Bought a new camara, need some advice

[babsgoodman]

Hi, my name is Barbara.
I have always loved photography, but I never really tryed to learn anything about it till now. I have 4 kids and married. I had my first child at 16 yrs old, i am 27 now, So I have been a mother and house wife for almost 10 years.
I am now wanting to do something for myself, so I am enrolling into the Bakersfield College to study photography in August, I am very excited!!
I was told that I need to start in the elementary photography courses.
Today, I bought a camara, actually, put it on lay-away.
So I need some advice.
It's A Canon Rebel K2.
Its a film camara. I dont know much about it, but it looks nice, I have never had a camara like this, but anyways, Is this a good camara?
I want to learn to take proffessional photos on this camara. Is that possible?
Any advice would be greatly apprecieated

 

[DIRT]

Hi and welcome. I personaly started with a canon AE-1 (ebay-real cheap), it has an auto setting but when you are in school you will be using all manual settings. this allows you more control of the final product. I like the older cameras with manual aperture and shutter speed settings on the camera as opposed to the digital read out type. you should be ably to take professional photos on any camera as long as you know what you want. I hope this helped.

 

[babsgoodman]

Well I dont really know anything about camaras, Does anyone know if the Canon Rebel K2 has manual or auto settings?

 

[babsgoodman]

Well I dont know much about camaras, does anyone know if the Canon Rebel K2 has manual or auto settings? Should I try to exchange it on something older?
I am just so picky when I spend money on stuff, Just want to make sure I am getting a good camara, to take to college for classes and to mayby start a carreer after with it.

 

[JohnMF]

hi babs,

From what i can gather on the internet, i cant see why this camera shouldnt suit you just fine and it should last you a while before maybe you feel you have to advance.

Do you have any lenses for the camera yet?

be sure to Post some of your pictures on here when you get started, and have fun learning

Yes, you can uses this camera in fully auto or manual

 

[babsgoodman]

thank you all very much, I do not have any lenses for it yet. I do plan on getting some after I start school on it. I cant wait to get started!!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

That should be a great starter camera for you. It has the manual modes that you will need for class and it also has auto modes. The best part is that it's a Canon EOS, which means that you can buy/use any of the Canon EF lenses.

I read in another thread that you got the kit, which should include a lens. The lenses that usually come with the kit should be a mid-range zoom. 28-70 or something like that. It should be good enough for your class but there are much better (& more expensive) lenses available.

You shouldn't need it this for class but if you want to spend money on additional accessories, I would suggest....
1)a 50mm F1.8 lens. It's cheap but a nice sharp lens with a large maximum aperture. That may not mean much now, but you should learn about that in class

2)a tripod. Does not have to be really expensive.

3)an accessory flash. The built-in flash on the camera will work but it's small and pretty close to the lens. This means red-eye and flat looking photos. A flash that mount on top of the camera will be more powerful and give you better lighting...especially if you get a tilt flash so that you can bounce the light.