The Collection

Evening Surfers,

Today's post is going to be somewhat different than usual; I thought I would share with you all the equipment I use for my photography. Before I purchased my Nikon DSLR I did a lot of research and looking around at different cameras, mainly trying to find pictures taken by the ones I wanted to buy.This post is partially for those who are looking to get their first camera but don't really know which way to go. 

All of these "reviews" if you will, are entirely based on my experiences with the cameras; thought I'd let you know what I found out. :)

I have taken the same pictures, as best I could, with all three cameras and they haven't been edited at all. The pictures of the cameras, however, have been and were all taken with my phone.

I use three different cameras which I'll list below:

 This FujiFilm A170 A180 10.2MP compact was my first camera.

I purchased it from Argos back in 2010 for around £60.00. It's perfect for parties as it fits right into the back pocket of my jeans, and for days when you don't want an enormous DSLR hanging around your neck. It's also a great starter camera, very accessible and easy to master.

 I had a lot of fun with this camera when I was starting out, but did consider giving it away once I upgraded, I'm glad I kept it around though. The one issue I have with it is that it DEVOURS  batteries! so make sure to keep a supply handy.

I picked up this FujiFilm Finepix S2980 14MP camera just after I finished Uni, roughly two years after buying my compact. It was £139.00 from Amazon but came complete with a memory card, rechargeable AA batteries and camera bag. 

When I joined the photography society at Uni I was warned against Bridge cameras, which are bigger compacts with certain functions which are usually found on DSLRs e.g manual mode, but went against the experts and bought one. I do regret it somewhat...this camera isn't great but if you're willing to put in the effort it can produce some fantastic pictures.

It is however a bit more complex to use and I had a lot of issues with blur when using it. It would be good to get if you don't feel ready for a DSLR yet. It does help you get to grips with manual mode and I was able to learn about aperture, ISO and shutter speed.

The final camera is the most recent, I only purchased it in October last year, and is my 24.1MP Nikon D7100 DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex). 

I bought this from Ebay for about £750.00, brand new, the lens attached is a simple 18-55mm which was from Amazon for just over £60.00. For obvious reasons this camera produces the best photographs of the three but is MUCH more complex to use. I don't recommend buying a DSLR unless you want to take the time to learn how to use it properly; this includes mastering manual mode, starting to shoot in RAW and going in for the expense of different lenses.

Anyway, I have rambled long enough, for all of the tech specs of these cameras I believe there are other places on the internet who are much better informed than I. Below are the pictures I took to show the capabilities of these cameras, I had them all switched to auto mode.

The first shot is an indoor picture with relatively low light. All three cameras used their flashes initially but I deactivated them as they weren't needed.

Fujifilm A170 A180

FujiFilm FinePix S2980

Nikon D7100

I then took my cameras outside to see how they fared in natural light. It was nearing 7pm by this point so the sun was quite low, but not setting. Also, it became so cold that I had to run indoors and put on my winter coat! Whatever happened to May being the start of summer! XD

Fujifilm A170 A180

FujiFilm FinePix S2980

Nikon D7100

So far all doing well. As the light was fading I decided to test flash on each camera, so I shot a before and after of my key necklace.

Fujifilm A170 A180
Without flash above, with flash below.

FujiFilm FinePix S2980

Nikon D7100

 The Nikon's flash is the only one which didn't completely wash out the picture, but I don't think the others did too badly.

Finally I wanted to get a macro shot, but there was hardly any light so I had to use flash again. I would have liked to have shot more for you but it was getting late and I was freezing...also one of the cameras was beginning to run low on battery, so these are the last pictures.

Fujifilm A170 A180 

FujiFilm FinePix S2980

Nikon D7100

So as overall quality goes the Nikon wins every time, but that was a given...the other cameras however perform really well and I have shot some pictures with them that I am really proud of.

You don't really need to spend a lot to take good pictures, I mean some of the pictures were taken with my phone and they came out quite nicely; my blog banner for example was shot with my Samsung (then had  a little help from Photoshop). Remember it takes time to learn how to take a great photograph, I'm still learning how myself :)

Anyway I hope that you enjoyed this extremely long and different blog post. I will be back next week with something new.

Thanks for reading.

Love E

Nikon

Fujifilm compact

Fujifilm Bridge

For more information on cameras check out DigitalRevTV on Youtube. I've learnt a lot from them.