Top 10 Things to Consider Before Buying a Camera - Searching for our Vintage-to-be

This is a vintage camera I spotted at the Francesc Mares museum. It is easy to grow a passion for vintage cameras when you see one. I have a wonderful Voigtlander for example which I feel proud of and which I own just by chance.

Who doesn't remember that old camera we regarded as a weird obsolete dust-covered contrivance our parents had from grandpa or grandma? Well, this is exactly my case. And musing on this matter, I wonder what may become of modern cameras when time passes by, will my Nikon D7000 be an object of cult in say, fifty years?

The digital cameras world has evolved so fast and access to decent cameras to shoot with has grown so much that it is difficult to predict what is to turn into a vintage article or at least a retro one up to the point it makes you feel proud of it and urges you to preserving it instead of letting it die. Of course, I reckon that things that are rather unique now, will be more appreciated in the future. Maybe a strange model of Holga, although made in plastic could be more sought for than the standard DSLR. There's a certain factor of uncertainty as to what is going to be cherished by next-generation collectors or fans. And all this leads me to conclude that it is that uniqueness, that weirdness, that peculiarity in certain items which gives them the category of vintage and not everything will prevail.

 Of course when you buy yourself a camera you do not foresee what value this is going to have later on and in fact I wouldn't recommend buying exclusiveness for two reasons, one, it is going to be more expensive and two, not even a medium can tell now whether you are going to be the happy owner of a collector's piece or not. So you'd better go for the gear that suits you according to your pocket and your goals as a photographer. Maybe you just want to take pictures of your kids and your smartphone does what you want pretty well or maybe you take it more seriously and prefer better images. If you are at that step, perhaps you wonder what to buy and you do not know what things you should take into account first.

These are the Top 10 Things to Consider Before Buying a Camera in my opinion although there are more of course:

- Which use am I going to make of the camera? What kind of photographs do I want?

This point might seem too obvious and simple but affects whatever tip you may need or follow afterwards. Perhaps you have enough with not so high quality pictures taken with a point and shoot digicam in which the camera controls you and not the other way, perhaps weight and ease of use suit you better. Maybe you want to go deeper in the learning curve and want to try a DSLR and tame your camera and your photographs, first in an amateur way and why not, in a professional way. Nobody wants to run with a bag full of heavy gear just to take casual images. Well, there are some exceptions. But you get it, I want this camera to take a decent picture and that's all or I want this to make me an artist and win the next World Press Photo Contest or somewhere in between, which I think is better. At which point are you in the range?

 - How much is it going to be? Can I afford it?

You have to adapt your expectations to your budget. With the same amount of money you can buy a point and shoot and a lot of extras or just a DSLR body. It all depends on your needs. There are people that prefer a simple underwater camera for the holidays and others that cannot live without their full frame DSLR. Once you know your limit, the limit in your pocket, then you should know that the photography market is full of offers and opportunities that not necessarily are found in that well known megastore. I would recommend starting with a good DSLR, body only and then buying lens and stuff later on. 

- How many megapixels?

 There is this general myth that the more megapixels the better quality you get in your pictures. Wrong! Pixels are just the dots in your image and having them more concentrated so to say, only matters if you enlarge for printing purposes. Of course pixels count for quality but I'd say that with 6 megapixels you have more than enough in the case of normal prints. That's the amount I had in my good old Nikon D70s. Now with 16 I am no longer interested in winning the megapixel battle with fellow photographers. It's pretty silly but there's this childish impulse to brag about megapixels.

- Read reviews!

It is of extreme importance that you visit sites where you get reviews about cameras, especially those where the author compares brands and models. I will suggest a couple of sites for you: Digital Photography Review or my favorite, www.kenrockwell.com

 - Go for the light!

