Questions about taking the course? Call 07941 040143 in the UK or go to the Contact Page and ask a question.
Suitable Cameras
My workshops and the online course are designed for Digital SLR camera users, but if you have a Bridge camera, advanced compact or mirrorless camera, which allows you to change shutter speed, aperture or ISO settings, and has modes like 'Aperture Priority', you will be able to follow the lessons and complete the course too.
If you're thinking about buying a camera, here's a brief introduction to the main types available. Check out the Camera Buying Advice page, too.
Subscribe to the PhotoSchool Newsletter for Special Offers and Regular, free photo tips!
Enter your details in the form below and you'll receive free photo tips from us from time to time, and also specially reduced workshop and course rates.
Digital SLRs
DSLRs are normally the larger size of camera body available, and they have interchangeable lenses. Their digital sensors are LARGER than smaller cameras, resulting in sharper images.
DSLRs are divided into 'full frame' DSLRs which have the largest sensors and biggest camera bodies, and 'cropped' sensor (APS-C etc) cameras.
DSLRs offer the pinnacle of quality and flexibility in ergonomics, usability and digital photography in general, but are normally larger, heavier and more expensive than other types of digital camera.
Remember you can't simply compare the number of megapixels - for example, a Canon 5D Mk I, whose sensor has 12.3 MP and is a larger, 'full frame' sensor, produces sharper images than a Canon 700D, whose smaller, 'cropped' sensor has 18 MP. In other words, knowing how the physical size of the sensors in cameras compare is just as, if not more important than knowing the resolution of the sensor... Your phone's manufacturer shouting about 40+ megapixels in their advertising may sound pretty impressive, but the images are almost certainly going to look pretty rubbish compared with an image from a lower resolution, larger sized DSLR camera sensor.
Hint: Use your phone for making phone calls and communicating, and your camera for taking pictures.
'Bridge' Cameras
So-called because when they were introduced they 'bridged' the then gap between compact cameras and DSLR cameras. Most bridge cameras have a non-interchangeable, large range zoom lens, and most have a single lens reflex (SLR) system which enables the photographer to see the image in the viewfinder through the lens which takes the final photograph (there's no separate viewfinder, such as those found in older design compact cameras).
On the plus side, they're normally smaller, lighter and less expensive than DSLRs with similar quality as some cropped DSLRs, and as long as yours has Aperture Priority (A or Av) or Manual (M) exposure mode, you'll be able to follow my courses and workshops.
Be aware though that the cheaper bridge models often limit the functionality of key features (for example, some limit the choice of f. stops that the photographer can set to a choice of just two!!) and that as with mirrorless or advanced compact cameras, because space on the camera body is limited it's often fiddly to get to functions that are used often. Larger DSLRs with more traditional control layout don't suffer from these problems quite so much.
Most bridge cameras also do not have an optical viewfinder like the majority of DSLRs. What's an optical viewfinder? One that doesn't have a small LCD screen that you use to frame / focus your image with. What's the problem with this? Ideally you want to train yourself to respond and react to REAL COLOURS in front of you, not have to live with the 'altered reality' of the colours in an electronic display, which are different again from the colours and clarity you'll see in your final picture!
'Mirrorless' Cameras
Recent years have seen a rise in popularity of mirrorless camera designs. 'Mirrorless' because there is no need in the design of these cameras for a mirror to be mounted inside the body to allow the photographer to see the image through the lens that takes the picture. In fact, most mirrorless cameras have no viewfinder at all, replacing it instead with the rear LCD display on the back of the camera, which is used to frame a 'live' electronic view of the subject.
However, the good news is that if you have a mirrorless camera as your main digital camera and your camera allows you to adjust aperture, shutter speed and ISO, and select modes like Aperture Priority (AV or A) or Manual (M), you'll at least be able to complete the lesson tasks in this course.
Now, it's worth saying at this point that I really don't agree with a great deal of the design logic behind these cameras, and I won't be buying a mirrorless camera myself any time soon.
