Tag: videography

collage of 4 different types of video cameras

Camera Crash Course: Different Types of Digital Cameras

Posted on August 2, 2019October 20, 2019 by Nicki Chaput

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Hey everyone! It’s Nicki, and today I’m going to go over different types of digital cameras that can be used for photo and video for YouTube or whatever else you’re trying to do. These are not every single type of digital camera out there; these are just what I think are the most relevant in today’s climate. Also, I am not a professional photographer, videographer, or cinematographer; I know very little about the technical aspects of many of these cameras (especially when it comes to video), and the opinions expressed here are simply based on my research and limited experience as a hobbyist. With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Point and Shoots/Compact Cameras

Point and shoots, in the days before cell phones with cameras but after the invention of digital sensors, used to be the most ubiquitous consumer cameras on the market, and as such had a reputation for being low quality. Nowadays, however, many companies have produced high quality point and shoots such as the Sony RX100 or the Canon G7 X. Point and shoots are a great option if you want something lightweight or compact. The only downside, in my opinion, is the lack of interchangeable lenses; my RX100 mkIV, for instance, has a 24-70mm lens, so its telephoto capabilities are pretty limited (though newer point and shoots have been expanding their zoom ranges). Pretty much all point and shoots have cropped sensors, but Sony and Leica offer full frame point and shoots… for over $3000 or $4000. Yikes.

Action Cameras

Action cameras, as their name would suggest, are cameras designed to be worn while performing sports or other activities such as swimming. These cameras are usually pretty durable, waterproof, and compact. They also tend to have very wide lenses or 360 degree lenses. These days, GoPro is essentially synonymous with action cameras, but other brands such as Drift and Rylo also offer action cameras, the latter offering a 360 degree camera. Action cameras can also be used for more mundane things like travel or even vlogging; check out Caleb Wojcik’s GoPro vlogging setup here.

Camcorders

Technically speaking, a camcorder is a video camera that also records what it’s filming; many professional cinematography cameras could be classified as camcorders (and we’ll get to them later). However, most of the time when people use the term camcorder, the image that forms is one of a cylindrical camera with a fixed lens, strap on the side, and a flip out LCD screen. Camcorders are kind of falling out of fashion with the rise of point and shoots, MILCs, and DSLRs with high quality video capabilities, but for hobbyists out there who aren’t that interested in photography and want something a bit more ergonomic for on-the-go filming (and cheaper!), camcorders could still be a good option. (Then again, I love my Sony FDR-AX53, so maybe I’m just biased.)

Bridge Cameras

Speaking of cameras that have fallen out of fashion, bridge cameras, as their name would suggest, are cameras that were developed to bridge the gap between consumer point and shoots and higher end MILCs/DSLRs. Bridge cameras have a body similar to a DSLR, although usually a bit more compact, but do not have an interchangeable lens. Some bridge cameras alleviate the issue of only having one lens by having an absurd zoom range (the Sony RX10 mkIV has a range of 24-600mm, but also costs $1600, so…), but I personally think bridge cameras are kind of the worst of both worlds rather than the best: they only have one lens, which is typically not very fast, and they are larger and heavier than point and shoots. They can be pretty convenient, though, so if that’s what’s important to you, go for it.

MILCs and DSLRs

These are the most commonly used cameras by professional photographers and, increasingly, indie videographers. Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras and digital single lens reflex cameras are technically two different categories, but I’ve grouped them into one category because nowadays the only major difference between the two is how the image is projected into the viewfinder. DSLRs, as their name would suggest, are digital versions of film SLR cameras that utilize a mirror to project an analog image into the viewfinder. DSLRs are able to change lenses, and while they are the beefiest photography cameras on the market, they come in a wide variety of prices, usually depending on whether they have a cropped or full frame sensor. MILCs take out the middleman in DSLRs and instead of projecting an analog image into the viewfinder via a mirror, they simply project a digital image into it. MILCs, like point and shoots and bridge cameras, had a bit of a stigma when they first came out and were considered amateur, especially since none of them had full frame sensors. Now, they compete toe to toe with full fledged DSLRs, though they will probably always be considered inferior by photography snobs. Both MILCs and DSLRs have become increasingly good for video; the only downsides to them are that they often have a maximum recording time before they stop recording video and they’re kind of big to lug around and vlog with, if that’s your thing.

