Lowepro have been one of the market leaders for camera bags for years, they have a huge range of camera bags and pouches suitable for basic digital compacts through to high end DSLRs with a collection of lenses.

I have owned several Lowepro bags in my time, but the Lowepro Fastpack 350 Quick Access Backpack is one that has caught my eye and is on my Christmas list (yes, I know I mentioned Christmas in August… I’m sorry).

This has enough space to carry a decent amount of kit, plus enough room for some food or a lightweight jacket. One big advantage is that you can store the camera with a decent sized lens attached. This means you don’t have to fumble around connecting your lens if you need your camera in a hurry.

The other plus point for me is that my macbook will also fit into it which means if I go away for a day or two I don’t have to lug about two bags as I like to review my photos on a larger screen while I’m away.

It’s not the funkiest looking of bags, like Crumpler for instance, but it serves its purpose and doesn’t cost the earth. All in all, a great bag to go with your shiny new camera gear.

Now I don’t confess to being a real photography gear geek and know all there is to know about each and every model of camera out there. To be honest, I don’t want to know. I read the odd article in magazines and on the internet, but I prefer to get recommendations from people who have actually used the equipment and give it good reviews.

I do have a few guidelines though when recommending a camera. So here they are. I hope they prove to be useful.

1. Stick with the following brands: Canon, Nikon or Sony. These are the big three brands, well, Sony is catching up and in my opinion is ahead of any of the other brands other than Canon and Nikon, and yes, I use Sony, so I can recommend them based on experience.

So why only choose those three. Well, they are the most popular brands and if you look at any pro photographer whether it’s a wedding photographer or a National Geographic photographer, nine out of ten of them will be using either Nikon and Canon and the other one will probably use Sony. Well, ok, forty nine out of fifty will use Canon or Nikon and the other one will use Sony. So that’s got to prove something hasn’t it?

The other reason is that as more people are using those brands, there will be more second hand equipment available which is always well worth looking at when choosing a digital SLR. Photographers will generally look after their equipment, so the second hand market is always something to consider.

2. Don’t spend all your hard earned cash on the best camera body. The camera lens is very important and can have a big effect on the quality of the image. In some camera plus lens bundles, the lens can be of lower quality with a high quality body. This isn’t always the case but it’s worth doing your homework on both the lens and the body. Don’t just assume the lens is going to be a good one.

3. Do your homework. OK, you’ve seen a few options within your budget, you’ve checked that the lens and body package is a good one, but now you need to check what other people think so it’s time to hit the internet. There are lots of places to find out what other people think about a product. Forums can be good but you have to take a lot of what people say with a pinch of salt. People like to talk about bad experiences a lot more than good experiences so you might see two people say something bad but there could be a hundred people who think the equipment is great.

Reviews are something that you should pay attention to. If a product has had 20 reviews and they are all good reviews, there is a good chance the product is actually pretty good but if they are all bad reviews, then I’d probably steer clear of that product. One handy site I’ve seen is TestFreaks.co.uk as it gathers camera reviews from several web sites into one place. I often use amazon as a source for reviews even though I might not actually buy from them, but it has served me well so far.

So, do your homework and narrow down your choices.

4. Test your options out. OK, so now you narrowed your choice down to maybe three or four options, but so far you’ve not actually held them in your hand. An important factor is confort and ease of use. If you can’t figure out easily where the menu options are, or the dials aren’t easy to turn then you aren’t going to enjoy using the camera. So, unless you know other photographers with those cameras, it’s time to go along to your high street store and try the cameras out. It’s here you have to be strong and not get persuaded by the salesman to buy there and then. If you find the perfect camera though, don’t be afraid to haggle. High street shops are desperate for business so it never hurts to ask. Most shops will price match too so don’t forget to ask.

You’ll notice I haven’t been mentioning any specific camera models in this article and to be honest, I don’t need to. If you set yourself a budget of say £500 and choose a camera from canon, nikon or sony they are, ready for this, all going to be very similar. To a beginner or someone just starting out with a digital SLR you aren’t going to really notice the differences between them and each one will give you all the tools you need to learn photography and achieve some great images.

So, work out your budget. Work out all the bits you will need like memory cards, a bag etc etc then look at what cameras are available with the cash you have available. Do your homework, read what other people think and test them out if you can and you will pick a camera that will serve you well and let you get out an enjoy photography.

Well, here are ten items that I think are well worth taking into account when you buy your camera. You never know, you may get one or two of these thrown into the deal if you ask nicely.

1. At least one spare memory card is an essential. If you are lucky enough to get one with the camera, it’s not likely to be a very big one. Memory cards are now pretty cheap, and a decent Sandisk Extreme III 4GB Compact Flash Card can be had from around £18. So why not get two!

