118 Equipment
After purchase, join one of the great online scanning support groups
for assistance and further tips.Summary
There is no doubt that Jon Oringer is right to say that dSLRs are the
preferred tool for microstock. However, compact digital cameras and
“prosumer” or bridge cameras can do a good job, even if they are less
versatile than their dSLR brethren.
Film also still has its place, and if you have been shooting images
suitable for stock for years, it’s plain silly not to digitize and use some
of those images. It would not make sense though to start out a career
in microstock by buying a fi lm camera. Digital cameras are now too
good and inexpensive to make fi lm a sensible choice for microstock
use.
If you are serious about microstock photography, I strongly
advise the purchase of a decent dSLR. By all means, buy a good
compact as well if you can afford to do so, but make your main camera
a tool that can extract the most from your talent. dSLRs are not
only more versatile, used as a platform for interchangeable lens
systems, they also offer higher quality, with less work required in
postprocessing to remove noise, chromatic aberrations, and other
defects necessary for acceptance on the microstocks. As the
competition among photographers heats up, the dSLR user has
a distinct quality advantage over users of cheaper prosumer and
compact cameras, and having read this far, I just know you want
to be part of the haves, not the have-nots!