 Photography is made with light so it makes sense that you think of it when buying a camera. You have to ask you yourself, how am I going to get more light to have better pictures? Of course you don't stop to ask the question but searching for the light is at the bottom of everything. Nikon D70s starts with an ISO of 200 and D7000 starts with 100. There is a debate about the difference between both. I don't think we can appreciate the difference in noise between the two (ISO is the level of sensitivity of the camera to available light), so the lower parameters are not that significant, but then after 400 or in other words with higher sensitivity you not only gain more light but also more noise, or more grain in your picture. Nowadays there are cameras that eliminate a lot of noise for you at incredibly high ISO, for example Canon EOS 1DX reaches 51.200 ISO and there's low noise up to 2786 ISO which is great. As you see is not the upper limit that really counts but the limit up to which you are in a relative low noise situation and then there is software of course to get rid of some more noise. But it is not only the ISO limit you should look. There is also aperture and shutter speed to take into account. The larger aperture you have the more light you get. Remember that larger in fact means lower numbers in your F scale. Obviously, a prime lens like Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lets in much more light than Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 kit lens in D70s. A wide range of shutter speed settings is recommended too to have more control of the exposure. Shutter speed is exposure time, it is how long the camera's shutter is open to the light that reaches the sensor. Shutter speed, aperture (f-number), and luminance together determine the amount of light that reaches the sensor (the exposure) and this is something somehow more restricted in point-and-shoots. 

-Be sure you can reuse old parts

Many camera systems offer the possibility of reusing old parts even from film cameras but some of them get discontinued depending on the brand. Nikon and Canon are for me the most complete in this respect.

- Image stabilization (IS)

There are three types of image stabilization, optical, digital and a mixture of both. It would be a good idea to check that your camera has a good optical image stabilization system which consists of moving the parts of the camera to compensate for camera shake. Digital stabilization is only about software and has to do with increasing ISO sensitivity in your camera to allow for more shutter speed and thus less blur in the image. 

- Zoom

Digital zooms modify images by software in the camera so this will never be as good as zooming in or out with the actual lens and its optical mechanism. 

- Usability

 If you want to have a good camera you need to make sure it comes with all the useful controls you may get for a reasonable price in a way that it makes you save time, it does what you want it to do, it gives you high quality pictures (as long as you know how to use it properly and you have the artist in you too) and it does not stand in your way making the act of photography something uncomfortable for you. Menus should be helpful and not confusing, LCDs should be big and well illuminated, the body should be made of good materials and have a good ergonomic grip. 

-Opportunities

Last but no less, find offers, bargain, negotiate and get your stuff for a reasonable price. Don't go crazy about buying that latest model in the official store when you can get it on ebay or similar. Sometimes simply the fact that you shop online helps squeezing a few bucks from the original price. 

I hope you find the tips helpful. Ten tips aren't enough though. If only they could brighten your ideas a little bit then the post was worth writing. 

In the line of recent posts I would like to suggest a website to find coupons to save up money in your purchase: Flipart coupon codes

category: cameras

Poblet Monastery, Tarragona

The Abbey of Santa Maria de Poblet is a Cistercian monastery that dates back to 1151, in the comarca of Conca de Barberà, in Catalonia (Spain). By that time Ramon Berenguer IV had banished the Moors from these lands and Cistercian monks from France commissioned architect Arnau Bargués with the project. In fact, it was Ramon Berenguer himself who founded and endowed the royal monastery. Together with Vallbona de les Monges and Santes Creus, Poblet monastery was part of what is known as the Cistercian triangle, an ecclesiastic stronghold that gave a lot of power to Catalonia during the XII century. 

Almost all the kings of the Crown of Aragon are buried in this royal pantheon. 

The monastery was plundered in the XIX century. The tombs of the rulers were desecrated but the remains could be transferred to the Cathedral of Tarragona for some time until they finally were returned to their original place but all mixed up.

The present UNESCO World Heritage Site was refounded in 1940 by Italian monks of the same order. This is the altar (1527) sculpted by Damián Forment.