2. If you have a DSLR with detachable lenses then from time to time you are going to get some dust in your camera. Dust is evil and will create lovely spots on your images so you will need to clean the lens or sensor. An easy way is to get a Giottos Rocket Air Blower which will blast any dust out of the camera. Plus they look pretty funky too and are under £10.

3. So you  are now collecting a few extra bits so you’ll need somewhere to keep them all. So a bag will be a handy thing to get. Now, the bag you get will largely depend on the type of camera you get. You aren’t going to get a big back pack for a small compact camera. There are hundreds of cases and bags available though, just bear in mind that it’s always better to get a bag than can hold more than you own right now. It won’t be long before you buy more equipment, and you don’t want to have to buy a new bag each time too.

4. A lens cloth is an important accessory. You really shouldn’t be using your fingers or shirt sleeves to clean your lens. Any small particle of dust on your sleeve or finger could scratch the lens, even a very fine scratch can effect the image as light will react differently as it passes through that area of the lens. So get a decent lens cloth and keep it in a clean pocket of your bag. Only use it for cleaning your lens and definitely don’t use it to clean anything else on your camera.

5. A very useful accessory for bridge or DSLR cameras is a UV filter for the front of your lens. This is actually more of a protection accessory than a functional accessory as this filter will protect the glass on the lens. Filters are a lot cheaper to replace than lenses. I would advise not to go cheap here. The filter will be another  layer of glass and can effect your image, so paying for good quality filters is well worth it.

6. This next one isn’t one you are going to keep in your camera bag, but it’s a very useful accessory to have. A card reader for your computer will make transferring your images from your camera to your computer a lot simpler. Getting a multi card reader, one that accepts more than one type of memory card, will make it a lot more usable and means you will still be able to use it if you ever change your camera and it uses a different type of memory card.

7. A tripod is a very useful accessory to have, but they can be very expensive. If you are using a compact camera or a DSLR with a small lens, then a great accessory to have is a GorillaPod tripod. These have flexible legs which can be wrapped round fences, trees, chairs, anything really and hold your camera still for longer exposures or photos that you want to be in too.

8. Now you have taken lots of pictures, you should share them. Sharing your pictures online is a great way to get feedback on them and also show your friends and relatives how good you are. I use Flickr.com and pay for extra space and uploads. It’s a great site too, very easy to use.

9. Depending on the sort of pictures you are taking, having good reference material can help you a much better shot. For instance, if you are into wildlife then you need to learn about the wildlife you are taking pictures of. If landscapes are your thing, then learning about the location will help you find a better viewpoint or a better time of the year to go.

10. Pretty soon you are going to fill up your computer’s hard drive with all your shots so an external hard drive is a useful addition to have. If you are going to get serious then you’ll want to set up a proper backup routine which is where multiple hard drives are very useful.

I listen to the TWIP podcast, a great podcast which covers relevant subjects to photographers as well as lots of banter between several experienced photographers usually revolving around the Canon and Nikon battle… Sony will be triumphant by the way!!….. but I digress. Anyway, they are always praising the Canon G9 for being a very competent little camera, and as I spotted a Canon G9 on amazon.co.uk for a decent price I decided to get one.

So why is a digital compact great, and why spend your money on another thing to carry around? Well not only is it small and easy to carry around it gives you a lot more freedom to take photos. You don’t have to worry whether you have the right lens on or not, it can be held at all sorts of angles that a DSLR would make awkward, you have all the manual controls you could need (depending on the features of the camera) and it makes you look less of a ‘threat’ to those people who think all photographers are some sort of terrorist, so you get a bit less hassle…. usually.

Ok, so it’s easier to carry around, but DLSRs take better quality images don’t they? Well, yes they do most of the time, but there are several digital compacts that can give some of the low end DSLRs a run for their money when shooting at a low ISO especially if all you are going to do with your images is put them on the web or print them up to A4 size.

I think the main reason why a Digital Compact is a great thing to have is that you can carry it around everywhere. Just stick it your pocket or bag and you’ll have it for that moment when you need it. A DSLR can be too big and bulky to take everywhere and quite often you’ll leave it at home, and then wish you hadn’t, so having a decent compact to hand will give you those extra opportunities to take pictures.

If you see a good location you can take a few pictures and then plan to go back with all your DSLR gear for specific shots. You can even use it to set up your DSLR shots. Check out this post on Strobist about how a digital compact like the G9 could be the new photographers polaroid camera.

