How to chose a right digital camera for a MicroStock?
Right choice of tools is essential if you want to get the job done fast and efficient. A basic tool for a microstock contributor is a digital camera.
So, you have chosen to become a contributor to the micro stock industry. Microstock agencies has build up very strict set of technical standards for the photographs they are admitting. Your photos has to meet those high standards or they will be rejected and you will end up frustrated.
You probably already have some kind of digital camera, compact P&S digital camera, or some kind of a prosumer digital camera or if you are more in the photography you own some DSLR system.
P&S digital cameras are simply not suitable for microstock. They have XY Mega pixels but the overall quality of the image is just not good enough. There are a few problems, first is the physical size of the optical sensor in the P&S camera. The surface of that kind of sensor is 5x smaller compared to the some more serious digital cameras, resulting the the image - even the big XY mega pixel image, is lacking those fine details or they are smudged. Also smaller sized sensor have increased amount of the colored noise, and the microstock agencies are really sensitive to the amount of color noise in the photos.
To deal with those drawbacks of the small sensor, manofacturers are boosting up the internal processing of the image. So the image that is coming directly from the camera is already noise filtered, sharpened and color adjusted. That kind of aggressive internal processing is pushing the limits of the photo, that kind of photo will look good in your family photo album. But every new processing by you or the designer that buy that photo will degrade the overall quality. Also the P&S cameras doesn’t give you the control over the photograph parameters, so you are in the mercy of the cameras software.
Prosumer cameras is some kind of a hybrid class, they are the best that manufacturer can offer below the DSLR. Prosumer cameras are meant to be used by the advanced amateurs. By they body size and features they are between the P&S compact and the DSLR class, of course much closer to the DSLRs. Those cameras has a bit bigger sized optical sensor then the P&S, also the internal processing of the image is not as aggressive as it is in the P&S, but it still strong.
If you already own some prosumer digital camera, like Canon G9, Sony R1, Fuji S100FS that would be enough to start in the microstock. But I wouldn’t advice buying the prosumer camera for microstock. If you want to shot some fast action photos, just forget about the prosumer, cause their auto-focusing system is a way too slow for that. Also working with RAW files is even slower, they give you more control over your photos, but not the full control. Also only few prosumer cameras has the ability to cooperate with photo studio lighting or additional flash units, and that only on a basic level.
Another reason why not to buy a prosumer camera for microstock is the price, they are usually very expensive, also when you buy one it’s loosing its value fast. Specially lately, they are pressured by the entry level DSLRs cameras.
DSLRs cameras the perfect choice for microstock, one of the main advantage of DSLRs is their modularity. You will need the longer lens to shoot up some sports or wild life, you buy only new telephoto lens. You need faster auto-focus, more fps or more megapixels, just upgrade DSLR body, all lenses that you have bought you can still use on your new DSLR body.
DSLR cameras are having physically the biggest optical sensors, resulting better image quality. Also the internal procession of the photo can be fine tuned and put under control - even turn off completely.
Also we can divide entire DSLR class in the few subclasses, first is and the most affordable entry-level class, followed by professional class and the absolute hi-end class.
For entering the microstock, entry level DSLR class will provide everything you need. As your microstock revenue rise, and you hit the limits of the equipment, you can always upgrade to the next class.
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