Which camera should I use?

PrettyBoy

How's it going guys, I know nothing about cameras so I feel very stupid asking this but here goes..

I have 2 cameras at the moment - a Samsung ST200F http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/samsung_st200f_review/ ) and a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 ( http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/digital-cameras/102504/panasonic-lumix-dmc-fz7 ). I want to start taking more pictures of events I go to but I'm not sure which one I should use.

The Samsung is a small, compact digital camera and has 16.1 Megapixels. I would have guessed that the Panasonic would have been the better of the two as it looks like one a professional would use but then I saw that it only has 6 Megapixels. I always that the higher the megapixels, the better the image quality?

I know nothing about photography, if someone could explain which is the better of the two I would be very grateful

PrettyBoy

Anyone?

km991148

Hey - I dont know so much myself - but a few comments until someone else comes along..

Image Quality is very subjective, and although a higher megapixel sensor in theory can capture more image data it is definitely not the only factor with regards to image quality.

Sensor size, lenses, in camera software and many other factors contribute to this.

Also - what type of events are you talking about? concerts with low light? sporting events? i.e. what (generally) will be the light conditions and speed of subject? This will determine what type of photography you will need to focus on. Once you know this people may be able to help you understand why (or why not) a particular camera (or feature of camera) is useful.

PrettyBoy

km991148 wrote: »

Also - what type of events are you talking about? concerts with low light? sporting events? i.e. what (generally) will be the light conditions and speed of subject? This will determine what type of photography you will need to focus on. Once you know this people may be able to help you understand why (or why not) a particular camera (or feature of camera) is useful.

Outdoor events at race tracks usually in the morning or afternoon, none at night or in the dark.

km991148

taking action shots of fast movement can be tricky. I think it is going to be tricky with either camera, but you should try. Read up on some basics of photography. Then also specifically how to shoot action - i.e http://www.wikihow.com/Photograph-Motor-Racing.

I think the biggest problem will be how fast the cameras can focus, especially when zoomed in (unless you can get yourself close to the action, in which cas eit will eb better not to zoom).

Take both cameras learn their controls and spend some time. If they turn out to be a limiting factor, you will at least learn about photography and why they are limiting.


Hopefully someone can come along with more details - I know little!


NOTE - I dont know enough to say which will be best.. I suspect the Lumix, due to the better zoom and possible lower aperture lens, but the camera is older and may have worse auto focus software. If you can manually focus, then this may not be an issue.

endacl

Do you intend blowing the image up to, say, poster size?

If not, megapixels don't really matter much at all.