3 Criteria for Choosing the Right Camera for You

What are the things you should look for when shopping for your next camera purchase? Here are a handful of things I consider before placing my order.

Does It Meet Your Technical Needs?

Some may say that it’s megapixels that makes for the best camera. But what if you’re a news photographer and a smaller more easily transferable file size is more beneficial to your workflow? Others will say that the best camera can shoot the fastest frames per second. Well, what if your job is to shoot products that are going nowhere fast in a studio and your main requirement is maximum resolution for reproduction?  

All of which is to say that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all spec that every photographer absolutely needs. Therefore, rather than tell you to try and maximize any particular spec with your next purchase, I would say that you would be better suited to first decide what type of photography it is that you would like to do. Maybe you are going to be shooting high-end commercial images that need to be of the highest resolution to suit a client's needs. Maybe you will be shooting images at this year’s Super Bowl and you absolutely need the fastest shooting camera to capture the decisive moment. Maybe you're a part-time vlogger and having a fully articulating screen really is a dealbreaker.  Maybe being incognito when shooting is important to you and size really does matter.

While I can’t blindly tell you what specs will magically suit your needs, figuring out what you personally need from your camera is the first step in deciding which is right for you.

How Does It Feel in Your Hand?

I’ve owned and/or shot with just about every brand of camera there is over the last couple of decades. Some had high megapixels. Some had high burst rates. Some were really good with video. Some were purely a matter of practicality. One or two were even all those things wrapped into one. And while it’s clear that I have my favorites in terms of brands and bodies, I can confirm one thing.  None of the cameras failed to meet basic technical specifications. Every one of them, regardless of brand, was capable of doing the vast majority of what I needed it to do. Each brand might do those things in a different way. But, with a bit of practice, or at least a short perusal of the owner’s manual, they were all more than capable.

We live in an age where the options for photographic tools are enormous. And, despite what some would have you believe, it’s unlikely that you are going to ruin your life by choosing one brand over another. It’s simply a matter of choice. It really is hard to go wrong when buying a camera today.

What I have found over the years is that the main delineating line between cameras that I love and cameras that just kind of get by isn’t usually a technical spec. More often than not, while this might not satisfy those who want a quantifiable standard of measure, the truth is that my love for a particular camera is driven largely by that completely subjective question of how does it feel in the hand. How does it feel in my hands, to be specific.

Taking pictures is a physical activity. You move your body to get into position. You turn your wrists. You are constantly fumbling at the buttons and dials on the camera body to express what you want with a particular image.

When I played football, I was a quarterback. One of the minor perks of being a quarterback was that I got to pick the game ball. Before the game started, the coach would lug out the old sack full of footballs from the equipment room and dump them out onto the grass. I would then go through the process of picking them up one-by-one, spinning them around between my hands, placing my fingers against the laces, and feeling the traction of the pigskin against my hands. There was nothing scientific about it. It was just a purely subjective judgment call. Which football felt right to me? Which seemed like I could throw it the best? Which did I want to be holding when I was dropping back to pass?

Picking up a camera is much the same way. You’ll know when you have the right camera for you when you pick it up. It will just feel right. It will feel like an extension of your hand. The balance, the grip, the weight. You won’t be taking photographs thinking, “wow, I’m capturing so many megapixels!” You’ll be pressing down on the shutter and saying, “wow, this feels really good.” “I’m enjoying this.” “I can’t wait to pick this camera up again because it makes me feel at home.”

Is It Valuable To You?

Deciding whether or not a camera is valuable is more than just its price. You definitely need to take into account the sticker shock of a particular product before investing. But, you also need to put that price into the context of your personal needs.

Let’s start with a simple (non)mathematical equation. What is more valuable? A super-expensive camera that you use every day? Or a dirt-cheap camera that you bought because it was on sale but never actually makes it out of the bag? One might be inclined to think the cheaper camera is the better deal because it costs less money up front. But, if it proves not to be of practical use to use, then it’s really just an expensive paperweight.

That’s not to say that the more expensive camera is always the better value either. I’ve bought more than one expensive camera over the years that I thought was going to be my everyday workhorse only to find that, in actual practice, I was opting more and more to use a less heralded camera as my workhorse because it simply was a better fit day-to-day. We can’t use purchase price as the main unit of value. We have to access value on a case-by-case basis, because each photographer and each workflow is different.

So, in decoding the potential value of a camera, I tend to ask a few simple questions. Is this a product that I am going to use every day? In my humble opinion, regardless of price, I tend to feel as though I’ve spent my money wisely when the thing I’ve purchased is something that I use every day. Even if I spent more than I would like, if a product proves its usefulness and turns out to be something that makes my life better, it feels to me like it’s worth the cost.  

Which leads to the second simple question? Does this product improve my life? Now, before we get too excited, it’s important to remember that It’s just a tool, after all. So, it’s not going to fundamentally change your existence. The camera won’t make you taller, slimmer, younger, or more sexy. But sometimes a product is a significant enough upgrade over our previous system and can make our workflow more efficient. This increase in efficiency can allow us to work faster, complete our jobs quicker, and thus literally give us the gift of time. It’s hard to put a hard value on time. But that’s because it’s priceless.

And the last question. Does it bring you joy? Hopefully, that phrase isn’t copyrighted by Marie Kondo and can still be used in the context of this article. The simplicity of the phrase making things easy to understand. Does shooting with the camera make you happy? Yes, as professionals, we need tools in our hands to meet a very specific purpose. But, the odds are that you started down the photographic path because you loved taking pictures. You love the experience of image making. And, regardless of your balance sheet, the act of taking pictures brings joy to your life.

To that end, sometimes picking the right camera for you isn’t a logical decision at all. It’s purely impractical. It’s asking yourself a basic question, “does using this camera make me happier?” If the answer is “yes,” it might just be the best investment you’ve ever made.