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The Interest is Sparked

I wanted to take the time opportunity that my current situation provides me with to take some good quality shots of Hong Kong. This is mainly because the folks back home would love to see what I see every day and am starting to take for granted. I’ve also had a secret nagging feeling that I can have more control over my photos other than asking people to smile for the camera and changing the zoom. The creative control and the potentially superior output of an SLR was getting too tempting to resist.

While a photographer that I spoke to last year did say to me that he was a believer in the old maxim that “anyone can take a good photograph”, meaning that joe somebody could take a picture without a fancy $10,000 (US!) system in place, I think he’ll concede that an SLR will allow you to get a better insight into the principles of photography and increase the chance of capturing a better shot than say a point-and-shoot (POS) camera. So, ending my long history with POS, I decided to take the plunge into the realm of amateur photography.

Actually, I’m not completely dry from experiences with an SLR. My father used to have an old Pentax SLR which he had from he was a keen photographer in his youth. I had borrowed that on our trip to South Africa about ten years ago. Unfortunately, I had no real idea bout basic photographic principles like aperture, shutter speeds, and focal points. I still don’t but back then I took a whole bunch of photos hoping that a small Pentax manual just slightly larger than a matchbox would turn me into Ansel Adams.

I never did get that roll of film developed for a reason I can’t quite remember. I think I got a new camera and the subsequent introduction of APS film, Ixus cameras, and the fact that at the time it was far more interesting for me to take pictures of people at parties, distracted me from the whole SLR thing. It was also a hobby that was relatively expensive for a student, as I was at the time.

Surprisingly enough, learning about photography isn’t a distraction from the other stuff I’m learning about drawing, graphics and design. The principles that same to apply to the use of the two eyes that we are given, I have a feeling that it will complement these other disciplines too. I have a feeling that it will also help me to further develop the creative side of my life, both important for me personally and professionally.

Research

So I set out to buy a film SLR camera. I did some research into choosing a camera by both researching online and asking for advice from friends. The first thing learned was that I had no clue about much about the technical aspects of photography. I had opinions from four different sources running through my mind when I eventually went to buy the camera. A useful site for the information on photography is Photo.net, which I found quite useful as a novice.

Digital or Film?

The debate on which camera began at the choice between digital or film. My friend Eyal spent a lot of time trying to sell me on the virtues of digital, a lot of arguments making perfectly good sense. Digital is more in tune with what I want to accomplish on “publishing” online. It’s a snap to hook up the camera to the computer and download your images.

With film, you have to wait for the film to be developed, and there isn’t any preview of the photos you’ve taken (shock horror!). Yet there was something to be said about going back to the raw heart of photography and dealing with film and film speeds, exposures and playing with the manual settings of an SLR to mess about with film for creative control. I have a fear that digital, like most technology, will strive to make life idiot-proof for you.

I do feel that the comparative end result from film rather than digital can win through by giving you a more “bang for your buck” advantage. I would end up having to pay through the nose for a digital camera that provided the same resultant output from a good film SLR. Eyal did explain to me that in the long run, printing and developing costs would soon see a digital camera pay for itself twice over. I imagine also that it’s a cost that will be ever increasing as film becomes a medium of enthusiasts and professionals, given that digital is the future.

But I still wasn’t sold since I like to do things the hard way sometimes. I wanted to learn how to work with film before it disappears into some museum to collect dust as one of mankind’s bygone inventions. Afterall, it is my first SLR camera and if I get into the field more, then I might get a second SLR that may well indeed be digital. Let’s see how this experience goes with a film camera.

Canon or Nikon?

The brand debate was narrowed down to either a Canon or a Nikon, the two current main contenders in the realm of amateur and professional photography.

Canon’s site cunningly puts their top of the range EOS-1 as the first camera in their online catalogue so that you can drool and salivate at the flagship features that they want to boast about. Coming back down to earth and realizing that my intention was to take the first few steps into a new interest and that I wasn’t going to be a professional photojournalist, I set my sights on something more realistic for my skill level and budget.

A quick foray into a shop in Central resulted in the Canon EOS-66 and the Nikon F-55 being recommended to me. While they were entry-level models, and I appreciate the guy not trying to flog some more expensive models in my face, I was fearful of spending money on a camera that just suited my inexperience rather than the photographer I wanted to be. I needed a camera that I could quite happily grow into. Both Nikon and Canon seem to think that people will like the cheap champagne colour cases that their entry level models come in.

