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n the 1980s the American writer and filmmaker Susan Sontag wrote that we are living in a world where we are so keen on documenting our lives through pictures.

In today'€™s reality, almost everyone has access to digital phones of some sort and millions of pictures are taken every day. As she simply said, '€œWe are obsessed in documenting our own lives. Cameras, just like us, have evolved. But the function remains the same.'€

So let'€™s discuss how to select, use and maximize the digital technologies available today.

First, the same rule still applies from the early days of photography '€” it is the person behind the camera who makes the great picture.

Second, know your equipment well. Some people still believe they have to own a very expensive digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera to take that beautiful sunset picture. The reality is that it can'€™t be much further from the truth. Yes, every camera has its own limitations, but all cameras are capable of producing excellent results.

Digital cameras come in two major forms: traditional cameras and smart phones. Mentioning the latter as '€œcameras'€ can start heated arguments in some Internet forums, but dpreviews.com, one of the leading photography sites, officially acknowledges that today'€™s camera phones, with the embedded technology, are valid image-recording tools. Thus, they deserve to be called cameras.

Traditional cameras also cover a very wide range of types, but in general they can be divided into two: single lens reflex (SLR) and non-SLR.

Single lens reflex refers to the system wherein a lens is attached to the camera body and can be interchanged with other lenses. In layman'€™s term, you can change the lenses.

Non-SLR cameras refer to all cameras with non-changeable lenses. The leading brands are still Canon and Nikon, although Olympus, Sony and Pentax have some very good models.

Some people mistakenly believe that SLR cameras, with greater sizes and the ability to change lenses, will be automatically superior to non-SLRs. That is simply not true. There are too many factors, either technical or not, that will influence the quality of a picture.

Digital SLR or DSLR have come down in price and size over the years. The main differences will be related to the size of the sensor. As a rule of thumb, the bigger the size of the sensor, the bigger the cameras will be. The top-ends have full frame-size sensors and are very expensive, but also very capable cameras.

Then you have DSLRs with cropped sensors, which basically means they have smaller sensors, thus the field of view of the sensor is smaller than above. The positive side is that the lenses will have the ability to see something in the distance. In other words, your average telephoto lens will seem to be longer than those used on film cameras.

Then you have the new generation of cameras, which only became available with the birth of digital photography: the 4/3 format.

This refers again to the size of the sensor. As the sensor is smaller than full-framed or even cropped DSLRs, 4/3 cameras, which were pioneered by Olympus, can be much smaller and lighter. But the story does not end here.

There are also '€˜micro 4/3'€™ formats that utilize an even smaller sensor than the 4/3 cameras. This leads to the presence of a series of cameras from various manufacturers, like Olympus, Panasonic and Samsung, that are still categorized as DSLR but come in almost half (or even a third) the size and weight of a full-framed DSLR. It is like when Ford produced the Mustangs that looked like sedans, but had the capability of being racing cars.

Of course, because of the law of physics the difference in sensor sizes will effect image quality. The reality is that as technology is more developed, the quality of pictures produced by smaller-sensor DSLRs is improving significantly. This also applies to the full-frame sensors. It comes to the point where professional photographers use full-frame when they really need it (like making a print more than five meters in size), but meanwhile for daily use the cropped size or even the micro 4/3 is becoming the norm as their sizes and weights have strong advantages.

So which one is better? It really depends on your needs. Do you need to make large enlargements? Do you need cameras that can stand being used in heavily dusty environments, or in drizzling rain? Do you need something you can carry all day walking around town? The truth is there is no magic camera that can answer or solve all your problems.

Compromising by being honest about what you need is the key. (Ari Poespodihardjo)