Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. As Photographers either Amateur or Professional we are overwhelmed with ads and videos from camera companies telling us what we should have in our camera kit. I can't blame them because I have given in to those adds and spent lots of money. But did it improve my photography? Not really. All of the fancy gizmos and gadgets haven't really improved my photography at all. They tell you that you need full frame this, and megapixels that, and that you're not a photographer unless you can shoot at 30 frames per second. Now if you're a professional sports photographer or portrait or wildlife photographer that are selling your photographs you might. But the mass majority of us are taking travel or street or just taking photo's of the kids at a soccer match don't need a lot of the camera that the companies are trying to sell you. If you are just posting to facebook or instagram or occasionally printing something for your house you really don't need the fanciest of cameras. Let's go over the specs of what I think 90% of people need in a camera. 

Sensor size- I have had full frame and crop sensor camera's for years. Most of the time I shot with Crop Sensor cameras. Most of the photo's on this website were shot on crop sensor camera's. It is true that the dynamic range of a photo is better with a larger sensor but to the necked eye you can't tell unless you magnify 100% or more and people just don't look at photo's that way. Crop sensor camera's have many advantages first of all they give a field of view that is deeper than full frame. What that means is more of your photo is in focus which most of us want for landscapes or ordinary shots. They are smaller which means that the lenses are smaller and cheaper making them more portable. Great for street or travel. Most people don't need Full Frame Sensor only about 10% of photographers. Full frame is better in low light so if you're a astro photographer a full frame would be better but lots of great photo's have been taken with APSC crop sensor cameras. Crop sensor camera's are cheaper than full frame camera's so they are great on the wallet.

Megapixels. Now you can get camera's up to 100 megapixels. Does the ordinary photographer need this? No. Megapixels give you what is called resolution. Everyone knows that 4K is great for viewing on video or on a screen. Well 4k comes out to 8 megapixels on a camera. So anything bigger than 8 will give you a 4k photo or better. I think the magic sweet spot is between 20-40 megapixels anything smaller you have trouble cropping any and anything larger just takes up a lot of space on your hard drive. Most of my camera's have been in the 20-24 megapixel range and my full frame camera that I use now is only 24. The larger megapixels cameras are good for cropping like you would do in wildlife photography. If you're not printing bill board size and mainly posting to facebook or instagram you don't need the extra megapixels .

Frames Per Second. This is short and simple . Unless you're a sports photographer or a wildlife photographer Frames per second really doesn't matter. Most camera's will shoot 8 to 10 frames per second and that is fine for 90% of photographers.

Lenses. There are so many lenses to choose from when buying and you don't need the most expensive or the most popular. Most people can get by with a kit lens that came with your camera. The kit lens is the lens that comes with the camera when you buy it. It came with the kit. The kit lenses that come with camera's now are really good lenses and can be all you need for most of your needs.

Camera. Now let's talk about cameras. Camera's come in different levels . You have the entry level which is the cheapest , intermediate and the professional. Most folks don't need the professional. Only if you are a professional. The entry level or intermediate level is where most people need to buy. My camera's fall in this category and don't think I ever had a professional camera if I did it was many years old that I bought used. Which I think is a good way to go if you're serious about photography. All the manufacturers have these types of camera's and you must research which one fits your needs. A professional camera can cost up to 6000 dollars for body only. You can get an entry level or intermediate for 2000 or less and that includes the lens. Although both may seem expensive if you are serious about photography 2000 isn't expensive when you get a lens also. These are new prices you can get even less if you buy used. So I think that 90% of folks need an entry or intermediate camera and lens combo. It will take very good photo's especially if you are only posting to facebook or instagram. So until next week "Get out and Shoot!"

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link