Pinhole cameras may be any form of light-proof container with a small pinhole. The inside is painted matt black. A single piece of film or photographic paper attached to the other side. The pinhole is uncovered at the time of exposure. This may be anytime between 1/30 sec to many hours depending on conditions. Since the exposures are often very long, the results are often unexpected and unusual.
Other simple cameras may have facilities for viewing the image through a basic viewfinder. A lens enables more light to be taken in. The shorter exposure allows hand holding of the camera and action shots. A roll of film can allow many exposures giving greater convenience.

Compact cameras cover a wide range, from very basic plastic boxes to highly expensive complicated electronic wonders. Most are 35mm or lately APS(advanced photo system). Many have Zoom lenses with small apertures but often give adequate quality for smaller or sometimes larger images. Bear in mind that built in flash has limited range and is in the worst position to light the subject (next to the lens-causing redeye and hard shadows).

Twin lens reflex cameras (TLR) have two lenses, one for viewing the image and one to take the photograph. The reflex part refers to the mirror, which reflects the image to the viewing screen. Most of these cameras use 120/220 roll film. As the image is viewed via a mirror the image is laterally inverted. Although less common today, they are capable of very high quality results.

Single lens reflex (SLR) cameras are the most popular today. The image is seen as it appears in the photograph, allowing the use of different lenses and attachments with ease. SLR cameras view the image through the taking lens allowing precise composition and focusing. Both of these are difficult with the former camera due to parallax of the image. Cameras may be 6x6/6x7cm or 35mm. Although the image is viewed via a mirror the image may be made the right way up by a pentaprism (five sided piece of glass). This makes SLR’s very popular. 35mm cameras are very portable with many accessories. Automation has made them very easy to use.

Medium Format cameras cover formats 6x4.5/6x6/6x7/6x9cm. They provide high quality without all the size and weight of a large format camera. Much used by professionals recent advances in lenses film quality allow the use of 35mm equipment for most purposes. If you like the highest quality in a small package outfit can now be had cheaply. They take 120 or 220 film with 12-24 exposures depending on format.

Large format cameras usually have negatives of 4x5 or 10x8 inches with facilities for roll-film. The image is viewed through a ground glass screen at the rear of the camera be for the negative is in place. The camera often has movements to allow perspective control. The front and rear of the camera rotate and tilt in various directions to adjust the resulting view on the negative. Distortions can be eliminated in this way. This is useful for building and advertising photographs. As the negative size is so large the quality is extremely high.

Digital cameras are the new arrivals, as yet are rapidly increasing their market share. Digital cameras come in all shapes and sizes. The best are still expensive but prices are dropping rapidly. If you already have access to a computer and printer they have many advantages. However only the more expensive can in any way rival film cameras for quality and versatility. Digital cameras are rated by the number of pixels they contain on their electronic chip. 2-6 mega pixels are minimum requirements. However consider how long batteries last and if they can be recharged. Is it easy it is to connect to your computer? can your computer run graphics applications fast enough? Image processing requires fast modern processors and large amount of hard disk storage. At the moment even a cheap film SLR can out perform all but the even the most expensive digital cameras. They do have considerable advantages in terms of ease of use, you don't have to buy film. Printing paper is almost as expensive. Many faults can be corrected before printing without great skill.

Choosing a camera

Even the simplest cameras can produce excellent results with care. However the most expensive cameras can produce awful results when used without thought. Flashing lights and LCD displays are not important compared to the care with which you use the camera. The subject and the care taken in developing and printing are most important. The camera is only a tool. For most photography the type of camera used is unimportant. However some types of camera suit particular types of more photography than others. Take time to consider the use of the camera as well as how much the camera will be used. A very expensive camera used a few times a year is a waste of money. It may also be too complicated for most people.
Automated cameras give good results, though may not give the best results without a lot of thought. A manual or auto/manual camera is essential in order to learn about photography. A top of the range camera with 10 modes is little help is you do not understand depth of field and shutter speeds. Consider buying a cheap fully manual camera at first to understand what you need from a camera. This will save you a lot of money in the long run. Consider size, weight and the handling to you prefer. Handle as many different cameras as possible.
A good tripod (heavy) will do more for your photography than a new camera or lens. A tripod will enable you to do much more; the results are sharper and better composed. Auto-focusing is a good idea but requires care for best result. Auto-exposure also needs thought as it works best with “average” subjects, that is an overall 18% gray. For none average subjects, such as snow or sand the camera will give a very underexposed result. Correct exposure is essential for the best results and requires understanding of basic principles.

Try to choose lenses with as wide a maximum aperture as possible- for example f2.8 allows twice as much light into the camera than f4. This allows more options and a brighter image for focusing SLRs. Zooms are a good idea but have restricted aperture and increase distortion. Avoid very wide range zooms (i.e. 28-200mm) for this reason. Large telephoto lenses (300-600mm) may at first be appealing for sports and wildlife photography, but add to your problems with added camera shake and smaller maximum apertures (use a big tripod!). Large aperture telephoto are available, but are large, heavy and very expensive. Wide-angle lenses are more useful for general photography (i.e. less than 50mm on a 35mm camera) and allow easier hand holding. It is often more useful to fit more into the frame than less with at telephoto.