Follow along here in the thought process of an obsessive-compulsive geek: For several years now, I’ve had the urge to get back into photography. This meant getting a better camera that the little Canon “point and shoot” that has served me quite well for more than fourteen years. This time I wanted to get the “good camera” that I’ve always wanted, but these are a significant investment and thus not a snap decision. So what is a “good camera” anyway? I started to read reviews. David Pogue’s column in the New York Times was both convenient (delivered daily to the end of my driveway) and informative. Plus he seemed to have a fixation on techy cameras. Three years ago he wrote a column about a camera that captured my imagination, the Fujifilm X100. This camera became the first in a series from Fujifilm that use a large CMOS sensor, the size of a postage stamp – maybe ten times the physical size (not megapixels) of the sensor in a typical camera but not the “full frame” sensor size used in the really big professional-grade cameras. The fact that it looked exactly like a slightly shrunken Leica M3 made me salivate even more.
Three years ago I wasn’t quite ready to spend the one or two grand that a “decent quality” camera seemed to demand. So I read more reviews and finally took a trip to the camera show at the Javits Center to see and fondle all the current offerings.
By now, I’ll bet you’re hoping there’s an easier way thru this maze and I think there is. The featured speaker at our July General Meeting will be Kevin Rabito. Mr. Rabito is a professional photographer and is president of the Candlewood Camera Club here in Danbury. His presentation will explain all the “jargon” I used above and in the process we’ll learn what makes a really good camera “really good”. Which features are important to picture quality in low-light situations or action scenes when phones and cheaper cameras fail to give good results? Why is sensor size more important than megapixels? What should we look for in the camera lens? Is a camera with interchangeable lens worth the extra money? In the final analysis, is the brand name really important? Kevin will cover it all just in time for summer picture taking.
Free and open to the public, DACS general meetings are held the first Tuesday of the month. For directions and parking information, click here. Our meetings have two parts: Ask DACS – a moderated question and answer session taking questions, and a featured presentation from industry professionals, DACS members and/or software vendors, Topics cover the broad spectrum of technology in homes, industry and even city government.