With so many camera models available in the market, it can be really tricky to pick up the best camera to suit your need and budget. Before, you head to choose the best camera option for your need, you need to understand what are the different types of camera and their usages. In this article, we will explain the basic classification of camera types. That will help you to make right choice.
Types Of Camera
Compact Cameras
Compact cameras are basically point and shoot cameras with fixed non interchangeable lenses. They are small and compact digital cameras, which can easily slide into a jacket pocket. They are most affordable and user friendly cameras, good for basic shooting for beginners. They do all the settings automatically. So, anyone one can operate it with ease. But the con is that it does not allow enough customisation to achieve pro level effects.
DSLR Cameras
Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras, also known as DSLR camera takes the image to the next level. It produces high resolution, sharp and spectacular images with beautiful bokeh background. DSLR camera uses mirror mechanism to reflect the light from the camera lens to the optical view finder or let the light fully pass to the sensor by moving the mirror fully out of the way. These cameras offer lots of customised setting options and wide variety of choices of lenses. The lenses of these cameras are detachable and you can pick them as per your need.
These are expensive cameras and suited for professional results. They come in two variants. Full frame sensor or 35mm and Crop sensor or APS-C which is the smaller size sensor introduced for entry leve DSLRl cameras to make it affordable to masses. Full Frame DSLR is more expensive compared to Crop sensor DSLR. Crop censor is a good option for beginner who wants professional results but at lower budget.
Sensor reads the images from the lens. Larger the sensor more light and details it captures, resulting in better image quality. Crop sensor DSLR has smaller sensor which introduces a crop factor to the images.
Mirrorless Cameras
Mirrorless Camera, as the name suggests, does not use the mirror mechanism to reflect the light from the lens to the sensor. The light passing through the lens ends up directly on the sensor. Since the light is no longer reflected on the optical view finder, mirrorless cameras uses electronic view finder and the LCD that reflects what the image sensor sees. Due to lack of optical view finder and the mirror mechanism, mirrorless cameras are compact in size as compared to the DSLR and it is the latest technology.
The electronic view finder also allows to see the live view of the changes that you make to the settings. It makes it easier for the photographer to see what they are expecting in the image while making the setting adjustments. Incase of DSLR, you make the adjustment in the settings, but how it has affected the image, you can only know after taking the image, that means, you do not get the live view of the effects that the changes in the setting brings to the picture.
It functions similar to the DSLR camera and offer wide variety of lenses too. Mirrorless also comes in Full frame and Crop sensor options. This is the best option if you want to make videos for youTube and looking for professional level results in your content creation.
Action Cameras
Action cameras are most suited for outdoor and adventures. They are gaining too much popularity due to it’s compact size, which can fit in your palm and most versatile and mountable on any surface. They are more affordable than DSLR & Mirrorless cameras. If you are a blogger or want to shoot outdoors and adventures, they are good choice for you. But like compact cameras, they do not offer much customisation and has fixed focus.
360 Cameras
360 degree cameras are essentially action cameras with extended 360 degree functionality. It uses back to back fish eye lenses each capturing 180 degree angle of view. Then it merges these two hemispherical images to produce 360 degree spherical view of everything around the subject.
I hope this article has made it easier for you to decide your first or next camera as per your budget and requirements. If you like this content, please share.