Choosing Your Photographic Equipment

“The photographic equipment you need to take outstanding pictures - even with special effects does not have to cost thousands.  You can get excellent results using a basic compact digital camera”

 Basic Photographic Equipment 

The cost of photographic equipment can deter some people from taking up photography as a hobby - but it shouldn’t.  Although it is nice to own (or dream of owning) expensive photographic equipment it is most certainly not a pre-requisite for the aspiring amateur photographer.

All you need to begin with is a basic point and shoot digital camera.  It should have at least 5 megapixels, (more would be better) and ideally an optical zoom facility.  Although strictly speaking not photographic equipment, you will also need a computer that should have a 1-gigahertz processor or better and at least 256mb of ram.  With just these two items you are ready to take and view your photographs.  If you want to print your pictures

as well as seeing them on your screen you will of course also need a printer.

Most modern printers will produce acceptable pictures – but, as with all photographic equipment, the better the printer the more accurate the colour reproduction and the greater the end result. You can buy a budget printer that will suit most beginners but my advice would be to buy the best you can afford.


 

Finally, if you are going to print your pictures, you really need to buy photo paper - ordinary paper just doesn’t produce acceptable results.  This paper can be costly so if you want to “proof” your pictures I suggest you use ordinary paper and choose which photos you want to print onto your (much more expensive) photo paper.  I would also suggest that, to save ink, you print your “proofs” in draft quality.  You should of course print your final pictures in the best quality your printer will allow.

So, that really is all the photographic equipment you will need to start enjoying photography.  More important than the photographic equipment that you have, is your ability to “see” a picture and take it and using these tools will certainly help you to develop that ability.

Search the “sub menus” under “Photographic Equipment” for more detailed advice.

 

More Advanced Photographic Equipment 

As you develop your skills, it is likely that you will find your compact camera and basic computer software too restrictive and need more advanced photographic equipment and computer software to edit your pictures and create special effects.  Computer software is probably the first addition you should consider.  This will enable you to correct many errors such as brightness, contrast, remove “redeye” and crop your photographs.  It will also enable you to add filter effects and much, much more.

You may also want to purchase a better camera with better resolution (more megapixels)

or a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera which will allow you to change lenses so you can take wide angle pictures or pictures of distant objects.

There is a huge amount of photographic equipment available and choosing what to buy can be very daunting, even if you are an experienced photographer!  So to help you I am going to give you the benefit of my knowledge and experiences (good and bad) about what photographic equipment you may wish to add to your toolbox.
  
All the suggestions reflect my personal experiences and, although I rarely recommend any specific photographic equipment products (the type of pictures you are interested in taking will determine precisely what you should buy), I do give you advice on how to decide which photographic equipment will best suit your needs and budget.


So search the “sub menus” under “Photographic Equipment” for more detailed advice on the more advanced items you may wish to add to your toolbox.


I hope this and all my other pages will give you some ideas when buying your photographic equipment.






P.S. Thanks for reading my page on photographic equipment - and don't forget to tell your family and friends about my site!

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