And now, in a totally different line of thought, I would like to talk about my recent lack of posts in the blog:

As fellow bloggers know so well, posting often and including relevant content takes time and effort. I used to have some sponsors that helped paying for my gear but it seems that Google does not like bloggers with content to survive and if it were for them we could be rotting in hell, sitting so comfortably as they are in their opulence. So from now on, I will be doing now and then, what I didn't in the past, which is, including sponsors in my posting because this blogger wants to keep taking pictures of Barcelona and writing posts with content or so I think.

As I mentioned, it is basically about buying gear and I will mention one of my favorite websites to get my stuff, I am talking about Pixmania. It is easy, it is fast and many times cheaper to buy there, especially using  voucher codes and waiting for special offers . Most of the products that get to the online shop here in Spain come from France and maybe that makes the price lower. Beware, it is not every product that you may find reasonably cheap and you may want to compare with other sites first, but all in all, you find good opportunities. Pixmania claims to be active in 26 countries, the UK being one of them. I have the opportunity to recommend a good place to get pixmania discount codes so do check it up if you want to save yourselves some good money, with special emphasis on photography products.

Table soccer - Futbolín - FCBarcelona vs Real Madrid

Table soccer was first invented by William Terrance Mkrill in 1921 and patented in 1923 or so it is said about the international version of this popular game, but Futbolin or Spanish table soccer was conceived by Alejandro Finisterre, a Galician and there is an important difference with the rest of tables abroad, players have both legs spread as you can appreciate in this image with the ever present rivalry between FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid.

The Real Estate Business in Barcelona

The real estate business in Barcelona, has had its ups and downs since these years of crisis started back early this century. Our economy, that seemed to be so prosperous relied solely on the fast money coming from the building sector. Construction companies, protected by the government, went on a high escalate of selling houses and apartments at an incredibly expensive price, three or four times over the real value or at least the standard amount paid during the late 90s. This period was called the 'real estate bubble'. People suddenly got into mortgages that last 30 years in order to pay for a blatantly overpriced product. With time, there came the crash and severe austerity measures had to be taken. Now prices are lower and such trend is expected to keep steady in coming years but people are already indebted and unemployed, and brand new buildings are still waiting to be sold or let as they are controlled by banks and not the government. Wouldn't it be easier that the government stop speculation and take away those buildings from the banks to sell them at a reasonable price to young families? Why are government hands so 'tied up'? Who rules the country, the government or the banks? I don't know how international real estate status is in other countries right now, places like Portugal, Italy or Turkey just to mention some, but it is evident that this is a world crisis and that no one is safe. If only we had not based our economy on bricks maybe we would not be talking about being one of the last economies in Europe.

Gin and Tonic at Casa Fuster, Barcelona

Gin and tonics have been with us since 1858. I have missed millions of them since then but the way things are going I will be catching up soon. Now that you know one of my favorite hobbies...taking pictures of spirited beverages while enjoying them, I think you'll agree with me that a place may be the extra additive that makes all the difference. Casa Fuster, a historical building restored into a five star hotel, is a great place to try your favorite gin while admiring the incredible modernist architecture and the colorful furniture of its Café Vienés.

Kids Don't Care, Barri de Gracia, Barcelona

Here is a scene older than history, repeated over and over again in every place on earth. Who hasn't be an actor in this play? 

Look at these children, everybody is having fun in their own crazy way and yet it all seems as if there was some kind of plan. I am sure, there was a first call, a starting idea: hey, wanna play? Yep, it always began just like that, with a simple, unbiased act of human communication later hidden under hundreds of layers of social 'learning'. 

The place: Plaça Rius i Taulet, one of those wonderful squares worth visiting in the bohemian Barri de Gracia, in Barcelona. There is a big tower with a clock in the middle so no way you can miss the square. Those giants (Cat. gegants) out there at the back, have names, they are called, Pau and Llibertat and they are about to give those kids yet another happy day before they grow up.

