Started a photography course this morning. I’ve always relied on auto settings so now I’m actually trying to work out the true camera capabilities. Not sure if my point and shoot camera is going to cut it with everyone else’s dslr’s but their size makes me want to keep mine simple. Now I’m heavily into Aperture and shutter priority, ISO and raw images. Seems the only thing my camera lacks is a long focal range (only up to 18 from memory, maybe 8) but my shutter speed is extreme. So I can take photos of very fast things but will lack clarity in focus of long range items. My jury is still undecided on the latter though.
The course will lead to a certificate or diploma but I’ll need to use film for that as it involves use of the dark room.
Anyone tried out CameraSim? It’s a great way to see the effect of all the settings.
And I have started a journal for my homework.
Well, I know you'll have fun experimenting with all the settings.
If you are into arty effects, or shooting sports activities, or performances, or birds etc, the different settings will definitely come in handy.
And if shooting something important for which you are being paid, or someone is relying on you to deliver something good, you will want to shoot Jpeg plus RAW, in case the Jpeg image stuffs up, you will then be able to recover something decent from RAW. Though generally speaking, I find shooting RAW painful afterwards.
But for mundane shooting - friends, sites while overseas - I find that Program Mode, where I limit the ISO range on the AUTO setting, is pretty much good enough for 95% of shooting situations.
To me, the most important thing in a camera is the fill flash during daylight shooting, for when pictures of subject people would otherwise come out too dark against the background. This is never a probem for a DSLR or a bigger bridge camera. But most point-and-shoots are pretty hopeless. I wound up buying the then top of the range Nikon P7000 and later the Nikon P7700, which were hefty point-and-shoots with small sensors, but which had decent flash for effective daylight use. I've no idea what current high-end point-and-shoots have decent fill flash. Despite having eight or nine DSLRs, nowadays I more often than not use those more convenient Nikons, especially when travelling.
Regards,
Renato