wanting to focus on the wrong thing, and wasn’t being very cooperative with holding a locked focus. Because of this, the unplanned Photoshop fix was adjusting the focus of foreground to background.

Surprising to some was the lighting. I didn’t have the equipment to do a proper fill using either lights or flash, and I didn’t have the personnel to hold up several reflectors, so I intentionally exposed for the background while leaving Tess in the shade, underexposed. Had I exposed for Tess, the background would have totally washed out, becoming much too white. The fix in Photoshop, though the masking was a little tedious, wasn’t very difficult as I’d had the foresight to shoot gray cards so that I could color-correct in my digital darkroom.

Most of the “usable” pictures from that day fell into the same category: having to compensate for the equipment I had available. As you can see from the “after” image of Tess (on the left), in the end things turned out OK.

Still, the exercise really brought to a head the fact that not having a DSLR hampers some of what I want to do. For those times when I’m taking snaps, my point-and-shoot is great. In fact, it’s probably more than I need what with the image stabilization and all.  But even though I don’t do it for a living any more, I’m still asked a few times a year to take photographs, not snaps.

Or course we can’t ignore the fact that I have a frequent need for good reference photos for my art works as well as good studio photos of works both finished and in-progress. While the photographs of finished pieces suitable for printing I source out to a really good imaging studio, and will continue to do so, there are all of those interim pics that could benefit from the bump up in equipment.

And lastly… I’d like to start shooting some sports, again. Though my body won’t take the pounding of the beat photographer anymore, that doesn’t mean that I can’t shoot some games here or there. I live by a high school, and I see the young athletes participating in sports all the time from across the way. Whether it’s soccer, tennis, softball…what have you, every time I see them play I want to grab my camera bag, go over to the playing field, and snap a few hundred pictures.

But is all of that enough? DSLRs aren’t exactly something I can buy on a whim (certainly not in the current economic climate). I have to consider not only the wisdom of the act, but also the value. If I do decide on going the DSLR route, then the first decision is: Canon or Nikon?

I have to say, that from the outset I’d lean toward Nikon. As I mentioned, most of my shooting was with Nikons. The trick is that for equivalent functionality, Nikons tend to be a bit more expensive than Canons. On the other hand, those very same Nikons receive a lot of user comments about how they feel more solid and robust than an equivalent Canon.

Then I have to figure that I still have a few lenses and other accessories from the old days. I have an 85mm f/1.4 portrait lens that would be killer on a new Nikon body…provided the camera had a full-frame sensor (i.e. equivalent in size to a frame of film). It’s not likely I’m going that high end for a camera body, so my 85mm would likely become a 128mm equivalent (as a result of the smaller sensors in non-high-end cameras). Still a good length for a portrait lens, but not in the sweet-spot. The down side is that I have to go 100% manual with these old lenses, which means I’d have to get a new exposure meter as well (the batteries for my old one are now very hard to find and have to be special ordered). I was reading that there is an adapter so that the old Nikon AI lenses could be mounted on a Canon DSLR body. Not sure how well that would work. I need to do more research.

At this point, it’s almost a pick’em, although Canon does have more lower-cost options than Nikon does. Canon is also easier to find in stores both on-line and off-line.

My family tossed out a suggestion that I sell my old photo stuff. After all, I’m not using it. That would be a difficult decision. I think, no matter what, I’d still keep my primary Nikon FE-2 body. That one saw me through a lot (it’s also the most banged-up). If I go with a Canon DSLR, I could see maybe selling off some of what remains of my equipment. It’s not really a bad idea.

But, like I said, there are a lot of things to think about—not the least of which is the economy. Is this the time to be making this sort of purchase? I’m not going to make a decision in the very near future. I’m going to want to think more on it. If y’all have any comments or suggestions, I’d be more than happy to field them.