Art Nouveau Mosaics: The Trencadis Technique

Parc Güell, that amazing jewel of Art Nouveau, where Gaudi left his unmistakable legacy in spite of being part of a housing project that was bound to fail, is a vast green area where your eyes are immediately seduced by curious shapes, impossible lines, incredible designs and innovative ideas. Such is the case of the mosaic benches around the square facing the entrance to the park. Serpentine benches waving around the central arena, feature spectacular combinations of colorful shards of mosaic that apparently at first sight do not make any sense but that are part of an intelligent meaningful composition, a sort of magic snake showing off her shiny scales on top the 86 Doric columns that hold the square. The scales are really thousands of little shards, fragments of mosaic carefully assembled to create a sort of mural in which chaos generates beauty and such technique is called trencadis.

Wax Museum, Barcelona, Spain: Box Office

There are many great wax museums in the world so I think we cannot boast about our own Museu de Cera too much, but the building and the place where it is found in Barcelona, at the end of an alley near the end of Las Ramblas really pays for the visit. There is this box office you can see in the picture at one side of the central promenade in Las Ramblas, and right in front of the entrance to the alley, that has this attractive historical look. Located exactly at Passatge Banca, 7, Barcelona, the Wax Museum is a neoclassical style palace that dates back from 1867 that used to hold a famous bank. It wasn't till 1973 that the building was transformed into a museum by scenographer Enrique Alarcón.

Barri Gotic: Narrow Streets of Barcelona

Alley in Barri Gotic, Barcelona

It is easy to walk down the streets of Barri Gotic and get lost in time.

Discovering narrow alleys along the way and contemplating how the perspective drawn by the lines of buildings lead your eyes into small figures that come and go, is certainly one of the most pleasing experiences for travelers that want to avoid the obvious touristic routes in Casc Antic (old city), Barcelona.

The Art of Carving Spanish Ham

Carving Spanish ham is an art more difficult to master than it looks. It's not just about slicing any odd way. It requires skill and the right tools. I cannot teach you to carve it like a specialist but more or less you grab the basics when you've had good instructors and you've carved a ham or two to the bone. It is important to have a very sharp ham knife, which has a long and narrow blade and you should fix the piece in a ham holder, some sort of wooden framework with screws to secure both the wide end and the hoof. You start your cut from hoof to tip, that is from the upper raised part of the ham towards the bottom, first eliminating the thick fat but keeping the first slice of fat that you use to cover the ham meat when you finish. The very fat helps preserving the ham from drying and losing its quality. Beware you don't cut yourself. Keep your fingers off the direction of your knife's cut. It happens sometimes that it slips and you end up hurting the hand that is holding the ham. The slices should be as thin as possible and that is the difficult part. Try not to make a deep curve while you cut. The idea is to keep it flat and to cut thin. It doesn't matter if it takes longer for you and people clean up the dish before you finish serving the slices. That is normal! It happens all the time. Not everyone has the patience to go for the thinner slices and the nice presentation. The final result is definitely better. The shop in the picture is located in Barri Gotic, Barcelona, I think that it was at Plaça Sant Jaume.

Caganers and Politicians

Caganers and politicians have one thing in common, they both do the same s***. Caganers do it on the floor and it looks funny, politicians do it everywhere they go to give a speech and pass an antidemocratic law and that is certainly not funny. A caganer can impersonate almost everybody, it depends on the imagination of the artist that designs them. Caganers are used frequently to mock popular personalities although originally these figurines are meant for Nativity scenes. Caganers are from Catalonia and other regions nearby and it is common that they wear Catalan traditional clothes, that is, a white shirt, a barretina (red cap), dark pants and a faixa (a sort of sash or band around the waist). We have seen some interesting examples of caganers in Barcelona Photoblog in the past, as is the case of George Bush next to Fidel Castro and Artur Mas or Rafa Nadal, the famous tennis player. In today's image we see a traditional caganer turning his back on us, surrounded by a bunch of similar fellows and apparently just doing what they do best, dropping their stools, although this time there is a certain difference, he is wearing the Estelada or starred flag that is waved by Catalan independentists that is slightly different from the Senyera, accepted as the official Catalan flag. As you can see, although Caganers still represent the common people and mock almost anything, even politicians, they can be used to send a subtle message to whom it may concern.

