Photography Major in College, New camera??

photogincollege

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Hi all, new to this forum and I had a quesion. I'm going to be going into college this fall and i'm going is a photography major (surprise from the title huh?) Anyway, I have an exremely old Minolta srt201 and I was wondering if you thought I should upgrade to a new camera, and if so, digital slr or film slr, it's a good camera don't get me wrong, but the lenses have some dust i cant remove and its showing its age. Thanks all. Also, any camera recommendations?
 
Assuming I was a 1st year photography college student, I personally would stick with the minolta a little longer until you get a feel as to what you like / don't like.

With that said, I would probably seriously look a the following:

Pentax MX with a Takumar 50mm lens.
A Takumar medium zoom.
save up for a Pentax DSLR which use the same lenses above.
 
The college may have specific requirements, probably best to ask them.
 
What you should do is talk to the school you are going to and ask them what to do, every school might be a little different. I know at Brooks they want you to buy your own high end digital body and they have every lens you could want at the check out.

But for the film students at Brooks they want you to buy a 35mm SLR.


*edit - You guys beat me to it.
 
The college may have specific requirements, probably best to ask them.

Thats what i would have said.

When i was looking at doing photography at uni, one of the requirements was that students had a DSLR not a film one.
 
You're school will have specific requirements. Most likely along the lines of a Rebel or a D80.

If it's a really artsy school, than you'll be able to shoot with anything. One of my friends is shooting entirely medium format with a mamiya TLR.
 
Beginning film classes at my college required a K1000.
 
For photography majors, I think a lot of universities require both digital and 35mm film SLRs. I'm a photography minor and at my university we're required to take three darkroom studio classes (B&W I, II, B&W Documentary). I took digital photography as a photography elective for my minor and they recommended SLR but said it wasn't a requirement. For a photography major, I'm pretty sure they would require an SLR, especially if they cover digital photography as part of your major.


Definitely check with the art department first. But I would honestly get both anyway.
 
For photography majors, I think a lot of universities require both digital and 35mm film SLRs. I'm a photography minor and at my university we're required to take three darkroom studio classes (B&W I, II, B&W Documentary). I took digital photography as a photography elective for my minor and they recommended SLR but said it wasn't a requirement. For a photography major, I'm pretty sure they would require an SLR, especially if they cover digital photography as part of your major.


Definitely check with the art department first. But I would honestly get both anyway.
Well if he is going to college as a photography major he would be shortchanged if it was not at least if no more 75% digital. you may get some film as a foundation but as digital is the medium for almost all professional photography you should expect to use digital. I think you should be ok with the film SLR you have and start saving for a good DSLR. If you are not happy with the film SLR you have you can probably get excellent deals on very good film SLR's. Like this totally insane deal on a N90s for a buy it now price of like $195 http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-N90s-Auto...yZ107925QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
And I assure you I have nothing to do with this item and know nothing about it I just did a random search on EBAY for an N90s wich would be an excellent camera to have if you need to have a better film body and if you buy lenses for it you will have a nice start on a Nikon system.
 
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
My school only has like 2 digi classes. We were required to have a 35mm our first semester then the rest of the film classes we can pick Whether to use medium or 35.
 
When I was attending the Art Institutes, they required you use at minimum Rebel XT's, or Nikon D70's because most professionals who shoot small format use digital.

Here at PNCA, we can use anything we want.
 
Thank you for all the replies, yeah it says in he course description for current class that i can use film or digital slr, I think i will get a digital slr but might wait until around christmas to see if prices drop. The one im mainly looking at right now is the nikon d80, i like the d200 but not sure if i want to make that jump in price either. Anyone worked with both that can say wether the price jump is worth it?
 
You shouldent jump the gun just yet.

I dont know about other schools but in my first year you had to have a 35mm but if you didnt have a digi you could rent one (from school for free). Most of the advice I got from school is not to blow two much money on a digi camera body which you'll have to upgrade like 2 times before you graduate. There was a MP and ISO requirement in Digital Photography 1 which they listed the first day of class.
 

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