New Camera

When photographing past events or even when just photographing on the streets, I've only really ever used a Cannon 1100D SLR. Other than this the only other camera I have used other than my mobile phone is a 35mm camera. I have always found taking images on my 35mm camera much easier as the camera is much smaller and more compact in comparison to my Cannon DSLR. The smaller and more compact the camera, results in less people being aware of the fact I have a camera or are taking photographs go them.

In preparation and in order to help me achieve the best images possible for the documentation of Sedgefield Ball game I have set out to purchase myself a new camera. I want to capture the days events in colour on a digital format, therefore meaning I can not use my small 35mm camera which I often feel more comfortable using when capturing documentary style images such as these. 

Before going to actually purchase a camera I did some online research around what would best be suitable for my own photography needs.

I would need something small and compact, something suitable for capturing street scenes and people, and something which could allow me to shoot in RAW format to ensure Id get the best image quality and something with a decent sensor size, again to ensure the quality of my images were of a high enough standard to enlarge.

Once researching several different cameras, such as SONY, Fuji and Cannon I was able to come to a decision quickly and easily once going into PC world and having a look at the cameras I had in mind. Despite the brilliant qualities Cannon cameras had over many of the other makes, something which also drew me toward choosing a Cannon camera was the fact I am familiar with the layout and how to use cannon cameras as I already own one, as I previously mentioned. 

The decision I came down to when researching online can be seen in the print screens below. My budget was around £300. 

Although sony cameras have all the qualities a photographer could need and at the moment really do seem to be up there with recreating cameras equally as good as trust photography makes, I still felt quite reluctant to trust in the brand and purchase a camera. 

This Nikon was great and would of been quite suitable for the street photography style images I aim to shoot, however I wasn't all too keen on the lens which came with the camera. The brilliant thing about this camera however was that the lens was interchangeable. Because I needed a compact camera as soon as possible, I didn't want to have to spend the £300 on a camera then a further amount of money of buying another lens to go on the camera. As I discovered, there would have been more suitable lenses with a wider focal length for example which would have benefited myself and my photography more. One other factor that made me sway away from this camera and choose the camera I did, was the fact the cannon camera had a larger sensor size meaning the quality of the images would be better. 

This was the camera I chose to settle with. The most appealing factors to me were that the quality of the images is brilliant, its got a good sensor size. Its a Canon camera so it is a make I am familiar with, which was incredibly important as buying a camera so close to photographing a particular event could have been made quite difficult if I had all knew settings or layouts to try and familiarise myself with in time. The camera is small, and very compact, which again is important as I wanted something I could hold in my hand comfortably in order to snap images of people without them being aware.