So I started to look at the more low-end and mid-range SLR’s that the big two offered. My research led me to decide on either the Canon EOS-30 or the Nikon F-80. I was still undecided between the two. The features sounded great on both, although they seemed to be more relevant if you are using autofocus (AF) and autofocus wasn’t what I was in the SLR market for. But it’s always nice to have idiot-proof technology as an option especially when you are learning to compose pictures or when you (or someone else) just wants to snap away.

To be honest, when I went to shop for the camera, I was set on the Canon EOS-30 with a Canon 50mm/1.8 or 1.4 set-up. I was so sure that I ended up not really reading up on Nikon lenses for the F80. This also had partly to do with the unfriendly nature of Nikon’s website but also that my experience with Canon the brand has always been good.

Brenda also told me that her friends had told her that Canon was also the better choice for landscapes and taking pictures of people, since the lenses are softer lense, while with Nikon the images are more sharp, picking up detail that you might not want in those sorts of photos. This combined with the fact that there seemed to be a lot more lenses and accessories from third party sources, which were often cheaper, made it more appealing than Nikon’s apparently limited range of accessories and higher cost for them.

All I had going for Nikon was the recommendation by a stranger who happened to be in the shop where I initially inquired about cameras. James and Amy are also fans of Nikon; their reason for their bias still eludes me and themselves too so I didn’t have much to go on with Nikon.

To be honest, I got the impression that choosing a camera for manual work was not going to be a decision that was going to be based on features and techno-widgets, but rather a matter of feel. Being similar in features and comparative quality, the debate in my mind was going to have to be won with based on feel and intuition. The body was something that I was going to have to hold in my hand and feel happy with.

Getting the Camera

So armed with a bias impression towards Canon, I went with Amy, James and Brenda to Mong Kok. Amy knew of three good places to buy cameras, based on her friend’s recommendations and her own experiences. Two of them, Man Shing and Wing Shing, are sister stores had both come recommended by people online both expats and locals. The third she took me to was also more expensive.

The F80 was in my hands before the EOS-30 and I think Amy had a small part in that she asked about the Nikon first (she was my translator for the day!). The F80 felt solid and it felt right. But I still wasn’t sold. The simplicity of the controls didn’t impress me initially, especially from a techno-brat like myself.

I needed to have the Canon in my hands too. To be honest, the EOS-30 was both intimidating and disappointing for me. Intimidating in that it seemed to have a lot more features and Canon seems to have wanted to put everything out there for the user to play with. Rather than being appealing, it was something that I knew that wasn’t going to be a selling point with me because I knew I was never going to use them. I am all for technology but based on my experiences with my Sony P5 camera, I knew that all those extra buttons and settings weren’t going to be used.

Suddenly the fewer and clunkier controls of the F80 were becoming more appealing. The EOS-30 also felt more like a consumer camera like a POS or their entry level bodies. The F80 looked like it withstand some hardship before giving up the goose. Of course, I’m taking care of my camera, but it’s reassuring that your camera isn’t going to wilt at a few knocks and bangs.

In the end, I decided to go for the Nikon F80. It just felt right for a starting camera. Which basically meant that my perfectly good rationale for buying the EOS-30 went straight out of the window. But I’m was still happy with my decision.

I was decided on a 50mm fixed focal lense. The reason for this was that I read that it’s good as a starting lense because it trains you to not be lazy and move around the object, thinking about composition. Although a zoom lense was more attractive to me, I was forcing myself to take the hard road. I’m glad I listened to my friends instead. They knew that I was looking to take pictures of Hong Kong too as well as learn photography and that I would need something that was at least as low as 28mm. Zooming in also allowed you to take pictures of things that you couldn’t by all accounts move in closer to physically. So I ended up witha Nikkor G 28-80mm lense.

The shop where I got my camera, Man Shing, also threw in a tripod and a camera bag which was nice (although the camera bag is part of the deal so to speak by accounts on the ‘net). The place is small and can get very crowded. The service varies from employee to employee, language factor was negated since Amy was speaking Cantonese with them. There’s an older lady in there that seems to be quite helpful. The prices are fixed so don’t expect any negotiating to happen but there seem to be some good deals to be had. My friend James picked up three lenses for his Nikon for only 800 bucks (the quality of which has yet to be determined and they were labelled “Fun, Fun, Fun” lenses). I definitely recommend you go there if you are shopping for a camera in Hong Kong, if only to check out the prices.

So now I’m armed with an SLR, I’m off to indulge in my photojournalism fetishes.

Tags: camera, nikon, Photography, slr