Barcelona Carnival 2013: Elvis

Not than an Elvis impersonation is anything new to see specially without glasses but that tupee certainly caught my attention. This picture I took at Plaza Ibiza, Horta quarter once the local parade had come to an end. Participants and spectators joined at the square and started sharing experiences about the event. It's been yet another great year for Barcelona's Carnival this last weekend although technically it comes to an end tomorrow which is Ash Wednesday.

Worth mentioning is famous Sitges carnival that really lasts till the very end tomorrow and where many people from Barcelona go to if they have the chance.

Barcelona Carnival 2013: Some Days of Pagan Joy

Carnival in Barcelona is enjoyed with passion, all the passion that a European carnival can have. I mean, this is not Rio with all the moving flesh and the stamina the tropic brings. Within Europe, maybe it is not as beautiful as the one in Venice. In that line of thought, Venetians also tend to be a little rigid when it comes to shaking their hips in comparison to a Brazilian girl, probably in fear that masks fell from their face, who knows? In other words, we celebrate it with joy, shake our butt a little and try to make it as colorful as can be in order to forget for a while about economic crisis and corrupted politicians.

In Barcelona, for carnestoltes as it is also known here, there is the big parade or Rua (Catalan) in which each guild shows off their float and group choreography, and then there are small ruas held in parallel celebrations at neighborhood level.

As you may know, Carnival starts with Dijous Gras (Fat Thursday) and finishes with Ash Wednesday right when Lent begins. It is based in old pagan winter festivities normally drenched with wine and open to other liberties which Greeks and Romans were so prone to and such habits were later adopted by Christians in their own let's say penitent way, interpreting this brief period as a time for a relaxation break before dealing with the fasting hardships of Lent. Only for a hearty meal and a little wine, of course.

Around here, on Ash Wednesday, we make a funeral and bury a sardine, yes, we like to be different. Who wants to have sardines after having so much food and drinks. We have even created the figure of a guy, Carnestoltes, the appointed King of the Carnival, that dies every year, in some towns of a sudden death and in some others including Barcelona, after a public trial in which he is sentenced to death. The king, always ends up burnt to ashes, and as you may have guessed already, sometimes alive and sometimes being already a corpse. Whatever the way, he is given a non religious burial in accordance with his dubious nature and as a way to purify our repentant community from these days of sinful behavior. Obviously there is still a lot of pagan in our Christian souls somehow.

Barcelona's Twin Towers

Barcelona's Twin Towers, called 'Las Torres Gemelas' in Spanish, are tied for the tallest buildings in the city. At 154 metres tall, the Torre Mapfre (on the right) and the Hotel Arts (on the left) look over the Catalan capital from their location by the beach at Port Olímpic. The Torre Mapfre is owned by insurance company Mapfre and is home to their offices, as well as those of several other companies. Its sister, the Hotel Arts, is quite different as it is one of the city's most luxurious hotels. Many a celebrity has been known to stay in one of the Hotel Arts' 483 rooms that overlook Barcelona's beaches.

Photo is courtesy of Oh-Barcelona

Offer of the Day, Barri Gotic Shop, Barcelona

Now that the Carnival is starting in Barcelona, is not strange to see someone wearing costumes, in particular people disguised as Star Wars characters so if you come across this mannequin at the entrance of a shop in Carrer Arai, Barri Gotic (Gothic quarter) don't talk to it by mistake as it is probably just the offer of the day. In this case, the dress. I'd like to say that I find this kind of daring welcome more attractive than the classic stuff. Arai street is a very narrow street turning right at Carrer Avinyo.

