Beginner's Camera?

AdeleS

I have always had an interest in photography but basically have never had much time to do anything serious about it. Now that I have a bit more time, I'd like to make a start and buy myself a good quality digital slr. I've been looking at the EOS 350D but I'm thinking this cam will prolly be way to complicated for a beginner like me plus very expensive too. The EOS 300D looks good too and a lot cheaper.

I would appreciate a bit of advice from you "pros" out there. Cheers!

macroman

The "Family" camera we got is a HP M415 with Printer/Dock. Really Easy and fairly cheap. We paid about €370 for it. And it doesn't come with a SD card, but a 64MB €20 bumps it upto 471 photos and about 5 mins worth of video. I use a Fuji Finepix S5000 which is a top class but expensive camera. Worth the cash!

Fionn

hiya
you'll probably need to let people know your budget roughly and maybe what kind of photography your considering.

I'm a beginner and after looking at a lot of cameras eventually decided on the Canon EOS 350, there is a setting on it that essentially turns it into a fully automatic point and shoot camera, this allows you to take very good photographs. When your ready ou then have the advantage to delve deeper as you get more comfortable with the camera and move on to more advanced operations it's capable of.
btw as far as I know SLR's usually wont come with any memory card so thats an extra cost. But you can avail of bundled offers from some places.

whatever you choose, good luck

Ruu_Old

Aye start off with a point and shoot or some sort of hybrid which Im sure are available to get the feel of things Unfortunately I cannot recommend any.

AdeleS

Thanks for your replies. Just wondering what the differences are between the EOS 300 and the EOS 350 as there is a major price difference. I guess my budget would be around 700 euro and would like to get a few lenses thrown in too. Btw, does the EOS 300 have the point and shoot feature too?

leche solara

As a point and shoot I can highly recommend the Ricoh Caplio R4 - 7.1 Optical Zoom, 6MP, 1cm Macro mode, wide 28mm-200mm, long life battery

See it here http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/257897/art/ricoh/caplio-r4-black.html

AdeleS

Don't think it's quite what I'm looking for really but thanks anyways;)

Fionn

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0308/03082005canoneos300d.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos350d/
links to the two cameras you mentioned

5uspect

Tough choice. I've had a couple of Point and shoots. My first was a sluggish and slow 2MP samsung, but it was fun. I still have my 5 MP Nikon 5200 which is tiny and takes really nice (if noisy) pics. I've recently taken the plunge and upgraded to a 350D.
The 350D has lots of point and shoot features too, so you can learn the manual stuff at you own pace and still take really great pictures with the built in hand holding stuff.
this is a pretty good deal which includes a battery grip and two fairly decent lenses:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/glance/-/electronics/B0009HMZNE/026-6694282-2193263
you can pick up a 2gig CF card on komplett.ie for around €70. you'll also need to get either a second li-ion battery or six AA for the excellent battery grip included in this bundle. I reccomend six Ni-MH rechargables. I have 6 1300mAh NiMH batteries in the grip and the camera chuggs away for over a week before it needs a recharge - a P&S will drain the biggest batteries in hours due to its dependency on a backlit LCD for viewfinding.
I think I paid just slightly over €1000 for all this (I already had the Ni-MH batteries but they shouldn't cost too much)

Maybe try and get a cheap second hand P&S to see if you like the whole photography thing, tho an SLR can be a different world to P&S cameras you'll still probably get some very nice pics.

Also isn't there a hacked firmware for the 300D to unlock all the features Canon disabled on it? might make the 300D a good option if you can get one cheap...

AdeleS

Also isn't there a hacked firmware for the 300D to unlock all the features Canon disabled on it? might make the 300D a good option if you can get one cheap...

Now that has sparked my interest:D

Just did a google on it and not a problem to find. Thanks for that!

5uspect

no bother - but remember a SLR is only as good as its lenses and good lenses unfortunately aren't cheap.

AdeleS

Would this be a good deal?

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/183568/art/canon/eos-eos-350d-ef-s-18-55-i.html

5uspect

not really. you can get the basic 350D with 55-80mm lens for €850 in Dixons/Currys and they'll probably give you a deal on a cf card if you act like you're not too interested, ie start off asking for a P&S or something and say something like "Whats that black camera over there? looks expensive". CF cards and Bags are cheap. Amazon uk have the Currys/Dixons model for €700 plus change. As for bags I prefer a laptop style back pack, easier to carry more stuff like lenses and tripods and doesn't look like I'm carrying something expensive...

AdeleS

Cheers;)