GOT A SMARTPHONE? NEED MORE IHNATKO?
favorite premium consumer compact camera, if money is no object, is Sony’s NEX-7, which retails for $1,349 with a kit zoom. If your budget is tighter, go for Panasonic’s LUMIX GX1, which is available online for just $499.
Both cameras are interchangeable lens systems with large image sensors and a boatload of consumerfriendly features. They take fantastic photos when you trust them to make all of your decisions for you.
I saw plenty of Olympic marchers with big Canons and Nikon SLRs slung around their necks. But a conventional SLR is overkill. They’ve truly been marginalized by these new compacts. A Canon EOS 5D Mark III ($3,500) will, yes, definitely take better photos than a $500 compact system camera. But that’s not an absolute given in every shooting situation. The value of a pro SLR is that it allows the best photographers to take the best photographs possible, in any given situation — especially those in which speed is an issue. Put a good SLR in the hands of an amateur, however, and the math changes. A modern compact takes phenomenally good photos.
Think about getting the most bang for your buck, too. If I had a $3500 camera budget, I’d buy an NEX-7 plus a great assortment of lenses and accessories, or a pair of Do you have a bar code reader app? If so, simply snap a picture of the QRcode to the right and you’ll automatically be routed to Andy’s page at suntimes.com for an extended version of this column and more. GX1s and the highest-quality lenses I could buy for them.
Participating in the Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies is truly an event where lots of things will be happening and you won’t want to miss anything. That phrase can mean “I want to document every moment” as well as “I don’t want to be so distracted by taking pictures and shooting video that I don’t actually experience this event firsthand.”
GoPro’s Hero2 HD camera ( is a fab solution to both problems. They can shoot full HD video nonstop for as long as their batteries or their memory cards hold out. If you use them shrewdly, that can be hours. They also have a 10 megapixel still photo mode that can take snapshots at timed intervals ranging from seconds to minutes. In this timed still mode, the battery can last practically all day.
The GoPro camera has a big library of wearable accessory mounts. Wearing it on a headband yields a satisfying “You Are There”-style record of the event, but it’s a bit overt. Instead, an arm band, or a chest harness, will capture an uninterrupted stream throughout the day, with a modicum of discretion.
GoPro cameras are not terribly expensive, either — $299 gets you a Hero2 in a variety of mounting packages.