Help buying a camera

[la808]

Unwilling to pay a professional to photograph my art work, in order to have prints made, I would like to purchase a nice digital camera that would do the job. I know nothing about these cameras and haven't a clue which one would be best for what I need. How many mega-pixels, etc. I've Googled and read and it's all Greek to me. I just want to be able to take the darn picture without having to get a degree in camera buying.

[Deleted]

What are you planning on using it for?

Can you explain your art and prints a little more?

[la808]

I need to take high resolution photos of my paintings in order to get prints made.
But I don't know how high mega pixel I should go, what camera would do the job, etc.

[Deleted]

How big you want the prints to be will determine how many mega pixels you should get.

I think a decent DSLR with a good lens for the application you want, a tripod and some nice lighting should do the trick.

[la808]

The prints are sometimes up to 2 to 3 feet high. Wouldn't that take a camera with a lot of megapixels? If so, how many? Yes, tripod and outdoor lighting is a must.

[Deleted]

I think you would probably be fine with 10-12 megapixels. I don't know too much about photography but I think you would want to be able to take RAW format pictures.

[la808]

What does RAW format pictures mean?

[Deleted]

copied from some website:

RAW Defined

RAW file format is the uncompressed, unprocessed data file captured by the camera's image sensor, before any in-camera processing has been applied (though, in practice, depending on the camera manufacturer, some minimal in-camera processing may have been applied to the RAW data). In this sense, an image saved in the RAW file format is the digital equivalent to the (exposed but as yet unprocessed) film negative.

In fact, the camera will ignore your white balance, sharpening, contrast and saturation settings. Instead of applying them to the RAW data, it will save those settings in a separate header associated with the RAW data.

[Poppet]

The two big guns are made by Nikon and Canon. Take your pick.

I am a Canon person only because my photo teacher recommended it. I too did not want to earn a degree in camera buying so I went with her advice.

I am glad I did. I use my camera almost every day.

So get a Canon Rebel DSLR (digital single lens reflex) in whatever is their latest version (the XTi?)

I have a Canon Rebel EOS that I bought 5 years ago for a beginner's photography class. I think it's 8 megapixels.

It produces prof quality photos.

RAW means uncompressed stored images.

Edited: but I see Archie's copy and paste job explains it much better.

[ChiTownVenture]

It really depends on how much you are willing to pay.

The Megapixel really only dictates the size of the print. Do you want the print to match the size of the original piece of art?

A DSLR camera will produce a better picture then a point and shoot. They also save the image in a RAW format (uncompressed native to the camera manufacturer), or jpeg format (standard compressed).

If you get a high quality DSLR with a standard megapixel 10-14 you should be able to get good standard prints. If you use that same camera and are looking to print poster size prints the company printing the posters can enhance the quality of your photo to adjust for the lower resolution.

btw I have a Sony DSLR 550, and love it.

[la808]

Thanks, everyone. I am going to check out the Sony that Chi suggested.
I now think I need something in the 10 megapixel range, as I need the prints to be the same size as the originals and want to give the printer the best photo possible. Thanks for the info.!!

[moneywhisperer]

Nikkon D90 is the low end professional camera - I wouldn't do it with less than that. I saw them at Costco for about $1300 recently. Not sure if the included lens will be adequate for your needs though.

You may want to look for a new professional photographer on facebook or craigs list - the good ones will have sunk at least $5K into cameral + lens. That is why they seem pricey to you :-)

With a new photographer you can get a reasonable price, print release + high resolution digital images & you are good to go. They can also point you to the professional printers (like Millers in the US) if you are doing life-size prints. Maybe they will also be nice to you & tell you how to edit photos (there's another $700 in software) and submit pictures without color correction so you get true colors.