As far as I can see, small size and relatively high resolution pixels are a good thing, but prices can be very high in comparison with some lower end DSLR models.
Above all, the monumental design flaw with mirrorless cameras is the fact that with the majority of mirrorless designs, THERE'S NO WIEWFINDER and the photographer is obliged to use the cameras at arm's length, or at least at quite some distance from the face.
Why is this such a stupendously thick idea? Because a camera held at arm's length is a less stable camera than one held close to your body, or up to your eye. A camera held at arm's length is a camera that gets jolted and sometimes snatched by grateful pickpockets in a crowd. And a camera held at arm's length when you're taking candid pictures in low light is the camera that lights up its rear LCD screen, and you, like the Blackpool illuminations, and draws attention to you. Not a subtle approach.
Mirrorless cameras, too, by having to rely on the rear LCD display to act as a viewfinder, also suffer from the faults of having to use electronic viewfinders, which I covered under 'Bridge' cameras.
Compact Cameras
Sometime around the late 70s / early 1980s, camera manufacturers settled on a new label for smaller-than-SLR size 35mm cameras... the COMPACT camera. They were small, normally had a fixed, non interchangeable lens, and a separate viewfinder which displayed ever so slightly a different view from the view of the lens which would take the final picture. Compact Cameras were another step up in the camera evolutionary scale from the 'instamatic' cameras of the 1960s and 70s, themselves a development of the first mass produced 'point and shoot' cameras of the 1920s and 30s.
Today's compact cameras, of course, are a lot more clever, and a lot more digital than the cameras of 90 years ago. The most advanced compact cameras today offer a similar degree of control as the features on DSLR cameras, but they suffer from non-interchangeable lenses, and, like mirrorless cameras, from having to use their rear LCD screens as viewfinders. Like mirrorless cameras, their design is fundamentally flawed and their operation clumsy.
However, if you have a compact camera as your main digital camera and your camera allows you to adjust aperture, shutter speed and ISO, and select modes like Aperture Priority, you will at least be able to complete the lesson tasks in this course.
Is your camera suitable for use on this course?
The following cameras are suitable for use on this course:
-
Digital SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses
-
Advanced compacts or mirrorless cameras with either Manual or Aperture Priority ('M', 'A' or 'AV') exposure modes offering a high degree of user control
Please note that the lesson of focussing and reference to interchangeable lenses may not be applicable to your camera if it doesn't have the ability to change lenses. Otherwise, most cameras which have the above controls or allow the user to change shutter speed or aperture or ISO settings are suitable for use on this course..
Suitable DSLRs include:
Canon
D30, EOS 1D, EOS D60, EOS 1Ds, EOS 10D, EOS Digital Rebel (300D), 350D, 10D, 20D, Digital Rebel XT (350D), 5D, 30D, 400D (Digital Rebel Xti), 40D, 450D (Rebel XSi) Rebel XS (1000D), 50D, 5D MarkII, 5D MarkIII, 5D MkIII, 6D, 500D (Rebel T1i), 7D, 550D, 600D. 650D, 700D, 750D, 760D
Nikon
D100, D200, D300, D700, D40, D50, D70, D80, D90, D5000, D5100, D7000, D3000, D3100
Olympus
E-5, E-3, E-30, E-410, E 420, E-510, E-520, E-620,
Pentax
Pentax K-r, K-x, K-7, K-5, K20D,
Sony
A900, A850, A700, A580, A550, A390, A380, A350, A200, A100
Sigma
SD1, SD10
Fuji
FinePix S5
Other cameras that you can use on this course include:
Some advanced Compact Cameras (Canon G10 and similar), Some Mirrorless Micro Cameras (Olympus PEN, Sony NEX series and similar).
If you're uncertain about whether your camera is suitable for use on the course, email me c/o the CONTACT page or call 07941 040143 (UK business hours).
