As a long time professional photographer for newspapers prior to my 
museum career I can chime in here.

If you are looking for a DSLR there are a couple factors to consider
     my preference is for Canon EOS - but any of the major camera makes 
have excellent consumer to pro level cameras
and for a variety of documentation photos a good quality standard 
digital "point and shoot" will fill the vast majority of needs.

The key for any slr is what lenses you have - to do copy work - for 
critical reproduction needs - documents and photos and have the edges 
and lines straight you need a flat field lens - or a macro lens - these 
are commonly 50 mm macro or 100mm macro

These focus in a flat field rather than on a curved arc from the center 
point of the "film plain" or now digital sensor.
A flat field lens will allow the focus plain to cover a flat artwork 
(paper or other 2-D object) where a normal lens will have a focal plain 
that is in an arc so that when focused on the center point of an 2D 
object the edges will be slightly out of focus.

Here's a link to a good explanation of this if you need for info
http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/29775/what-does-flat-field-focus-mean

Be aware that lots of camera lenses that are zoom lenses will say macro 
- but they are not an actual flat field lens - they rather have the 
ability to focus to a close distance. Camera makers have been misusing 
this specific term "macro" for a long time.

When photographing 3D objects any normal lens will work just fine - and 
if your photographs of 2D objects are not for reproduction or not of a 
critical nature that all areas be perfectly sharp then a standard lens 
will work for you most of the time too.

The other thing you have to remember - is if there is often a 
magnification increase on the focal length of your lens - because the 
camera sensor is smaller than the "standard 35mm" fill or "full frame" 
digital sensor. Often with consumer cameras - that will be 1.6x or what 
is usually a 24 mm lens would then we a 38 mm effective length (won't 
take in as wide an area) or a 50 mm would become an effective 80 mm, 
etc.  This means to photograph the same sized object you would have to 
move further back.

Of course this magnification is moot if you already have or are buying 
digital only lens - that is they are not based on the long-time standard 
of 35mm film cameras.

DSLRs are becoming better and better and more affordable - even the full 
frame sensor cameras - I recently (finally) moved to a Canon EOS 6D - 
and even as a long-long time photographer (mainly will film cameras) the 
move to using all my EOS lenses with digital is great but for the first 
time in a long time I find I need to study the manual to learn all the 
possible functions.

I am beginning to photograph art works by a regional artist for an 
upcoming exhibit in our history museum and for use in a book project so 
the full frame camera sensor and being able to use my existing Canon EOS 
50mm macro lens is important.

For other daily work camera to use for documentation photos we have a 
Panasonic Lumix digital camera that works great for most applications. 
Easy to carry and use - takes up little space- goes right in my case 
with the laptop - and is very high quality and sharp photos.

You just need to know what you really need the camera/lens to do and 
make sure you get something that will work for you. I really like 
today's Canon equipment (was a long-time Minolta film camera users in my 
prior career and my wife has an Olympus digital she loves and takes 
great photographs with) - but any of the name brand cameras out there 
are excellent quality and you can get great deals on used stuff if you 
know what you are looking for.

Would be happy to answer any other questions if you wish to email me 
anytime.

Chris Taylor
Executive Director
Atchison County Historical Society
P.O. Box 201
200 S. 10th Street, Santa Fe Depot
Atchison, KS 66002
913-367-6238
[log in to unmask]
www.atchisonhistory.org

Lundgren, Jodi wrote:
> I'd love to know what folks recommend as an all-purpose camera for museum work as well.  Please post publically.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jodi Lundgren
> South Dakota Art Museum
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Julie Blood
> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 3:33 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Camera Recommendations
>
> Good afternoon,
>
> I am looking for new camera recommendations, it seems the camera we use to photograph the collections has died.  We bought it used, but the model is about 10 years old... it was a Nikon D40x.  Can anyone recommend a dslr camera or something comparable that they use and like?  We will be using this camera to photograph everything for practically everything inlcuding ag equipment, tractors, textiles, small objects, photographs, archival papers, etc.
>
> Thanks,
> Julie
>
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If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).