The Artist and its Work, Las Ramblas, Barcelona

Here is a real artist contemplating his drawing at one of those spots specially assigned to painters and caricaturists along Las Ramblas, Barcelona. Nothing like the pleasure of staring at your work with the satisfaction of having created something you feel proud of. It happens with almost everything in life, and certainly, we are here because we like to create stuff and have goals that make us find a place as individuals in society. Of course you create for yourself but you need some recognition for your creation to be valuable. Being an artist many times depends on just that, good reviews. Although, then, there's the real artist, the one with the gift, like, Mozart for example, people that are great simply because they are, and the only thing you can do about it is bow and worship in awe. In other words, there are gifted souls and the rest of mortals. Within the latter, you've got, individuals that try real hard, and come out with a remarkable result and then there is the mediocre kind, divided into those who accept they are and those who regard themselves as artists. Do what you do, your work is of course respectable because is yours but don't expect everybody to like it. But beware of critics that may be part of that mediocre bunch and their snobbish ways, because sometimes genuine art is judged by shortsighted minds and they are really harmful.

Smurf icecream, Las Ramblas, Barcelona

It's winter around here, not too cold but certainly not the best time to have an icecream, but you know, Las Ramblas never sleeps, tourists are always storming the place, going up and down, along the mall and probably more than one person will fall for this luscious sight, the sight of beautiful creamy icecreams like that blue one with the Smurfs on top that in Spanish are known as pitufos

Astrolabe sculpture, Plaça del Sol, Barri de Grácia, Barcelona

One of the most beautiful squares in the bohemian Barri de Gràcia in Barcelona is Plaça del Sol

This square was built in 1840 and has a surface area of ​​2,502 m2. There used to be a bomb shelter in this place during the Civil War but it was demolished during the latest urban renewal in the area back in 1986 led by architects Jaume Bach and Gabriel Mora Gramunt who placed this nice sculpture called Astrolabe by Joaquim Camps on one side of the square.

Plaça del Sol (Sun square) is surrounded by streets such as Lluna (Moon) and Planeta (planet) in accordance with the astronomy related theme used by the architects.

The Three Wise Men 2013, Crèches and Domenec Talarn

Three Wise Men or Biblical Magi by artist Domenec Talarn

The Three Wise Men, The Magi or the Three Kings came to Barcelona today loaded with presents for kids as they do every year riding from the East on their camels. Well, you know the story. They carried gold, frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus. They do more or less what Santa does but bring more presents, change the deer for camels and give kids coal in case they misbehave. Barcelona Photoblog has published about Biblical Magi in the past:

• Wise Men of the East
• Nativity Portal at Sagrada Familia
• Pageant
• Balthasar
• The Letter Bearers

To celebrate the arrival of the Magi I have used an image taken in Barcelona's town hall during an exhibition of sculptor Domenec Talarn i Ribot's works. Talarn, born in Barcelona at carrer Jerusalem (Raval quarter) in 1812, was famous because of his representations of nativity (crèches) at the entrance of his workshop and the beauty of the figures he sculpted.

New Year Plans and Wishes from Barcelona Photoblog

Celebrations came to an end, we dreamed of changing our lives, we went through a period of fantasies and illusions which is Christmas and New Year's Eve. Something that when we were young made us think was going to change the world or something right when you woke up in the morning. It's strange, it still happens sometimes. The point is that we want to believe in something and still have that sense of what family values are, what is good and what is bad, we have wishes, we seek friendship and love. Every January 1st we make a wish and we make our plans. No matter what that plan is, almost always it is to be a better person, to get rid of your past sins, and start again with what you think is right for you and your people. Whatever your religion, your creed, you feel there is something worth changing or improving cause that makes you feel good in your heart and soul. Thanks God for that or whoever or whatever you believe in! Bye bye 2012!

Welcome 2013! I wish I am a better person this year, not only for me but with the people around me. I don't want anything for me. I wish you all, family, friends, friends of your friends, all of you a wonderful year, a wonderful life, a life you feel proud about and make your soul be happy. Best wishes from Barcelona Photoblog!