The Camera

There are many types of cameras on the market though the most common are the 35mm compact, the single lens reflex (SLR) and now the popular and very convenient digital camera. Although I will mention all these cameras in this section I will concentrate mainly on the SLR.

Think of your camera as no more than a light tight box which admits no light except through a small opening in the front. The opening is equipped with a lens to focus light onto the film at the back of the box and an opening and shutting mechanism to this opening called a shutter which controls when and for how long the light is allowed to enter the box. The amount of light passing through the lens is controlled  by adjusting the size of the hole. This is called the aperture.

The main feature of the popular SLR which distinguishes it from other cameras is that you actually look and focus through the same lens that is used to cast the image onto the film. This has several important advantages. The camera is built so that the distance from the lens to the viewing screen by way of the mirror is the same as the distance from the lens to the film at the back of the camera. Therefore, if the image is in focus on the viewing screen it will later be in focus on the film when the mirror is moved out of the way of the film to take the picture. The main advantage is that what you see in the viewfinder is what you get.

As you can see from the diagram on the left the light passes through the lens, is deflected upwards by the mirror onto the viewing screen which is what you actually see when you look through the viewfinder. A pentaprism is used to direct the image on the viewing screen to the eye piece.

When the shutter button on the camera is pressed the mirror flips up and the shutter opens, allowing the light that was deflected onto the viewing screen to fall onto the film. The image is recorded on the film and then the shutter closes and the mirror drops back down. The film is then advanced and the camera is ready to repeat the process again.

Another advantage of  the SLR is its flexibility for different photographic tasks.  This is because of the add-ons available for the SLR, from different lenses to flashguns to cable releases to motor drives. This is why the SLR is used by most photo journalists and sports photographers throughout the world. The down side to this is that before long you could end up lugging a 20kg camera bag around with you. This is where the compact camera comes in handy. Now available with a good quality zoom lens and built in flash they will fit easily into you pocket. They use the same 35mm film as the SLR and results can be excellent. It is important to remember that it is the quality of the film and the lens which will decide the quality of the photograph as far as sharpness is concerned rather than the camera which is responsible for getting the exposure right, the right amount of light on the film.

Since digital cameras became more affordable they have become a very popular alternative to conventional film photography. Their main advantage is having instant pictures once the camera is plugged into the PC. If the pictures are to be viewed on the computer it is a very handy format and very cheap too. If the pictures are printed out on photo paper using an inkjet printer then the cost of processing increases though you have the advantage of only printing the better photographs. The quality of the prints will depend very much on the quality of the printer.

Digital SLR cameras give the sports photographer the best of both worlds. Interchangeable long lenses, fast shutter speeds with the ability to download the images using a laptop computer and a mobile phone within seconds so that they are available to be viewed by the editor in the newsroom.

                 The Pentax Z1-p  as used by myself.                                                 A typical compact camera showing the zoom lens extended.

Camera / Lens / Film / Exposure / Composition