Professional Cameras

And finally, we talked about top of the line photography cameras that happen to be good for video, so now we should talk about top of the line cinematography cameras. (Note the usage of “cinematography” rather than “videography;” the former implies a larger scale production than the latter.) These are your REDs, your ALEXAs (not the Amazon kind), your Genesises. I’ll be straight with you: I know jack shit about these cameras. All I know is that a single part of most of these cameras costs more than all the other types of digital cameras on this list. In her video “DO YOU WANT TO BUY A RED? maybe you should rent instead,” Kitty Peters goes over the cost of her RED Helium 8K setup, which totals $59500. Holy shit! You could buy a nice car or put a 20% down payment on a $300000 house with that money! Unless you’re a millionaire or willing to take out a loan for this kind of camera, you’re better off renting it. But let’s be real; as of me writing this, there is only ONE 8K monitor on the market, and very few 5K ones; unless you are making independent films that will be projected on a large screen or anticipate most of your audience watching your videos on 5K or 8K televisions, there is absolutely no reason for you to need to shoot at such a high resolution. But that’s just my opinion. If you have 60K to burn by all means get a professional camera to vlog with.

Alright, that about does it. For me personally, as I mentioned earlier, I am attached to my little camcorder, although I do wish it had a full manual mode (an oversight on my part as I was researching its features). I do also have a point and shoot and a DSLR, but neither have 4K video (and my T3i doesn’t have autofocus in video, which is an absolute necessity when filming myself), so at this point in time I just use them for photography. I also have a Hero 6 Black, which was a gift that I am trying to figure how to use more often (I may very well employ Caleb’s vlogging setup for it).

Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll see you in the next post.

two photos of the same teddy bear with different camera settings captioned "Auto vs. Manual"

How to Wean Yourself Off Auto Mode

Posted on July 5, 2019October 20, 2019 by Nicki Chaput

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Hey everyone! Today I want to talk about one of the easiest ways to improve your photography: stopping using auto mode!

Now, I know basically everyone and their mom who has a photography blog or whatever has told you to do that, but going straight from auto to full manual is a bit daunting, so here is sort of a chronology for you to follow in order to get used to using certain aspects of manual mode.

Let’s get started!

Get a Camera with Manual Mode

image of a Canon EOS Rebel T3i APS-C DSLR camera

Obviously, in order to use manual mode, you’ve gotta have a camera that has it as an option. Odds are, your camera has a manual mode. These days, DSLRs, MILCs, and even some higher end point-and-shoots like the Sony RX100 or Canon G7 X have a manual mode. If you don’t have a camera with those capabilities, now’s the time to upgrade. For this post, I will be using my Canon T3i and my 18-55mm kit lens to prove that you don’t need a souped up camera and expensive lens to take decent shots. While you may want those things down the line to make your life easier, the camera does not make the photographer.

Turn Off Flash

This is a simple step. If your camera has an auto mode without flash, turn that off. Unless you know what you’re doing with flash, 90% of the time the photo you’re trying to take with the built in flash will look better without it.

Study the Exposure Triangle and White Balance

This is critical to understanding photography. The exposure triangle is comprised of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. ISO is the sensor’s sensitivity to light, aperture is how open the “pupil” of your camera’s lens is, and shutter speed is how fast the camera takes the picture.

Understanding how these three elements interact (and affect stylistic aspects of your photography like depth of field and motion blurs) is crucial to getting properly exposed photos in manual mode.

White balance is another incredibly important aspect of photography: it affects the coloration of the image. If your images look too blue or too orange, it’s likely that you have the wrong white balance set up for your particular shot.

