How to Buy a Manual Camera

If you are dedicated to photography and wish to make it a serious hobby, consider purchasing a manual focus or single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. Although the pictures are more difficult to take since you must set aperture and shutter speed manually and you must also adjust the focus, you will have greater control over your results than with a point-and-shoot camera.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Credit Cards And Loans
• SLR Camera

Before Shopping

1. Read photography magazines such as "Popular Photography" and "Apogee Photo Magazine." These magazines and others regularly publish evaluations of specific SLR cameras. Read these articles and familiarize yourself with the current crop of features offered.
2. Evaluate your needs after reading some of the articles. Do you want a package with the camera that includes a zoom lens and flash or do you want a camera system with a lot of depth?
3. Determine your budget. Manual focus or SLR cameras run the gamut in price. Generally speaking, the lower-end models are automatic with aperture priority mode and manual operation. Upper-end models include the low-end features as well as through-the-lens (TTL) flash measurement, programming capabilities and more read-outs - such as aperture and shutter speed - in the viewfinder.

At the Store

4. Pick out a few cameras that appear to fit your needs.
5. Consider cameras with a quality light meter and make sure that the camera offers a sensor-weighted metering system.
6. Look for aperture priority and shutter priority modes. If it is within your budget, also consider program modes.
7. Pick up the camera and look into the viewfinder. See how bright the focusing is, how the controls operate and what you are comfortable with.
8. Consider your budget again. The lower-end cameras may not have the features that you originally wanted but they may be more within your budget. Generally, lower-end cameras don't have through-the-lens (TTL) flash measurement, but they do have a bright viewfinder, a full range of shutter speeds, aperture and priority modes, dedicated flash, and winder or motor drive up to a half frame per second. In general, the higher the level of camera, the more information provided to you through the viewfinder. The highest-end cameras will probably have depth of field preview buttons so you can see how much depth of field or sharpness a picture will have.
9. Select the camera that has the features you will use at a price you can afford.

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