There is a huge variety of cameras to choose from, from the incredibly complex SLR to the simplest point-and-shoot.

These cameras, used mainly by professional photographers and students, are very flexible, due to the fact that bellows are placed in the middle of the film and lens. While their design remains unchanged for over a century, the most famous photos were taken with View Cameras. Have you seen all of the photos taken from famous photographers, such as Edward Weston and Ansel Adams? Their pictures were taken with view cameras. Many advertisements of food are taken with view cameras.

Unlike most other cameras, view cameras take sheets of film, instead of rolls of film. You load film by sliding a sheet of film into the back of the camera. However, with a view camera you can’t just snap a picture like that. Setting up a huge view camera can take a matter of minutes, not seconds. Remember, view cameras don’t weigh 2 pounds!

View cameras are almost as simple as pinhole cameras, with one exception; you can focus. Focusing is done by looking at an inverted image on a ground glass, and then taking a picture by activating the shutter via a cable release.

Film size: 4x5 or 8x10 sheets

Manufacturers: Calumet, Sinar Bron, Hasselblad

Advantages: Lens can be shifted to correct perspective, supports 4x5 or 8x10 film, so you can make huge enlargements

Disadvantages: Can take forever to set up, extremely bulky, a good tripod must be used to take a picture.

These are by far the most used cameras by professionals and serious amateurs. When looking through the viewfinder of these cameras, you are seeing through the same exact lens used for taking the picture. Because of this, you view an almost-exact duplicate of the final image.

SLRs are also the most complex cameras, consisting of microprocessor-controlled meters, and completely electronic operation. Despite their complexity, all SLRs work basically the same way. When the user presses the shutter release button, a mirror (used for showing you the final image) flips up, and a focal-plane shutter opens and exposes one frame of film.

Film size: 35mm

Manufacturers: Canon (EOS series), Nikon (F and N series), Minolta(Maxxum series), Pentax, Vivitar, Ricoh

Advantages: Through-the-lens viewing, reliable computerized control for most new SLRs

Disadvantages: Can get to be heavy, mirror makes a rather noisy sound at exposure time.

These are most likely the most expensive of all camera systems (sometimes the price can go up to $20,000!). Most have almost the same design as the 35mm SLRs, except that they support 120 and/or 220 film, commonly called roll film. These are widely used cameras for magazines, and are sort of a midway point between the view camera and 35mm SLR. They support a large film format, so pictures look clear and sharp. They are also about the same size as a 35mm SLR, so they are also compact.

Film: 120 or 220 roll film

Manufacturers: Rollei, Pentax, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Bronica

Advantages: Has the compactness of a 35mm SLR, and the image quality of a view camera.

Disadvantages: Can be hard to use for beginning photographers, can get to be very expensive.

These cameras are of the most popular cameras in production today. They fit in your shirt pocket. They make barely no sound. All you have to do is snap the shutter and boom, you take a picture. But everything is not without its disadvantages. These cameras do not allow you to change lenses. You cannot control the aperture and shutter. You do not see through the same lens that the picture is taken on. Should you even bother to get one? I would say so, as I explain in Choosing the right camera.

Film: 35mm, sometimes 120/220

Manufacturers: Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta, Vivitar, Kodak, Fuji, Rollei, Yashica, Samsung, Contax, Olympus

Advantages: Pocket-sized, simple to use, inexpensive

Disadvantages: Lenses cannot be changed, SLR’s flexibility is lost

This camera is a filmless camera. While digital cameras have only been around for 2-3 years, they have gained a huge amount of popularity by both amateurs and professional photographers. Unlike film cameras, when the user presses the shutter-release button a CCD(light-sensitive computer chip) is exposed to light, which then saves the captured image in the camera’s RAM or on a floppy disk. These cameras can also have a color LCD monitor on them, so you can view exactly what your image will look like. The only catch is that you will need an reasonably good printer to match the digital camera’s photo with a film camera’s photo.

Film: None; all pictures are stored on RAM or on a floppy disk

Manufacturers: Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta, Hewlett-Packard, Casio, Polaroid, Olympus, Fuji, Kodak, Ricoh, Epson, Agfa, Vivitar

Advantages: No film is needed, no need for developing, connects to your computer, so it is more convenient than a scanned photo. If the resolution is high (over 1000x1000 pixels), the quality can be many times better than a scanned photo.

Disadvantages: Quality can be noticeably lower than a film camera’s picture (if lower than 640x480 pixels resolution), are twice as expensive as 35mm cameras