Buying my first reflex

[photo1x1.com]

I think going used if you have a very limited budget is a good way to start. You can easily sell your camera after a few weeks, months, even one or two years without loosing too much (if any at all) money. Is there anything specific you are interested yet? Landscape, wildlife, people? Any photographers work or just images out there you really like and would love to be able to create one day?
There are certain images you can get with almost any DSLR but there are others - like e.g. sports photography, that you might be better off with a faster focussing system. The same goes for lenses. But in general the lens does more for your image quality and the look of your image than your camera does.
BTW: christmas is comming up, maybe that will give you a little more budget to play with.

 

[DoctorDementia]

Well, I haven't done anything specific yet. At school we're doing photos in studio, only still life and people photos and we have kit lenses on entry level cameras (canon/nikon) I'm not quite sure on what I want to photograph. I think I'd like to picture landscapes and people, so I will need a tele lens (for landscapes) and a macro lens (?)

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

I prefer prime lenses for landscapes as well as portraits. Depending on what camera you have, if full frame I would get an 85mm, if crop sensor I wood get 50mm. The lower aperture prime lenses offer will get you a nicely blurred background for portraits and for the price you can't beat primes. For landscape maybe 10mm?

 

[photo1x1.com]

Well, I haven't done anything specific yet. At school we're doing photos in studio, only still life and people photos and we have kit lenses on entry level cameras (canon/nikon) I'm not quite sure on what I want to photograph. I think I'd like to picture landscapes and people, so I will need a tele lens (for landscapes) and a macro lens (?)

That makes it a little more difficult. I have always been into extreme wideangle when it comes to landscapes. Some people say it is more difficult to do than medium wideangle, but I never felt the same. One lens that I feel needs to go into every photographers gear bag is a 50mm f1.8. Canon has a pretty inexpensive one. You could get it used, play a little with it and if you don´t like it you can sell it for the same price you bought it.

 

[limr]

That would be better. Kit lenses or any advice for better lenses?

Sorry, I forgot to reply to this. I unfortunately can't help you too much with modern DSLR lenses. I have a K7 but I use legacy lenses. This means I lose auto focus capability, and if the lens is manual, then I lose some of the auto exposure capabilities as well. (There are auto lenses that you'd still have to focus manually, but which will work with auto exposure settings.) This doesn't particularly bother me, since I mostly shoot on film cameras with no auto functions at all, so I'm used to it, but if you're just getting into it, you might find it more troublesome. The advantage is that you can get legacy lenses relatively cheaply and practice while saving up for a better lens designed specifically for digital.

 

[DoctorDementia]

I prefer prime lenses for landscapes as well as portraits. Depending on what camera you have, if full frame I would get an 85mm, if crop sensor I wood get 50mm. The lower aperture prime lenses offer will get you a nicely blurred background for portraits and for the price you can't beat primes. For landscape maybe 10mm?

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't know what prime lenses are at all.

About the camera I can't afford a full frame, right now I'm thinking about the Nikon D3300 that seems a good camera, but I have to go to a store to "try" some cameras, get some advice and see how I feel them(I hope this make sense).
So I have no idea on what kind of lenses I'll buy, aren't telephoto lenses supposed to be used for landscapes and far objects?

 

[kcbrecks]

I have a Canon EOS 1000d, my grandson has the 1100d and my daughter the 100d. They are all nice cameras with excellent images and even my 10Mp one will print up to A2 without pixelation. The kit lenses are fairly good, especially in good light and I love my 75-300 which came with the kit. You could always look to the pre-used market which could reduce your outlay and benefit from someone trading up. The beauty of Canon and Nikon is there are loads of them about so there are always plenty of accessories available for them at reasonable prices.

You ask about Prime Lenses well these have a single focal length rather than a zoom range. One of the cheapest is the Canon EF 50mm F1.8 and is available for about £85, second hand perhaps £50. It is very sharp, but rather noisy, and the zooming to alter the field of view is with your feet. Remember that the crop factor of the half frame sensors will effectively increase the focal length by 1.6 so a 50mm prime will be effectively 80mm so have a narrower field of view.

Like any hobby you can spend a fortune, if you have it, but the Entry level DSLR's are really good at their job and will provide you with loads of opportunities for photography without limiting your capabilities too much. There will always be someone with a better kit than you but having the best kit doesn't mean you make the best images.

 

[astroNikon]

I prefer prime lenses for landscapes as well as portraits. Depending on what camera you have, if full frame I would get an 85mm, if crop sensor I wood get 50mm. The lower aperture prime lenses offer will get you a nicely blurred background for portraits and for the price you can't beat primes. For landscape maybe 10mm?

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't know what prime lenses are at all.

About the camera I can't afford a full frame, right now I'm thinking about the Nikon D3300 that seems a good camera, but I have to go to a store to "try" some cameras, get some advice and see how I feel them(I hope this make sense).
So I have no idea on what kind of lenses I'll buy, aren't telephoto lenses supposed to be used for landscapes and far objects?

Prime lenses are a lens that does not zoom. Thus a 35mm or a 50mm or a 85mm is a Prime lens. They also normally have a larger aperture (the opening is larger, though the number representing it is smaller) such as a f/1.8 50mm lens.

A Zoom lens may be something like a 18-55 which may have an aperture of 3.5-5.6 throughout the range. Or a 55-200, etc.

