DSLR
The DSLR, a camera for the serious, for the professionals, a DSLR is guaranteed to get you amazing images surely? Well, not really, you see, the best camera in the world is useless without imagination and creativity on the photographers part.
It is true that digital single lens reflex camera's (DSLR's) offer greater potential, as well as better image quality than those compact camera's. But the DSLR is not the be all and end all of modern camera's.
Today I see so many folk falling into the trap into thinking full frame DSLR's is an essential item when photography is your passion. They seem to believe that higher megapixels much more details, and while this may be true, in reality, even in todays "pinch and zoom" age, no one really cares if they can see every pore or every brick.
Talking of bricks, they weigh more than a brick when paired with a really good prime lens, which leads me onto...
Mirrorless Camera's
Today we have a choice of digital camera formats, and one of the most exciting in fairly recent years is the arrival of Mirrorless Camera Systems, or CSC's,
These camera's completely do away with the mirror, which flips up upon exposure, thus taking away the need for a pentaprism therefore reducing the overall size of the camera, allowing for more compact bodies while still retaining a larger sensor than compact camera's in general.
Mirrorless camera's are often much lighter than their DSLR counterparts while still offering the flexibility to change lenses for a wider photographic spectrum.
Like most modern DSLR's, mirrorless camera's may also have flippy tilty screens which point towards the subject, enabling self portraits to be taken much easier and with greater accuracy.
Now I need to address another format while I am talking about mirrorless camera's, and that is Micro 4/3s. I am sure there is a valid reason for this name but honestly, I don't know what it stands for, is it 4/3s smaller than a full frame 35mm? Well I know this much, a 20mm lens on M4/3 equates to 40mm in full frame. The aperture is stopped down too, so an F/2 lens on M4/3 is actually an F/1 on 35mm..
I did warn you I would get a bit nerdy!
Compact Camera's
Compact camera's are ok for everyday use, and general snapshots of family life and travels, but for selfies, most fall short of being easy to use simply because the LCD screen does not rotate, so we cannot see ourselves posing just before that shutter fires.
So compact camera's are not ideal, but just because they have no tilty screen, it does not mean that they are incapable of creating good images, I took self portraits many many years ago on my first digital camera, a Hewlet Packard Photosmart 435 which allowed me to get really creative with my self portraits.
Smartphone
No, this is not for taking pointless selfies in front of a mirror.
As you most probably already know, smartphones are quite smart, the clue is in their name, and they are that smart that almost all modern camera's support remote tethering, which means that you can wirelessly connect your camera to a smartphone, either on Android or IOS,
You will need to download the appropriate app for your camera first, as this will not only allow remote tethering, but you can also see the images you have just taken too.
I consider this method to be the most reliable with regards to composition and accurate focus, and I will cover this subject in more detail later on.
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