Barry Carroll wrote a what I consider a pretty comprehensive guide to the exposure triangle, which you can read here. For more info on white balance, check out this post by John Bosley.

Use Program Auto

Program auto is the first step in this process where you, the photographer, are actually going to be messing around with some features. Program auto automatically sets the aperture and shutter speed while allowing you to input stuff like ISO, white balance, flash, or exposure compensation.

Exposure compensation makes a photo brighter or darker (usually by changing the shutter speed); on Canon, the further to the right the stop on the light meter is (positive numbers), the brighter the photo is, and vice versa. I know Nikon is the opposite (left is positive, right is negative), but I can’t speak for other brands like Sony or Panasonic. Some cameras, like the RX100, don’t have a graph to illustrate exposure compensation, but just give you a number (positive, zero, or negative).

Program auto is also good if you need to take quick photos without worrying about your camera exposing properly (most of the time, anyway).

Use Aperture or Shutter Priority

This is the step where I was stuck for a long time. Aperture and shutter priority are basically the same as program auto, except you can modify whichever setting you have as a priority (the camera automatically sets the other feature to properly expose the photo). You can also use exposure compensation in these modes; in aperture priority, it changes the shutter speed, and in shutter priority, it changes the aperture.

Using aperture vs. shutter priority is a matter of personal taste and dependant on what kind of photography you do: I typically use aperture priority to get the depth of field I want, since I mostly photograph toys and nature, but if you’re photographing something like sports or animals, you may want to use shutter priority in order to insure that your subjects won’t be blurry.

Use Full Manual

We made it!

In full manual, you adjust all three aspects of the exposure triangle, as well as white balance and other features. But wait! How do I make sure the photo is exposed properly if the camera doesn’t automatically do it for me?

This was the reason I was hesitant to use full manual for so long. Turns out, it’s super easy: you look at the light meter and make sure that number is set to 0 (if you’re looking through the viewfinder rather than at the LCD screen, it appears at the bottom). If it’s not, adjust the ISO, shutter speed, and/or aperture until it is.

If the photo still comes out looking a bit under or overexposed, dial your settings up or down a stop and see if that helps. Just like in program auto and shutter/aperture priority, sometimes the camera will think something is properly exposed, but the image won’t match what you see. If the camera continuously thinks your photos are properly exposed when they clearly aren’t, you may be using the wrong metering mode. Courtney Slazinik wrote a great blog post on this that you can read here.

I typically adjust the ISO first, then the shutter speed, trying to keep my aperture as closed as possible. However, if you’re shooting handheld, make sure you don’t set the shutter speed too low, or you’ll get a shot with a ton of camera shake (and motion blur, which you may or may not want).

Whew! That’s a lot to take in, especially if you’re holding your new camera with all of these capabilities for the first time. Here’s a quick recap:

Get a camera with manual mode if you don’t already have one (duh!)
If your camera has an auto-without-flash mode, turn that on
Understand how the exposure triangle and white balance work
Try your hand at program auto, utilizing ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation
Once you’re comfortable with program auto, try out aperture and shutter priority. Find out what situations benefit from which setting
Take the plunge and try full manual

Unedited photos. Left to right: auto w/ flash, auto w/o flash, program auto, aperture priority, and full manual.

One thing I want to say before I sign off is that there is nothing wrong with using program auto or aperture/shutter priority. A lot of photographers dogmatically endorse using full manual in all situations, and while you definitely have the most control with full manual, in some situations you may prefer to use some of the automatic features of your camera. As technology gets better and better, the camera’s ability to accurately sense its surroundings gets better as well. One feature that my RX100 has that I adore is its auto ISO feature that allows you to set a minimum and maximum ISO value, allowing you futz with the shutter speed and aperture without having to change the ISO and not worry about the picture getting too noisy with a higher ISO than you’d want.

Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll see you in the next post.