 

[Frank F.]

Well, right now I have 300€ saved, but I think I can easily reach 400€ while to arrive at 500/600€ is a bit more difficult for me; you have to understand that I'm 16 with no job and even my parents don't have much money to give me.
So if you have a good choice around 400€ it would be perfect!

As you are 16 and christmas is approaching you might think about telling your aunts and uncles and grand parents and parents that you are saving for a camera.

When I bought my first "real" camera in 1984 I took a little job in the afternoons, I was still at school, and saved for the OM-1n with 1.4/50mm Zuiko lens.

Today with digital it is sometimes nice to look around in the family and neighbourhood. Often people buy these cameras but do not really use them. Try to grab one of these orphanized / cupboard cameras for cheap and buy a decent lens that fits the brand. The Canon 1.8/50mm or 1.4/50mm are excellent portrait lenses on the smaller format. Same for Nikon. Try to put your hands on all brands, also Pentax! Buy what fits your budget and feels good in your hands!

Good lock with your decision.

One more thing: If you know your budget go to a big dedicated photo retailer brick & mortar. The often have some used stuff from their own customers which might be another idea to realize the idea of "better buy a used Mercedes than a new Fiat."

 

[DoctorDementia]

One lens that I feel needs to go into every photographers gear bag is a 50mm f1.8. You could get it used, play a little with it and if you don´t like it you can sell it for the same price you bought it.

Actually I was really interested on that lens when my teacher first explained me what it does.
Although, right now I'm really confused because I don't even know what I want to do; I'd like to buy my camera, but then I will need lenses and i would like a telephoto lens and a standard/wideangle lens; so today I was thinking that I can buy the camera body (so I can save some money, instead of buying the kit lens) and then buy one or two lenses that can help me obtaining the result I want. I don't think it's a terrible idea.
Anyway in the next 2 weeks I'll try to go in a shop to try some cameras out and get some advice, if this can help me.

In any case, thanks everyone for the great replies and your support. Much appreciated.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

I think you will really enjoy prone lenses, specifically the 50mm. I have a 55-250, 75-300, 18-55 and 50mm on my crop sensor body and I use the 50mm more than any lens. When I started out in photography I wanted zoom because it was easy to reach my subjects but once I got the 50mm and used it I fell in love with prime lenses. They may require more work to get what you want in the frame but they will usually have a larger aperture as well as better quality because of less moving parts. I agree with you that you should have a wide angle and a zoom but get the wide angle in a prime. Like a 24mm or a 10mm or something once you figure out what you want to do. If you can swing it and you want to do landscape or portraiture, get a full frame body. That will make a 10mm a true 10mm. On my crop body it would be 16mm. Which I enjoy shooting wildlife and as such the 1.6x crop gets me more for my lens. The downside is using my 50mm indoors sometimes gets tiresome having to move back so far to get things in frame

 

[beagle100]

I think you will really enjoy prone lenses, specifically the 50mm. I have a 55-250, 75-300, 18-55 and 50mm on my crop sensor body and I use the 50mm more than any lens. When I started out in photography I wanted zoom because it was easy to reach my subjects but once I got the 50mm and used it I fell in love with prime lenses. They may require more work to get what you want in the frame but

"prone" lenses ?
prime lens are good, zooms are better for some situations

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Prime. My phone likes to auto correct

 

[Frank F.]

One lens that I feel needs to go into every photographers gear bag is a 50mm f1.8. You could get it used, play a little with it and if you don´t like it you can sell it for the same price you bought it.

Actually I was really interested on that lens when my teacher first explained me what it does.
Although, right now I'm really confused because I don't even know what I want to do; I'd like to buy my camera, but then I will need lenses and i would like a telephoto lens and a standard/wideangle lens; so today I was thinking that I can buy the camera body (so I can save some money, instead of buying the kit lens) and then buy one or two lenses that can help me obtaining the result I want. I don't think it's a terrible idea.
Anyway in the next 2 weeks I'll try to go in a shop to try some cameras out and get some advice, if this can help me.

In any case, thanks everyone for the great replies and your support. Much appreciated.

I think one lens like a 50mm is a good way to learn for a while.

The Kit lenses are not so bad optically and often go for 20 extra so it is not wrong to have one of these. My second lens in the old days was a 35-135 Zoom.

To translate that from film to half format digital that would be 1.8/28 and 3.5-4.5/24-85

Only problem is these would be much more expensive than the kit and a 50mm

 

[DoctorDementia]

I think you will really enjoy prone lenses, specifically the 50mm. I have a 55-250, 75-300, 18-55 and 50mm on my crop sensor body and I use the 50mm more than any lens. When I started out in photography I wanted zoom because it was easy to reach my subjects but once I got the 50mm and used it I fell in love with prime lenses. They may require more work to get what you want in the frame but they will usually have a larger aperture as well as better quality because of less moving parts. I agree with you that you should have a wide angle and a zoom but get the wide angle in a prime. Like a 24mm or a 10mm or something once you figure out what you want to do. If you can swing it and you want to do landscape or portraiture, get a full frame body. That will make a 10mm a true 10mm. On my crop body it would be 16mm. Which I enjoy shooting wildlife and as such the 1.6x crop gets me more for my lens. The downside is using my 50mm indoors sometimes gets tiresome having to move back so far to get things in frame

Thank you, really great advice I'll look up for a prime lens then.