Art & Photography

[thunderkyss]

My daughter is a photo enthusiast, I've been buying her different point & shoot cameras, since she was 13. She is now 17.

She's wanting to step up, and get "serious" about photography, and is more interested in the "artsy" side.

I'm looking around at different SLRs, film & digital, and lenses, and what-not. Just about everything seems to be auto-everything nowadays.

I don't know anything about cameras, so she and I've been doing a lot of research lately, things like aperture size & field of view seems like the kind of thing an artist would want to have control of.

My question, is would it be better to look for older pre-automatic gear, that will allow her to take a "bad" picture, if that's what she wanted to do, or is it possible to disable all these automatic features of the newer gear?

 

[Aayria]

Newer cameras have "auto" modes..but, their real versatility and potential comes in using their manual or semi-manual modes. In fact, a good DSLR only makes it "easier" to take a "bad" picture if the photographer doesn't first learn how to use it. But for those times when she may want it to do the work itself for an "automatic" decent picture, the auto modes are far better than a standard point and shoot.

 

[bazooka]

I agree with Aayria. If she wants to take photography even semi-seriously... get a camera with "creative" modes such as Tv, Ap, and M. Most DSLR's have these modes. And you are right - creatively, you want complete control which only these modes can give you.

I personally would not recommend getting an older (film) camera because there isn't any benefit (in my opinion) over digital. Most digital cameras can do anything a film camera can do and more. You don't need to get an old 70's era camera to do manual.

 

[KmH]

Only the entry-level dSLR cameras have all the automatic and scene modes. An example would be Nikon's new D7000. D7000 from Nikon (Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Party, Indoor, Beach, Snow, Child, Sunset, Dusk, Dawn, Pet Portrait, Candlelight, Blossom, Autumn, Colors, Food, Silhouette, High Key, Low Key)

Once you get to the prosumer level bodies, the cameras no longer have those crutch modes. An example would be the Nikon D300s. D300S from Nikon (none of the plethora listed above.)

Aperture priority (A or Av) and shutter priority (S or Sv) modes are available so those exposure values can be fixed (usually set to a minimum or maximum value) while other exposure values are controlled by the photographer.

 

[Big Mike]

There is something to be said for getting her an old manual film camera to play & learn with. Too many people these days, just snap away with their digital cameras and hope for something good to come of it. But with film (especially with only manual control), you really have to think about what you are doing.

On the down side, you can't see your result right away, so the learning curve is slowed down significantly. Digital and its instant feedback is one of the best learning tools...and the digital workflow fits right in with what most kids are familiar with these days anyway.

Practically any Digital SLR camera would be a good choice, as they all have the ability to give the photographer 'full control' and they have interchangeable lenses (& other accessories), which means that their gear can grow along with their love & knowledge of photography.