Digital Photography: Camera and Lens Recommendations
As a professional photographer who’s been doing digital photography since 2000, naturally I get a lot of questions about digital photography equipment, photo processing software, etc.
I use and recommend Canon EOS camera gear. There’s nothing “wrong” with Nikon, Pentax, Sony, etc., but if you ask me what camera or lens you should get for a particular application I’ll most likely recommend a Canon model. Obviously I get asked about cameras and lenses a lot, so I’ve setup a storefront powered by Amazon.com containing a selection of digital photography equipment I recommend for a variety of applications.
I try to add to it every time somebody asks me “What camera should I get for this much” or “What lens should I get for taking these kinds of pictures,” etc. It’s a work in progress, but if you have any particular questions in this vein I’m always happy to answer them as best I can.
Digital photography software recommendations
Image Browser Software
Modern computer operating systems come with decent built-in tools for working with images, but they’re not nearly as powerful or flexible as standalone image browser software.
Camera Bits Photo Mechanic: $150 (full version) or $90 (upgrades)
Photo Mechanic is the industry standard image browser software among photojournalists and it’s also used by many photography studios and advanced amateur photographers. I’ve been using Photo Mechanic since 2000 and I would have been using it since it was first released in 1998, but I didn’t have $18,000 to spend on a digital SLR back then so I didn’t need it yet.
Image Editing Software
Adobe Creative Suite CS6: From $19.99 per month (Creative Cloud) up to $1,600 (retail software)
Love it or hate it, Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for image editing software. It’s overkill for many photographers who’ll never need or use many of the advanced features, but we all like knowing they’re there “just in case.”
For many professional photographers and other imaging professionals, it makes sense to go ahead and buy Adobe’s full Creative Suite instead of just Photoshop. Depending on the version you get, Creative Suite will contain not just Photoshop but also Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworkds, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Flash Professional, Adobe Audition, Adobe Encore, Adobe Muse and more.
Adobe now offers a software-as-a-service (SAAS) model for its Creative Suite applications, called Adobe Creative Cloud CS6. Under Adobe’s SAAS model, instead of paying $500 to $1,500 or more to purchase their applications outright, you pay a much smaller monthly subscription fee to use one or more applications. Creative Cloud individual plans currently range from $19.99 per month for a single application (such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe InDesign) up to $49.99 per month for access to every application in the Creative Suite family.
The $49.99 plan requires a one-year contract; you’ll be charged $49.99 each month instead of having to pay for the whole year at once, but if you decide to cancel before 12 months have elapsed you’ll be charged a penalty equal to 50 percent of the monthly charges remaining. For instance, if you subscribe for two months and then decide to cancel, you’ll be charged a penalty of $249.95 to buyout your contract. If you’d prefer to pay month-to-month with the right to cancel without penalty at any time, you’ll be charged $74.99 per month.
Users who already own a Creative Suite software license can currently upgrade to Creative Cloud for a reduced fee of $29.99 per month during the first year. In addition, academic users (students, teachers and school employees) qualify for an educational discount rate of $19.99 per month for the first year. Under Adobe’s education discount eligibility guidelines, homeschooled students and their teachers are eligible for the same discounts as students and teachers at traditional educational institutions.
This page will always be a bit of a work-in-progress, but if you found these recommendations useful be sure to also take a look at my recommendations for making your life easier as a small business owner (and if you’re a creative professional of any type, you’re a small business owner whether you like it or not).