Looking to buy a digital camera to take amazing family photos? In this episode of Gear Daddy, photographer Eric Doggett joins Daddy Troy to review some of the many digital cameras available for dads and parents. He presents an array of Canon digital cameras, from a Canon Powershot to the more sophisticated Canon Rebel digital slr camera. Check out more Gear Daddy for photography tips to really make your images and portraits the best they can be. DadLabs ep 488 is brought to you by BabyBjorn.

DADDY TROY: Welcome back to Gear Daddy, I’m your host, Daddy Troy and I’m so excited, Eric Doggett’s back, a professional photographer. We’re in the middle of photo month here at DadLabs.com and he’s going to tell us how to choose a new camera.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Baby Bjorn.

We’re in the middle of photo month at Gear Daddy at DadLabs.com and today’s episode is all about choosing a new camera. Eric’s brought in a bunch of cameras here. Eric, tell us all about them.

ERIC: Well, I’m a Canon person by trade but you can get equally good results with some Nikon gear and what I did was I basically pulled four cameras that I thought represented the price range and quality points that people need to be aware about when they’re looking for a new camera.

So what I did was I grabbed a couple different ones. This one is a little Canon Digital Elf. It runs just under $200 and it’s a great camera for just grabbing some snapshots.

The next step up from that is a Powershot G9. It’s a great little camera and a lot of professional photographers use this and love it because in addition to being a great pocket camera it gives you full manual control over all your shooting.

DADDY TROY: What does going full manual mean?

ERIC: What a camera wants to do out of the box is that it tries to make decisions about how the picture should be taken based on what it sees in the scene. A lot of times that’s not the right decision. If the camera sees a little glint of light maybe reflected off chrome or in a window it might clamp down on the exposure because that’s how it’s judging.

DADDY TROY: It thinks there’s a lot of light coming in.

ERIC: It thinks there is and there’s not and you want the ability to go in and say, “no, no, this is how I want the shot taken.” Some of the smaller cameras will allow you to roll the exposure up and down to kind of increase brightness or darken it but when you go with the camera that gives you full manual control, you set the shutter speed and the ISO and the aperture, that gives you the greatest control, the greatest creative freedom to allow you to create some of the images we talked about.

The first one that I always recommend in terms of people who are interested in digital SLRS is a Digital Rebel by Canon.

DADDY TROY: And for dads who are new to photography, what does SLR mean?

ERIC: Digital lens reflex. It basically means that the way the camera takes a picture is a mirror pops up and exposes the sensor which is just a little different than how others work.

DADDY TROY: And you can put lenses on and off these cameras where you can’t on these.

ERIC: Yes, and that’s the big point about these cameras. A body like this - $500 but you can put $6000 lenses on it and be fine. That’s the kind of capability with that.

DADDY TROY: If a dad’s going to get one of these out of the box, though, what’s the cost going to be in terms of if I bought a package with lens and body at the same time?

ERIC: On a Digital Rebel you’re looking at about probably around $600 for a body and a lens and you can also just get the body itself for around 500.

DADDY TROY: So this is the big pro one right here you brought in.

ERIC: Yes, this is the brand new Canon 5D Mark II and the buzz about this one is that it also does high definition 1080p video.

DADDY TROY: What am I going to get as I go up the line in terms of quality of pictures?

ERIC: With these smaller pocket cams that are great for taking shots when you’re out and about somewhere, that’s a useful purpose for them but when you start looking at taking pictures that you want to have prints made, 8 by 10 or higher, you’re going to see a noticeable difference not just in the quality but the capability of these cameras.

DADDY TROY: But this one right here has 8 mega pixels?

ERIC: A lot of people think that mega pixels is like the defining aspect of all cameras but if it’s small like this the sensor inside is small so that’s going to affect the noise quality of the image. A lot of these cameras, especially the entry level digital SLRs will have a pop up flash. They’re a good flash to use to get started with flash photography eventually you’re going to want to get away from that.

DADDY TROY: As a professional photographer do you ever use that pop up flash?

ERIC: No, I never use the pop up flash. I do put flashes on the camera but what I end up using is I put the flash on it and I bounce the flash around the room. So I’ll point the head maybe behind me or off to the side and you get this different quality of light that’s more portrait looking and not so paparazzi in your face.

Right, right and so if a dad’s going to by this kind of digital SLR should he think about also buying a flash as part of the deal or can he get good pictures without buying a flash as well?

ERIC: You can get good pictures in terms of learning how to take a shot without using a flash which is an important technique that we’re going to talk about at some point. And eventually you will want to get a flash to provide some supplemental light so experiment with the pop up flash for a little bit but also it doesn’t have to be the top of the line flash. The entry level flashes that are available for cameras that go on the ho shoe are really good ones to start with.

DADDY TROY: And for dads who have never used a digital SLR before what’s the learning curve on using it and actually getting good pictures? Can he take it right out of the box and take good pictures or is it going to take a half a year of shooting because I think some dads get in this panic moment when they’re having a baby, right, and they got to have the best camera possible? Are they going to end up getting this and not getting good shots?

ERIC: With digital cameras they all include displays on the back and so you can get that instant feedback right away that I would say a couple months of good practice will allow you to get some great shots and you’ll begin to realize if I want a certain kind of look I need this particular lens and I need to shoot at this time of day.

DADDY TROY: Well, Eric, thanks for coming in and showing us all your cameras. You’ve got a portfolio at your website, Doggettstudios.com, D-O-

ERIC: D-O-G-G-E-T-T-Studios.com.

DADDY TROY: And you’ve also got another product we talked about last week called Box Office Baby. If you didn’t catch that episode you should check I out. We also have you coming in next week and what are we going to talk about then?

ERIC: We’re going to talk about ways that you can kind of up your photography game so using whatever gear you have, improve your pictures and kind of take them to the next level.

DADDY TROY: Thanks so much.

ERIC: Sure.

DADDY TROY: And we’ll see you next time on Gear Daddy and all week long at DadLabs.com