amateur

miss_gonzo

I dont have much experiences with photography, besides using regular point and shoot cams. I'd like to invest in a better camera though, nothing too expensive, something for beginners to work with. Photography is just a hobby of mine, I dont plan on pursuing it in a professional manner.

So which cameras should I be looking into? Which features? Should I go for digital??

I'm a little hesitant to go into a photo shop since I dont really know much about it, I dont want to get jipped.

So any advice is welcomed.

rymus

go digital.. I dont think theres really any point in going for film these days. No developing costs, you can work on the images yourself without the need for extra scanners and all that... A half decent point & shoot digital would suit you. Decide on a budget and maybe we can suggest a few makes & models.

miss_gonzo

i have a point and shoot digital right now and the pictures are satisfactory

i think i'm looking for better quality and more features to work with.

rymus

Something like the Canon Powershot Pro1 comes in around the 650 mark and will have more functionality than a plain ol' p&s camera.

or you could go down the dslr route... something like the Nikon D50 or Canon 350D perhaps? bigger money at around 700/800 quid plus lenses. have a look around www.technikdirekt.com

DotOrg

i love photography more than virtually anything else in the world so my views may be a bit biased. i've been doing it for years and am slowly turning professional

photography is incredibly easy, all it is, is simply capturing scenes by letting a controlled amount of light pass through a lens for a certain length of tim and recording that light either on film or digitally

millions of brilliant photographers started on film and it can be a very cheap way of learning. you can get a manual SLR camera for under €50 which can give better quality results on film than digital cameras costing €1000

but if you are computer literate and are willing to undergo a bit more learning and want to spend more money initially rather than spread it out on developing costs of film digital is the way to go

if you are investing in photography, the lens is the most crucial part, the body is largely irelevant as all it does is store whatever you make the lens capture


what do you love doing or watching in your daily life: music, sports, people watching, nature, children, the news, fashion?

i love music, so i got into music photography

if you tell us how much of a budget you have, what you want to get out of a camera and what you think you'd like to try and shoot

a recent shot from last sunday, of mine that i like:

Merrion

The discipline (and cost) of film might make you more judicious about what you photograph and setting it up - you could get a great second hand SLR and some good lenses for less than a basic digital camera*



*You can safely ignore this opinion - I am just showing my age...and jealous because I can't afford to go digital.

rymus

can anyone afford to go digital after using film slr's? Some people just have very understanding bank managers

miss_gonzo

thanks for the advice so far


i'd say my budget would be around 600 canadian dollars, so 400 euros i think

id prefer digital, because of the editing you can do with certain programs

and dotorg, i just like taking pictures of anything really, things i see that i dont want to forget.

rymus

for that kind of money I'd imagine youre going to get a mid-range p&s.. unless you want to delve into the second hand market.

DotOrg

for €400 i'd advise buying an old second hand film SLR withe a couple of manual focus lenses (not zoom)

you can get that kind of thing for about €200 for a really really good quality camera and lens

or you could buy a second hand Canon 300D with the basic kit lens but it may make you into a very lazy photographer

also, shooting lots of one thing, rather than a little bit of everything will force you to become better as you have to search for new and better ways to shoot the same thing again and again

waldo

I'd have to disagree with dotorg about using digital cameras making us lazy photographers. Yes it is easier to get better photographs with digital cameras, but that is partly down to the larger volume of photographs you can take with a digital.

The learning curve with film when starting out is much steeper than using digital. You'll get instant feedback with digital, it's waaay cheaper, and a lot more convenient. I also got sick of the variable results from my photolab, and get better results with a compact p&s digital (s60) than with my film SLR (Which I only use now for telephoto shots). For that money I'd get a powershot S2 IS, a G6, or an s70/s60 (nice and compact).

DotOrg

what i mean about lazy is when the camera can decide aperture, shutter speed, iso, focus etc, you can just press the shutter release and get reasonably good photos. fully manual camera force you to think about every decision

digital isn't that much cheaper. the cost of a faster PC, better software, the bodies are far more expensive than their film equivalents. i shoot entirely digital now but started off on a completely manual camera, then moved onto a more advanced film SLR then went digital. I wouldn't be as good as i am now if i hadn't been forced into making every decision in my first few years of shooting

FinoBlad

Posters have been recomending a film camera over digital. I totally agree. You really get a lot more in a film camera for less money. Theres no doubt digital is brilliant, very handy. But films still around and theres lots of merit in it.

So if you want to spend 600 canadian dollars I recommend this NIKON F75 BLACK with 28-100 lens in Henrys Toronto

You'll have money left over for film, a bag and a polarising filter for your lens.

Enjoy

miss_gonzo

FinoBlad wrote:

Posters have been recomending a film camera over digital. I totally agree. You really get a lot more in a film camera for less money. Theres no doubt digital is brilliant, very handy. But films still around and theres lots of merit in it.

So if you want to spend 600 canadian dollars I recommend this NIKON F75 BLACK with 28-100 lens in Henrys Toronto

You'll have money left over for film, a bag and a polarising filter for your lens.

Enjoy

hey thanks

i was just on the henry's website checking some stuff out

bigred

miss_gonzo wrote:

thanks for the advice so far


i'd say my budget would be around 600 canadian dollars, so 400 euros i think

id prefer digital, because of the editing you can do with certain programs

and dotorg, i just like taking pictures of anything really, things i see that i dont want to forget.

I'm with DotOrg on this one, if you've got time, start on a film SLR. People seem to forget these days the basic things like looking at the scene in front of you before taking a million photos of it. Some of the best photographers the world has seen spent hours finding the right shot, and only then would they get the camera out. Film is not forgiving, you'll learn about exposure, focus etc. very quickly. It's far too easy to just snap away and delete at will on a digi-cam.

Learn how to compose and expose a photo before you learn the 1000's of tricks you can do in the digital world.

The thing to remember is, a crap photo is a crap photo regardless of all the photoshop filters you can apply