Lets say I wanted to buy a camera...

  • Thread starter Boz Mon
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Boz Mon

Boz Mon

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I think that if I had a good camera, I would be way into photography. The problem is, I dont have a decent camera. What would be a good starting point? I really dont want to even consider a point and shoot, I cant drop like a grand on a top of the line camera, and I want it to be digital, no film. Any opinions on a starting point? I really havent been shopping around a lot because I dont know what to look for. New or used, give me opinions. Thanks in advance. 👍
 
Hmm...

You say that you "can't drop like a grand on a top of the line camera", so where is the budget likely to be?

Do you have any brand affiliation? Any SLR lenses kicking around anywhere?

What have your friends got?

What do you want to shoot?

What country are you in (useful for interpreting the budget)?
 
a camera only takes the picture, the photographer makes it good ;) you dont need a fancy cam to take great pics, and itd be best getting a cheaper one to develop your skills with. some reasonable cams that make you look like you know what your doing, heres what id suggest for under $300 anyway
canon S3 a very quick and easy one to use, i have the s2 and its great
sony cybershot challenger to the canon, does the job too
fuji make some bargain cams so do check out their range this one 7mp and quite similar, for near hundred less
they will more than suffice with amateur skills, of course if you want to splash a bit more fortune and get a good slr, maybe a nikon d40 or a canon rebel xti for around $700
 
I have an Olympus Stylus 760, not a professional camera by any means but I like it quite a bit, especially since it's weather resistant so I don't have to worry if I'm out in the rain, snow, or humidity. It was 249.99 at Best Buy and I spent some extra on a warranty, memory card, extra battery, and a case.

Here is my review and specs on it:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=93280
 
These guys are a handy resource... http://www.dpreview.com/

One thing I'll say right away, a good camera does not make a good picture. People saying "Oh, he must have an amazing camera" when they see a good photo drive me nuts, because its like the photographer needs no skill to achieve the shot. I've worked with several cameras, and several other photographers. A dSLR does not make for better pictures, espcially when you are just starting out. I was a photography student at college for a year, and I still don't see how I need a dSLR.

Do you know what aperture, shutter speed, focal length, lens lengths, ISO, and other photography technical terms all mean and what they influence when taking a picture? If you don't, then don't even consider a dSLR... because you'll be using it just like a point and shoot.

Camera I would recommend for excellent feature list, portablity, price and control would be the Sony Cybershot, or if looking at used cameras, the Konica Minolta DiMAGE. They are similar cameras, and I believe Sony used the DiMAGE base and much of its features when they bought Konica Minolta. They are powerful cameras capable of high zoom, packed with the features most professionals could live with. And they have the manual controls required to work them like a pro would.

If you go for something else, make sure you can manually override shutter speed, ISO, aperture, focal length, and focus. Learn what these do before you buy, and understand the importance of CCD sizes, not just megapixel counts.
 
Answering GG's questions would be a big help but in my opinion.
If you want to go as cheap as possible, go with buying a used Nikon D70 or Canon 300D/Rebel (or even a Rebel XTI/350d). Both were the first consumer dSLRs to come out onto the market, so they've been around for awhile and the drop in price has been major (both are discontinued I believe). I wouldn't go for a D40, you will more than likely find yourself wanting more out of a dSLR if you buy one.
I think your best option would be to buy the camera body, and then buy larger lens that covers a wide range of zoom; something like the Sigma 18-125mm. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it.

Azuremen
Do you know what aperture, shutter speed, focal length, lens lengths, ISO, and other photography technical terms all mean and what they influence when taking a picture? If you don't, then don't even consider a dSLR... because you'll be using it just like a point and shoot.
Click to expand...

People need to learn somewhere, and I see a dSLR as a great opportunity. I don't believe it's a matter of buying a dSLR because you feel you're going to get amazing pictures from it, it's a matter of having control and functionality on your side to help enable you to take the pictures you want to take.
 
antihero
People need to learn somewhere, and I see a dSLR as a great opportunity. I don't believe it's a matter of buying a dSLR because you feel you're going to get amazing pictures from it, it's a matter of having control and functionality on your side to help enable you to take the pictures you want to take.
Click to expand...

I learned on a 30 year old film SLR, with everything being fully manual, so I fully understand what you are saying. However, costs tend to get high, plus things like cleaning the CCD and needing more lenses get painful on novices. You can learn all these in a well designed "point and shoot," with out the pain of needing a zoom lens to get that far off shot and such.

