Photographing props through exhibition glass and what camera set up is best

i see myself as a novice when it comes to cameras, i'm just not that interested in it, i get the impression with most things as soon a you buy one its out of date.

i have attended exhibitions in the past and seen plenty of images posted around the web. some good some not so good. i have not used the best gear to be honest and it showed in my results.

i know there are some very knowledgeable photographers on here , can you share your digital wisdom please?

flash or no flash, step back and zoom in or right up at the glass, iso settings these sort of things.

what sort of price range can you get away with? or do you recommend a particular brand or camera?

hoping to go to star wars identities and would like to come back with some really sharp in focus shots.

cheers

A polarizing filter on your lens will cut reflections a bit. No flash, on a tripod.

Tripod is ideal, but often not allowed. You could use a monopod, (or even seen a walking stick with a mounting point added on top to hold a camera).
At a pinch you could use an adjacent wall to lean/steady yourself on, if one is available.
You can use flash if the item is out in the "open", but again it's often frowned upon at exhibits.
Use a polarising filter on the lense (if you use a DSLR). It will cut down reflections if the model is incased in glass.

The three ways to increase brightness in a shot:

- increase ISO, but this will increase the noise.
- open the aperture wide (lowest f number), but this will reduce your field of view (the plane in which things are in focus).
- reduce shutter speed - thus the need for a tripod/monopod to reduce motion blur.


In terms of brand/model, it really depends on how much you want to invest.
I shoot Nikon, but Canon (or any other major brand) will also get you the shot, it is purely personal preference.
As for cameras being outdated, it's not so much an issue these days. The resolution has reached a point where any camera you buy nowadays will give you huge quality prints if you so desired. My older cameras (10+ years) still takes outstanding photos. If you did go down the DSLR path, you should invest most of your money in the lenses. You keep these for life. You can always upgrade the "body" if ever you feel the need.
Mirrorless cameras are an alternative, which are more compact while still delivering excellent image quality, but I dont have one, so I cant offer an opinion on price/performace though.

Cheers,

I agree with NS4 completely.

In particular regarding the idea of cameras being outdated. I shoot with a Canon T3i, which is by no means state of the art...it's several years old and was a fairly accessible price range...but it still takes amazing photos and I haven't felt any need whatsoever to even think about upgrading, even though I've had the chance to use some higher end and newer rigs.

Heck, I still have a film SLR that takes amazing photos, and it's like 25 years old.

One thing to remember is that an amazing camera can't fix a bad photographer...you can spend all the money in the world, but if you don't learn how to use your equipment and some basic "rules" of photography, you'll still end up with crap pictures. On the other hand, an excellent photographer can end up with amazing shots from much less expensive and basic equipment, because they know what they're doing.

What ever camera you use, you need to learn how to use the manual settings, that said, the iphone 5s has a damn fine camera.
This was take with a bottom end Sony A230 in low light.
COLT1851 by Adam Bryant, on Flickr

You should add two small laserpointers on the camera. Apart from each other at a known distance so that you then can use them to get the measurements on the prop.