Digital For Travel?





         If I had a dollar for every time I've been asked over the last couple of years about whether I've moved to digital
 
yet, I'd be a rich man. The answer is 'no,' but the truth is that I'd very much like to, but only when the hardware is up to it for what I do, and is good enough the markets I supply. For a travel photographer, digital will be good when the quality is right. I'd love to see immediately if that sunset was the exposure I liked, right or "wrong" (a matter of personal taste). Professional video cameramen operate with an electronic viewfinder and judge exposure by experience, so expect to see this one day in high-end still cameras.

         There was a brief flirtation with half-frame cameras back in the 1970s, and today history has repeated itself with their digital variants. Personally I like lenses to be as they should be, not doubling the focal length on a half-frame. New developments in chip technology mean that hardly a week goes by without some improvement. So the digital future is just over the horizon for me with more new cameras that are full frame; it's just a question of time before the price hits the area my pocket can stand.

OUT OF DATE?

         So although I haven't even used digital I get asked about what to buy, and recently recommended to friends that they buy a compact Canon or Nikon. For them I suggested anything with 4 million + pixels should be good and future proof for a while hopefully; anything in the shops today could be out of date tomorrow. As an example, Canon's digital D60 pro SLR body has been on the market for just twelve months and has now ceased production.

         Zooms in compact-type digital cameras all seem to be mostly x3 optical, and have a motor drive system which is
useless for a professional as they are not quick enough. Digital zooms progressively degrade a picture, but could be good for a hot news story if it happens in front of you. Getting the widest angle to start with, will be more useful for snaps than the other end, generally.

BACKUP CAMERA

         That's about it for digital, now back to what I know, good old-fashioned analog. But I look forward to seeing how my friends get on with the Canon they bought. I'm off to Australia again and wouldn't want a digital camera in the outback; besides, one would not be enough, I'd have to have two, the second for back-up when the first stops working!

         Happy shooting!

Jeremy Hoare is a freelance travel photographer residing in London, England. Phone/Fax: +44 20 7722 2065. E-mail: jeremyhoare@hotmail.com. Web: www.travelwriters.com/jeremyhoare.

Travel photographers will find profitable information in the newsletter, TravelWriter Marketletter, founded by Robert Scott Milne. For info: mimi@travelwriterml.com . Ask for a sample to be sent to you.


           


           

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