This time, from a much higher-profile blogger than me–Tim Bray. The bulk of the post is actually about digital SLRs (DSLRs), more specifically, Bray’s follow-on commentary to this post by Dave Sifry. The starter kit looks decent, but the estimate of how many RAW files a 4GB Compact Flash (CF) card will hold makes me wonder if Canon’s RAW files are bigger than Nikon’s. I have a D70s I’ve been shooting with for about two years, and a 2 GB CF holds over 350 RAW files.
The only place where I might differ with Bray’s additional points is the first one on camera brands. Canon and Nikon between them own the vast majority of the film and digital camera markets. This is important because it means you’re far more likely to find used equipment of good quality in those brands than with Pentax, Sony, etc. In my own case, the reason I got the D70s was that my friend Sandro found a refurbished one for $600 at Penn Camera. Maybe 6 months before that, the same camera cost $1200 new. New lenses get pretty expensive once you get faster than about f/4, so good used ones also keep things affordable.
It actually depends on what kind of camera body you have – the EOS 5D, with a full-framce sensor and 12MP gives me about 250 RAW shots per 4GB card. I suspect you’d get about double that with a 6-7MP camera body…
Dave
Thanks very much for the clarification. The D70s is 6.1MP, so that explains my numbers.