gear is important (but buying best camera doesnt’ make you best photographer)
Lesson 1
Camera is just a device that can record light by focusing light on a photosensitive surface.
photosensitive surface react to light using chemical reaction (film) or using electric one (digital)
There are 3 important qualities to each sensor
Resolution : Its simply number of pixels, more the merrier and finer detail you can store.
Size : very important and affects many parameters like : crop factor, depth of field, high ISO noise, dynamic range are some of them. (Reason why DSLR are better than compact cameras)
“Quality” : refers to how well the sensor reacts to difficult light conditions
Lens is second component of any camera : its a device that collects scattered light and focuses that on camera sensors neatly.
Lenses are often complex, with up to 15 different optical elements serving different roles. The quality of the glass and the precision of the lens will be extremely important in determining how good the final image is.
Characterstics of Lenses
Focal Length : refers roughly to “zoom level”, or angle of view of lens. expressed in mm (millimetres). Resulting angle of view actually depends on size of of the sensor of camera on which lens is used(crop factor). [read-more]
Apperture : iris in the center of the lens which can close to increasingly small sizes, limiting the amount of light that gets on the sensor. It is refered to as f-number like f/2.8
Focusing System : these days there is an internal motor which can be piloted by the camera ; the autofocus
Stabilizing System : detect small movements like handshake etc and compensate by moving internally the optic elements in opposite direction
Fancy Options : apochromatic glass, nano-coating, etc designed to increase final image quality
Body : light tight box connecting the lens to the sensor, and ordering everyone around.
Shutter : curtain in front of sensor. curtain opens, exposes light to sensor from lens then closes after very precise amount of time. usually operates between 30s and 1/4000s of a second. This along with aperture and ISO is very important factors for exposure.
A light meter : It measures the quantity of light and sets the exposure accordingly
A focus detector : used to drive the autofocus motor in the lens. There are two competing technologies here : Constrast Detection and Phase Detection
A way to store image created : memory card
A way to frame : optical or eletronic viewfinder, LCD screen or even ground glass. DSLRs have an edge as an optical viewfinder allows "through-the-lens" viewing