Planning to buy a camera

" Look, I am not an intellectual - I just take pictures"

-Helmut Newton

(German Photographer, 1920-2004)

I am very fond of photography. The hobby was always there...even when my parents had the basic "Hotshot" analog camera!!! Camera rolls used to be costly so taking the camera everywhere and taking as many pictures as I wanted was a problem. But whenever my parents used to get film rolls, I used to be in charge of the camera.

I did not have a good camera till I became 25. At that time, my sister bought a digital camera, Canon A70. That was the first time that I used a digicam and was exposed to its great functionalities. The biggest benefit is that you can take as many pictures you want not worrying about exhausting camera rolls. I borrowed my sister's camera for a trip and used that extensively to understand its functionalities. That helped me make my mind and I bought a canon A75. That was a major investment (I don't think I got a good deal on the camera) but it was worth it. The camera remained with me, everyday for almost two and half years. I used to take that camera everywhere. Couple of months back, the camera developed some problem and now I have sent it for servicing. It is really funny that when I was leaving my camera behind at the service center, I was feeling really bad. I had kept that camera like a baby and now I was leaving it behind, in the hands of the technicians. :(

I have used several cameras..Canon A70, Canon A75, Sony DSC-L1, Canon IXUS 65...but I found the a75 most user friendly. It is a little heavy but I have this opinion that cameras should be a little heavy, otherwise your hand will shake while taking a picture. Though I still love my camera and I will always keep it with me, I have decided to graduate to a more advanced camera.

My colleague Balaji Bondili*, who like me loves photography, recently had bought a Canon EOS 350D. I got the opportunity to use it once and I was amazed by the power of the camera. It is a Digi SLR camera and it helps solve the problem which I find most irritating in normal digicams or compact cameras.....and that is the lag time. A normal digicam has a lag time and you can not take a picture exactly when you want it. Unless you have a great timing and you are extremely lucky, you wont be able to take a picture of a bird as it is preparing to take off. But a Digi SLR has no such problems. I really really want to buy that camera but I still decided that I wont!!!! At least, not now.

Canon 350D is an expensive camera. The usual price in the Indian market is around 45k (You can get it much cheaper if you buy online or get it from US) but it would require a lot more investment. If you are really keen about photography, you will have to buy additional lenses which will cost another 25K for the basic one!!!! Now that's too much an investment for me. I will have to risk my marriage if I plan to buy that camera as my wife is against such an investment. On a serious note, I don't think I have enough knowledge of photography and lenses to best use a DSLR. So what should I do now? I have to buy a camera!!!

So I decided to consult a few professional photographers and some experts. I even consulted the Editor of the "Better Photography" magazine. What I am looking for in a camera is option to attach external flash/lenses, zero lag time, decent mega pixels and kick-ass zoom. Most of the experts were of the opinion that I should go for "Canon S3IS". That's a camera which is available for around 25K in the Indian market but will cost half that price if you are getting it from US. It has 6 mega pixels and a killer...12X optical zoom and 48x digital zoom!!!! Though it does not solve the lag time problem but its still good enough for me!!!! Now a word of caution for anyone planning to buy this camera.......buy it only if you are really serious about photography. It is a bulky equipment and you wont be able to lug it everywhere. Consider buying it only if you have another camera for the day-to-day use. If you want a camera with more mega pixels then you can buy the Canon S5IS. It has 8 mega pixels but it is not yet available in the Indian market. So you will have to wait for a while.

In my case, I dont think mega pixels matter much. Since other functionalities in S5IS are same as the S3IS, I have decided to buy the Canon S3IS. Say Cheese!!!!

* (http://www.flickr.com/photos/atheistbishop)

You can judge the output of the S3IS camera by looking at some of the pictures in www.flickr.com/photos/nehavish. The pictures were taken by Neha Vishwanathan, a friend of my colleague and she uses the Canon S2IS. So S3IS will only be better. But ya, do not start thinking that you will be able to take pictures as good as the ones in the link. Neha is a damn cool photographer and those pictures say a lot about her skills than just the camera she uses.