Camera advice wanted.

[Scratched_back]

Hi all, hope you're all well.

I'm posting here with the hope that perhaps some of you are budding photographers. Basically I want a camera. I've seen a lot of photography here, there and everywhere that takes my breath away, I'd really like to start up myself.

The drawback: I know next to nothing about cameras.

If anybody here knows what's they're talking about with regards to DIGITAL SLR cameras, please point me in the direction of something you think would be adequate for a beginner to, well, begin with! Even better, if anybody knows of a reliable site/community that can set me on the right track I'd be eternally grateful.

I'm absolutely fed up of searching for some intelligent information and finding nothing but half-arsed sites full of one-post forums containing posts like "OMG cHeCk mY nEw ROXOR CAM!!!11!1!", etc etc.

At least I know here on ENworld that if people know, they will share, if people don't know then it's not an issue. I swear I've become Xenophobic when it comes to forums!

Much appreciated folks.

 

[Mycanid]

Hmm ... I honestly do not know much about cameras per se.

But it might be better if you asked the same question in the technology forum (or maybe some friendly mod can hop this thread over there if they think so too?)....

As for sites ... you might try, for beginners, this one:

http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/

I like the notebook and pda and tablet review branches of the site personally ... maybe it would be of use to you?

Good luck!

 

[Aurora]

I own a digital SLR. I have the Nikon D70. I am by no means a photography guru, but have been very happy with the shots I get. They now have the D40 and D50 as well, Here is a site that if you scroll down a bit tells you the differences between the 2 in a nice format. My sister has the D50 and loves it. I like that Nikon has seminars for specific camera types. Last year I went to a seminar for people who owned the D70. It only cost me like $20 after the free gift card that Click Camera gave me for attending.

Personally, if I were to buy now I would get the D50. It doesn't have the in-camera retouching that the D40 has, but I would never use it anyways. I do all of that in Picasa 2 (free download and awesome) and in Photoshop.

I can't tell you about other companies; all I know is Nikon. Someone else will have to help you with the others.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

The D50 is a great camera for the purpose even if it's not the absolute best you'll find. It's still plenty for all but the most demanding photographers. And around here it's much cheaper than a D70. You can get a D50 with the stock lens and a second macro-zoom lens for less than a D70 with no lenses.

 

[tzor]

So what are you looking for? General photography? Mini photography? Sports photography? Are you going to display on the web or on photographic paper? Do you want to blow up your photos? For general photography that you will put on the web you can do a lot with simple equipment. When I'm not able to carry a camera my cell phone's camera can make some reasonable pictures for the web. When I'm using my Kodak Easy Share camera I have to use a program to reduce the resolution for the web.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

So what are you looking for? General photography? Mini photography? Sports photography? Are you going to display on the web or on photographic paper? Do you want to blow up your photos?

Critical questions. If you are going to shoot anything in motion, you need to find out about how fast the shutter response is. I used to do sports photography and air shows with my 35mm camera. When I bought a digital camera (non-SLR), the lag between pushing the button and the picture being taken drove me crazy. You won't believe the number of shots I took of the foot of one of my kids because they moved out of the frame. I've learned to compensate some, but there is no way I would be effective at taking shots of anything fast moving with this camera.

 

[Aurora]

Critical questions. If you are going to shoot anything in motion, you need to find out about how fast the shutter response is. I used to do sports photography and air shows with my 35mm camera. When I bought a digital camera (non-SLR), the lag between pushing the button and the picture being taken drove me crazy. You won't believe the number of shots I took of the foot of one of my kids because they moved out of the frame. I've learned to compensate some, but there is no way I would be effective at taking shots of anything fast moving with this camera.

My guess is that is why he asked for info on digital SLR's. I hate the bulkiness of the SLR's compared to reg digital cameras, but my hatred of that doesn't come close to my hatred of lag times when taking photos with reg digi cameras. Especially because I have a 2 year old. They don't exactly hold poses.

 

[Old One]

I picked up the Nikon D-40 about 6 months ago and absolutely love it. It has enough automatic settings to cover most snapshots you would ever take and enough internal horsepower to do lots of cool things if you want to get good at it.

Good luck!

~ OO

 

[Pyrex]

I've had a Canon DSLR (the 300D, aka Digital Rebel) for years now and it still takes great pictures. I'd happily recommend the current incarnation (400D, aka Digital Rebel XTi) based on my experiences with the original.

As noted above though, we need more information on what you plan on doing and how deep into photography you intend to get before we can provide useful advice.

And honestly, when you start looking at decent glass to put in front of the camera (*want*), which body you pick really comes down to which one feels the most natural in your hand rather than the numbers on the box.

(yeah, I know, there are Canon and/or Nikon fanboys who would decry that as heresy but...)

 

[Aurora]

(yeah, I know, there are Canon and/or Nikon fanboys who would decry that as heresy but...)

Nah, I agree. There wasn't a huge difference between the Canon Rebel and Nikon D70 when we were looking and we were gonna go with the Canon just because it was a bit cheaper. The, however, I went into Best Buy and they had a D70 open box and were currently running all open box an extra 20% off plus Nikon had a $200 mail in rebate. At that point I couldn't NOT buy it. At the time the cheapest you could find a D70 with the lens kit was around $1300 and I got it for $750 when all was said and done.