It is my strong opinion that the vast majority of people will not gain anything from using a dSLR. Its just fancy to have, kinda like buying a Ferrari to drive down the block and get milk. Yes, it does the job, but you certainly didn't need to get a Ferrari to do the job. Nor do you need a Ferrari to have fun learning how to drive.

You suggestion of camera and lens is great, Antihero. Its just I find most people get a dSLR, get 1 lens for it, and then use the full auto mode. Plus its just alot easier packing around a DiMAGE than a dSLR body and 2 or 3 lenses. Which leads to more improv and spontaneous shots I find.
 
Wow thanks for the replys guys! As far as a budget goes, I guess around $300 is what I would like to spend. And I know about aperture, shutter speed, etc being that I am a film (movies) student so I have some background in the field. I will be taking a beginning digital photography class next year so I expect to know more by then, but I want to get a start on this because it actually interests me. I REALLY REALLY dont even want to consider point and shoot cameras because I have been messing around with a (what I thought was) really nice sony model but I am beginning to notice the quality is not there. I will probably end up buying a used camera from craigslist or a local classifieds for my first one. Keep the opinions coming 👍
 
I recently bought a Canon Digital Rebel XT, cost me just a bit under $600. The standard lens kit seems to be pretty good, I was taking pictures at 8mpixel at the F1 race this weekend, and it got me really good pictures with the 1/1000s time exposure method. Since this camera has a lot more options than my previous older digital camera had (which for the most part only had a bunch of presets rather than setting adjustments), I've learned how to take better pictures and adjust most of the settings and such. For me, I wanted something really good for my vacation and it looks to have a good job.

The camera I have is probably too much for your needs. I've seen there's a much cheaper Canon S3, I believe this one may have removable lens as well.

My main advice is to buy a camera that has adjustable settings like shutter speed, aperture, focus and such and it would be a good future proofing to have removable lens too. My old camera, some sort of digital Panasonic with about ~2.2mpixel or something like that, most of the time the pictures I was taking were not as good as they could be since it only had preset modes and you'd select one of those and only able to choose ISO setting, that was about it.

Anyway, you can take a look at some pictures I took with my new camera here:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?p=2686587#post2686587

Also an example of where the new camera really came in handy:



I was pretty far from this car. This is basically cropped by a large amount over the regular picture, and with the zoom at maximum. If you compare this to some pictures that I took last year at Nurburgring GP with my old camera, where I was sitting much closer to the track (probably around 5+ times closer, anyway it was pretty much right near the track, whereas this year it wasn't like that).




As you can see, the much higher resolution and better lens of the new camera did a better job even though I was sitting much much farther away. It also came out clearer since I was using a manual set shutter speed and other little settings, whereas with the old camera I
had to experiment with some presets and choose one that came out OK (most of my photos were blurry by the way).

So whatever you buy, get something that you can adjust settings and such.
 
Your shutter speed was too high in the first shot Mustang; it looks like the car is parked.

Boz: For $300 you can get the S3, it's a very capable camera in the right hands, the S5 is coming out soon (Canon always skips the 4th model since 4 is bad luck) so you might be able to get an S3 at an even lower price. I'd also reccommend taking a look at the Fuji F31FD since its sensor is very good for a compact, fast operation and it has great battery life.
 
F1GTR
Your shutter speed was too high in the first shot Mustang; it looks like the car is parked.
Click to expand...
This is a 180 degree hairpin turn. The car was probably doing 40-50km/h, so it will look like it is parked since it's going very slow.
 
But then 1/1000th shutter speed is even more overkill, especially if the subject is only moving at 40-50km/h.
 
MustangSVT
This is a 180 degree hairpin turn. The car was probably doing 40-50km/h, so it will look like it is parked since it's going very slow.
Click to expand...

Yes, and you should have used a slower shutter speed on all of them... like 1/200 or something slower even. They all look like they are slow moving. And if you needed to stop down some more, get a polarizing filter. Works wonders for automotive photography anyhow.
 
Ok guys. I have been doing some research for the past couple days and I think that the Canon S3 would be my best bet. According to what I have been reading, it is pretty much a point and shoot, with over rides for pretty much all settings. The only thing is, when I try and find it online, I always come up with like 10 places that have it for varying prices. I get like a weird site that says all these places have it starting as low as XXX.XXX. I dont want to buy a $300+/- camera from some weird generic site. Do you guys know any good places to look? And any other info that you think I should know. I dont plan on making a purchase for at least a week or two, so give me some input. Thanks again 👍
 
Bhphoto and Calumet Photo are reputable places. And there's always Amazon.
 

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