Hands-On Experience: Choosing a Camera in 2007

• SLR
• Electronic flash
• Good operation with aperture priority
• Fully automatic camera-lens-flash combination
• Fast operation and recovery
• Bright viewfinder for easy night operation
• Outstanding and fast low-light auto-focus
• Macro/normal zoom lens
• A resolution of about 10 million pixels per image

We began by perusing various manufacturers' web sites (Canon, Fujifilm, Leica, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Samsung, Sigma and Sony), and what a disappointment they were, in terms of providing the kind of technical information we were looking for! While possibly helpful to people looking for family snapshot cameras, they proved quite inadequate for giving easy access to the technical specs we needed. Moreover, many of the (usually PDF) data sheets, while sporting beautiful artistic design, were apparently never intended to be viewed on a standard computer monitor or printed on normal office paper.

Far more useful information was found on the camera enthusiast sites and, surprisingly, on the website of retailer B&H Camera in New York City, an outfit we have found very good to deal with and very knowledgeable about their wares. Nevertheless, an investment of time for Internet searches allowed us to eliminate some manufacturers very quickly, generally because they didn't offer anything that met all of our "must-have" criteria.

Based on reviews, our eventual shortlist of semi-professional, circa 10 mega-pixel SLR cameras, included (in alphabetical order) the Canon EOS-400D, the Nikon D80, the Olympus E-510, the Pentax K10D and the Sony DSLR-A100.

The cameras in this initial list were analyzed, with particular attention to the best low-light level auto-focus, good low-light level viewfinder, quick wakeup speed following power-saving and off modes, and availability of a suitable macro zoom lens that could also be used for non-macro photography.

• First, photographing moths and minerals in close-up mode requires coping with a subject's size range from grain-of-rice to hand-size. A macro-zoom capability is therefore both a convenience and a benefit. With the MCON-35 macro extension lens installed on the Olympus E-20, we found we had to zoom out manually for the largest moths. We found this so inconvenient and slow that we often resorted to using two cameras, one with and one without the macro extension lens; in either case the operation took time and an extra hand, problematic when dealing with live and lively subjects.
• Second, living moths are messy critters. Their wings and bodies are covered with scales (which we refer to as moth dust when not attached to the moth). Moths shed their scales in copious amounts as they fly around, especially when they land on your camera and lens (we do whole-camera cleaning rather often). Also, the moths do not fly alone — on the warm, calm, humid nights when the moths are most abundant, they are accompanied by copious quantities of other tiny flying insects. Changing a lens in the middle of an evening's shoot would invite a camera body filled with moth dust and live micro insects — but if you went away to clean your camera, change your lens and return, the subject specimen would probably have long flown away — these tiny living jewels often stay in place for only a few seconds.

In late June and early July, when the giant silk moth Antheraea polyphemus (center) is flying, many small moths and other insects are on the wing, often settling on the camera and lens.

Our final camera choice, after many hours of research, was the Nikon D80 with Nikkor AF28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D IF lens, a combination which, on paper, was without peer for our low-light macro photography application, and fully functional for regular photography too, without needing to change the lens.

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Page last modified 1 March 2008
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