In fact, I am so impressed with the G9 that it will be the only camera I take on holiday this year giving me a lot less to lug about, it’ll be good enough for the type of photography I will be doing (I’ve been there before so I know what there is to take pictures of) and it gives me more hand luggage space for Duty Free Jack Daniels!!

So, if you have a digital compact, make sure it’s with you all times, you never know when that photo opportunity will present itself!

Could you please share some info regarding the different lenses.

Now, lenses cover a huge area and can be quite technical when it comes to saying why one lens might be better than another. Plus there are lots of manufacturers of lenses, some will be available for some makes of cameras, others won’t so that adds extra complications.

If you want to find out how a camera lens is made, then I found this page which explains it.

So to start with, what are the different types of lenses. Well the two main types are prime or zoom lenses.

Prime Lenses

These are a fixed focal length, so there’s no zooming in and out with these. They are often a better quality lens optically than a zoom of similar length, and can quite often be expensive to buy due to the higher quality.

So why would you want a fixed focal length lens? Doesn’t that make it more restrictive?

Well, yes, it is more restrictive as you have to physically move to frame your picture, but the improvements in image quality and the reduced weight (usually) of a prime lens over a zoom make it worth while.

Zoom Lenses

These are lenses that give you a range of focal lengths. The term zoom lens doesn’t always mean you will be able to magnify the image, as you can get wide angle zooms with very short focal lengths, only a telephoto zoom will allow you ‘bring the subject closer’. So I guess that could be a third type, telephoto.

f numbers

A lens will have an f number. For a prime lens you will get a single f number, whereas a zoom lens may give you a range of f numbers, but it can still have a single f number. This f number is the maximum aperture you can use, as in the widest hole you can set of light to get in. When you buy your camera you may get a kit lens with it, usually a zoom lens. Let’s say with your shiny new DSLR you get an 18-75mm zoom lens. This means that the lens will go from 18mm to 75mm which is a good range for starters.  On this lens you may see it has something like f3.5-5.6 on it too. This is the aperture range that lens has and means that when the focal length is set to 18mm you will be able to use a maximum aperture (f number) of 3.5 but when you use the 75mm focal length you will only be able to use a maximum aperture of 5.6.

So what makes a lens a good one?

There are various factors which make lenses thought of as good. First off, and most importantly, will be optical quality. As the glass used in a lens is not flat, all sorts of problems can occur such as distortion when light passes through it.

This is when the image gets distorted in an unnatural way. Or certain portions of the image appear more distorted than others, usually nearer the edges. I won’t bore you with all the technical details of distortion (mainly because I don’t know them), but the better lenses have less distortion present, resulting in a better image. Better quality glass also produces better colour in your images, and will reduce the chance of getting a nasty lens flare in your image.

A better lens will be one that is able to focus on the subject quickly. At the cheaper end of the scale, lenses can take a while to focus on a subject and will often ‘hunt’ to find a focal point. Hunting is the term used when you see the lens going backwards a forwards several times until it finds something to lock onto. With the higher spec lenses, you usually get a wider aperture (smaller f number) which allows more light into the lens while it’s focussing and therefore helps the lens focus quicker. That is why you see all these sports photographers or nature photographers using these big expensive lenses. They need to be big to help get that wide aperture so they focus on the subject quickly, very important for the sports or wildlife.

So should I buy the cheapest lens I can find or save my pennies?

Well, for lenses, the saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is certainly applicable. You may think that buying a cheap lens that gives you a nice long focal length to get things nice and close is a good idea. I’m not saying don’t buy the cheap ones, you just need to know the limitations of that lens. If it’s all you can afford then that is what you’ll have to get. It may be very slow to use, as in slow to find it’s focal point, it may be made of cheap materials and may not stand up to knocks or the internals may prove problematic after some time, or the optical quality may be poor.

If you think about it, you tend to change your lenses less than you change the camera body, so it pays to save up and buy the absolute best lens you can afford. If you are getting a new camera and a lens, consider getting a slightly less expensive camera and spend more on a better quality lens, the rewards of having good glass are much more than having all the latest gadgets on the camera body.

Now the subject of lenses is a big one. I will try and sort some images out that explains some of the good and bad points about lenses so you can see for yourself what the differences maybe.

If you are considering buying a new lens to add to your kit lens to give more range or more flexibility then do your research. Try the second hand market to get a better lens for your money or ask other photographers what they use and look at their images so you can compare them.

Remember that your camera will require a specific fitting. Each brand will have it’s own fitting so make sure any lenses you try or buy are made for your fitting otherwise you may damage both the lens and the camera.

I hope that helps a bit Shani, but no doubt this will generate more questions which I will do my best to answer.