Helping to choose the best camera

Helping to choose the best camera

   As I said before, there is no "best camera" but the one that best suits your needs, some brands prioritize some items that are not so good at other brands and because of this, if you think photography is an art , choose your camera is also an art. Eta difficult thing ...

   This issue has been discussed before but I'll try to go deeper and give a brief summary of what has been said here:

   Look for brands, the ones who always had their names associated photography, are manufacturers of lenses and so their quality is more than guaranteed, such as Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Leica. Because Brazil does not see Leica cameras being sold, it goes by the name Panasonic on here but watch out the fact that not all Panasonic use Leica lenses.

That done, we need to know if you are looking for automatic cameras in which you point and shoot without further adjustments, or by more advanced cameras with manual controls when you decide to open, exposure time and other things before giving your click. There are a myriad of good automatic cameras out there and unfortunately it's shrinking the number of good models with manual controls between the compact.
   Sensor Size

   Along the lens, the sensor is what is most important when choosing a camera especially if it is one with manual controls. In the compact do not compare to that DSLR sensors are much larger, hence the best quality. The larger the sensor, your camera will be better and I'll show you the size of the sensors of some cameras here:

Canon
G10, G11, SD990 and S90: 1/1.7 "(7.60 x 5.70 mm, 0.43 cm ²)
SX1, SX10, SX20, SX110, SX200, A480, A1100, A2100, SD880, SD780, SD1200, SD940 and SD980: 1/2.3 " (6.16 x 4.62 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
SX120 and SD1100: 1/2.5 " (5.75 x 4.31 mm, 0.24 cm ²)

Casio 
FH20, FH100, FS10, H10, G1, Z90 and Z33: 1/2.3 " (6.16 x 4.62 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
Z29: 1/2.5 " (5.75 x 4.31 mm, 0.24 cm ²) 

Fuji
F200EXR and S200EXR: 1/1.6 " (7.78 x 5.83 mm, 0.45 cm ²)
F70EXR: 1 / 2 " (6.40 x 4.80 mm, 0.3 cm ²)
A150, S1500, S2000HD, Z30, Z33, Z300 and J30: 1/2.3 " (6.16 x 4.62 mm, 0.28 cm ²) 

Kodak 
Z1485: 1/1.72 " (7.40 mm x 5:55, 0.41 cm ²)
Z980, M341, M381 and Z950: 1/2.33 " (6.13 x 4.60 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
M340, M380 and Z915: 1/2.3 " (6.16 x 4.62 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
C140 and M320: 1/2.5 " (5.75 x 4.31 mm, 0.24 cm ²)

Nikon 
S230, S570 and S70: 1/2.3 " (6.16 x 4.62 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
L100, L20 , P90, S620, S220, S630 and S640: 1/2.33 " (6.13 x 4.60 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
L19:  1/2.5 " (5.75 x 4.31 mm, 0.24 cm ²)

Olympus 
Tough Stylus 6000, FE5020, FE5030 FE4000 and: 1/2.3 " (6.16 x 4.62 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
SP560, 550WP, FE5000, FE5100, Stylus 7000 and Stylus 8000 Tough: 1/2.33 " (6.13 x 4.60 mm, 0.28 cm ²)

Panasonic 
LX3: 1/1.6 " (7.78 x 5.83 mm, 0.45 cm ²)
FX150: 1/1.72 " (7.40 mm x 5:55, 0.41 cm ²)
FZ28, FZ35, ZS3, ZR1, TS1 and FS12: 1/2.33 " (6.13 x 4.60 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
FS6, FS7, FS62, FS42 and ZS1: 1/2.5 " (5.75 x 4.31 mm, 0.24 cm ²)

Samsung
WB500, WB550, WB1000, WB5000, ES55, ES15, SL202, ST500 and ST550:  1/2.33 " (6.13 x 4.60 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
PL10 and ST10:  1/2.5 " (5.75 x 4.31 mm, 0.24 cm ²)

Sony 
S930, W220, W230, W290, T90, T900 and H20: 1/2.3 " (6.16 x 4.62 mm, 0.28 cm ²)
HX1, TX1 and WX1: 1/2.4 "(Sony's site does not report the measures)

Focal length

      Understanding the numbers that are on your camera lens, I'll give an example from my Canon A700:

5.8-34.8mm focal length is what is the distance between the center and its optical sensor in millimeters but the manufacturer advises that the focal length of 35-210mm, let's understand why.

   If we divide 34.8 by 5.8 by 35 or 210, the total will give 6 which is the optical zoom that my camera has, ie 35 is the minimum distance between the sensor and the optical center and 210 is the minimum distance. This conversion of 5.8-34.8 35-210 for equivalence is achieved by the 35mm since that is the focal length of the old film cameras. Just out of curiosity, it is not necessary to make these calculations because the photo review sites already have everything ready for us, we must divide the width of the film (35) by the width of the camera sensor (5.75) and then multiply by focal length (5.8).

35/5.75 = about 6.8 x 5.8 = 35.264, about 35 of the focal informed by the manufacturer.

   Another camera I have, the SX1 has a focal length of 5.0-100.0, making the calculation of equivalence to 35mm we have: 35/6.16 = about 5.68 x 5 = 28.4, about the 28 states and the manufacturer as the it is 20x zoom, the focal length is at 28-560.

   Unnecessary and complicated calculations, just to satisfy my curiosity and colleagues who access the blog. Do not do it at home lol ...

   In the next post I talk a bit about the other numbers coming into the lens, aperture and more tips for choosing your camera.