What Kind Of Camera Do I Need
Asking "What kind of camera do I need" may seem silly to experienced photographers. But we have taught this material, we know how many perfectly intelligent students ask it, and we have to answer it. There are two good answers, and they contradict each other slightly. The weight we place on each answer matters more than the answers themselves.
Successful photographs depend on the photographer more than the equipment. Inexperienced photographers work best with the camera with which they are familiar. Experienced photographers work best with the camera they like. These human factors sometimes have more to do with the success of a photograph than the purely technical principles.
That said, you will learn faster with either a digital camera or a view camera capable of a large, high-quality Polaroid. Both of these allow you to see the picture within seconds after it is made. A camera that shot 35-mm film, the primary tool of generations of student photographers, was probably the worst way to learn! By the time the students got the film developed and printed, they had forgotten the subtleties of the lighting they had photographed; it was much harder to see what they had done wrong.
When you do consider another camera, remember that the camera also influences other equipment needs. Larger cameras require more light and smaller cameras require more lenses. Larger images have less depth of field, so larger cameras need to be used at smaller apertures. This means using more light if we want to keep comparable exposure times. Forgetting this can lead to inferior results from a superior new camera. The good news for novices, though, is that the tiny image sensors in most of today's digital cameras—the cameras they are most likely to buy—allow so much more depth of field that we need less light and less budget to use them well.
Available lenses determine your camera viewpoint. A good selection of lenses allows the freedom to pick the best viewpoint. If the camera has the best possible viewpoint, view camera-type adjustments may be unnecessary. However, if you have a view camera, the adjustments allow you to find a good viewpoint for almost any subject using only one lens. Well-equipped photographers using view cameras usually have only about half as many lenses as comparably equipped small camera users have.
None of this needs to worry you if someone can loan you equipment for your experiments or if you already have a fully equipped studio. However, if you are one of the majority of photographers, you buy equipment one piece at a time and less often than you would like. Try to adjust your timing and select a price bracket that allows you to back up each new piece of equipment with the accessory equipment to use it effectively.
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