DSLR News

To explore the old adage that great photography isn’t just about the gear, the folks at Mango Street put together this interesting and amusing challenge between a pro using an entry-level Canon Rebel T3i with a kit lens and an amateur armed with Canon’s high-end 5D Mark IV and pro-quality 35mm f/1.4L II USM lens.

The new Nikon D5600 is a midrange DSLR camera based around a 24.2-megapixel DX-format (APS-C) sensor. The sensor offers the same resolution as the previous D5500. The same goes for the image processor—the Expeed 4 system—that was used in the D5500, which was launched two years ago (January 2015).

The new Sony A99 II is a DSLR-like Single-Lens Translucent (SLT) system with a fixed and translucent mirror system. It’s Sony’s first full-frame sensor SLT with an A-mount since the first A99, which was launched in 2012. The new camera features an electronic viewfinder system with high resolution (2.36 million RGB dots) and uses its mirror system for the AF sensor. It combines a standard AF system with a highly sophisticated image sensor AF system; it can use 79 AF areas on its dedicated AF sensor and 399 AF areas on the image sensor, resulting in very fast and reliable focusing. This combination is called “Hybrid Phase Detection AF.” The mirror system allows the user to work with an SLR-type focus system as well as a continuous live preview on the screen or electronic viewfinder.

Nikon has been relatively quiet in introducing DSLRs aimed at enthusiast photographers in the past year but that all changed this morning with the announcement of the new D7500, the company’s latest camera in the D7000 line. The Nikon D7500, which replaces the D7200 from 2015, uses the same 20.9MP, DX-format (APS-C) CMOS sensor with no low pass filter as the flagship DX-format Nikon D500.

Capturing “the decisive moment” is more than just clicking the shutter at the right time and it’s more than luck, too. It’s an artful combination of experience, talent, and preparation. Being prepared for the unexpected is just as important to photojournalists and documentary photographers as it is to a Scout and that includes selecting and using gear that can be deployed at that right time, even if preparing for a single shot or two takes several hours. Some of these tools may be obvious while others not so much.

My contention has always been that a real live camera affords superior image quality over any smartphone. But you know that already, especially when it comes to optical options, low-light capability, high ISO, video capability, and, perhaps most importantly, the experience of being able to see what you are shooting (through the optical finder of a DSLR) in bright light.

Every year lately, Canon sends out an image from the Super Bowl showing the majority of sports photographers at the big game using the company’s familiar “white” professional lenses. And this past Super Bowl, as you can see in the above image from the game, the number of Canon shooters seems to have grown.