Choosing a Camera

With the iPhone 4S out, Apple has advertisements all over the place telling you that it could be the only camera you ever need. Well, it's conceivable that they are right. But only if you have somewhat pedestrian standards when it comes to picture quality. Choosing a camera - a real camera - will often get you far better results.

The advantages of a dedicated camera are many. A real camera has a bigger lens. A bigger lens lets in more light and makes for a better quality picture. Low light performance is always better on a proper camera.

Now the best pocket cameras today certainly do just about everything you would need of a camera - especially since they use the same optics and sensors as a beginner level SLR's. You even get lots of manual control over your camera. If you want the convenience of a point-and-shoot without the fuss of an SLR, consider a Compact Camera System. These are tinycameras with big sensors. And you can switch lenses. If you're choosing a camera of this kind, go for what they call a Micro Four Thirds a model.

Basically, no matter how good a phone camera gets, it can always be nothing better than a gimmick, given how small the lens is. But while you want to go with quality, you don't want to go all the way and sink hundreds of dollars into a camera if you're not really that interested in photography.

If you just want the convenience of a phone camera with the quality of a real model, choosing a camera in the $500 range from among all the point-and-shoots on offer should do for you. If you really do want to take the next step forward, do consider a Compact Camera System. A model like the Olympus PEN E-P3 may be really entertaining to use. To begin with, it looks like an old 60s camera. But it's right up there in terms of innovation and quality.

A Micro Four Thirds camera of this kind is great because it works like a point-and-shoot, but it's very fast in every way. It's as fast as an SLR. Of course, it isn't exactly as feature-packed as SLR. You still don't get a real viewfinder, for instance. But if you could live with that, you probably wouldn't find much else that you miss.

If $800 seems like a bit much for you, a model like the Canon PowerShot S100 at $350 should be excellent. It's Canon's point-and-shoot flagship, and it does both wide-angle and zoomvery well. It's even got GPS and full HD video.

When I Had to Judge a Baby Photo Contest

About three years ago, I was asked to serve as one of the judges at a baby photo contest put on by our local library. I had never served as a judge of anything before in my life, and that was kind of what the librarians and other staff were looking for. I was quite nervous to have to do this, because quite frankly, I had no idea what I would be looking for or how to judge the contest at all. After sifting through all of the photos, I finally ranked them in order from one to six, and developed a good explanation for why I chose as I did.

I really had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to judge this baby photo contest, and I have to say, I saw some things that I never thought of in a million years I would see. The contest was around Easter, and one lady actually had her baby dressed up like an Easter Bunny for the holiday. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a very cute picture, but the kid was in a fur costume in Texas in spring, when it is about 85 to 90 degrees outside, and he really didn't look that happy.

Another contestant in the baby photo contest sent in a picture of her daughter with an oversized lollipop in her hand and an outfit that looked almost identical to the treat. It was almost as if she had the bought the two as part of a set. Again, the little girl looked very cute and very happy in her little outfit with her candy, but there was something unnatural about the whole deal. I kept it in my stack of "maybes" and moved on to the next photo.

I must have gone through 200 pictures for the baby photo contest, and it took me a couple of days to make my decision. The reality is that even when you make your decision, you still have misgivings and feel like you might be letting the other kids down. You also don't want the parents to be upset with you, and even though hardly anybody knew that I was a judge, I was still worried that word would get out and I would end up hurting somebody's feelings. It was harder than I thought it would be.

I ended up choosing the photo of a little boy was on his hands and knees, looking up and smiling. I thought it was something one would see a baby do on a regular basis, and I was glad to see that my fellow judges agreed with me on this. As it turned out, we picked a winner, because we received word from many of the entries that they thought it was a very good picture. I am not sure that I would ever want to judge another baby photo contest again, but it is something I will always remember!