Buying a first "decent" camera as a present: please help!

[globetrottingtexan]

Hi there! So, in short, my boyfriend's birthday is coming up soon, and he's always enjoyed taking pictures. He's actually quite good at it (he handles cameras and all the positioning inherent to taking good pictures way better than me...), so for his birthday, I thought I'd buy him photography lessons and a first "good" camera, to kindle his talent so to speak.

I already took care of the classes. But my question is: what's a good first camera for an amateur photographer? Or at least, if you can't be precise in that respect: what should I be looking for as far as the technical details? As I mentioned before, I'm pretty lame at photography (I'm a Sony Cybershot type of girl...) and I live abroad where I don't speak the language too well, so I need all the feedback I can get from the interwebs so I can ask my family to send me the camera over from the US.

Thank you beforehand for any tips you can send my way!

 

[Robin Usagani]

Probably better if you just buy a gift card for a camera store. More than likely you will get him something that he does not want.

 

[jowensphoto]

Very nice gift! I agree with Schwetty on this one.

 

[Overread]

Cameras are tools and like many tools there are often no 100% true "best" options. Instead what you have is a range of options, each one having their own styles of working and features.

Personally I always treat very expensive and very specific gifts to friends/close family/etc.. under the same method. I don't buy them unless I know that the item I am buying is 100% what they would choose and want. Expensive gifts are great to give, but when its something very specific to another's interests you want to make sure that the gift you give is something they really want.

So, whilst it might sap some of the surprise upon the day, I would honestly try to approach the subject with him. Even if in passing to get an idea of what camera he really wants. If you can't get it out of him approach it more boldly - yes you've sapped some of the days surprise, but the gift will be no lesser nor the thought behind it.



If you still want suggestions though you'll at least need to give an idea of what kind of budget you are thinking of.

 

[sovietdoc]

Since he is all about taking photos, best thing you could do is:

1) Save money on photography lessons, there is plenty of good info available on ze interwebs
2) Use the money you save up on lessons to add to his giftcard, dont buy him a camera like others have suggested, just allow him to get what he feels like he needs
3) There is no "best" camera so he would really need to "get into it" and figure it out himself. Make him a forum account here on TPF for his birthday, so he has access to all these wonderful resources.

 

[StandingBear1983]

Don't waste your money on lessons, mostly there for idiots that can't learn nothing by themselves, and photography is NOT rocket science (no hard feelings, but i say my opinion sorry lol), he can learn online these days from youtube and many many articles online on beginner photography.

Give us your budget...that will tell us if you can buy a DSLR or a compact for example...

 

[moop]

Don't waste your money on lessons, mostly there for idiots that can't learn nothing by themselves, and photography is NOT rocket science (no hard feelings, but i say my opinion sorry lol), he can learn online these days from youtube and many many articles online on beginner photography.

Give us your budget...that will tell us if you can buy a DSLR or a compact for example...

priceless.

 

[Solarflare]

Getting a "real" camera is basically currently a choice between:

- Canon. They are the leader of the market. Apparently they have a good user interface. I honestly still dont know exactly why Canonists are Canonists. Basically if you ask them they turn all arrogant. Um.
- Nikon. They are currently leading in the area of the sensors. They are the second largest and theres is a big rivality between Canon and Nikon users which company is better.

Either of these has a HUGE amount of lenses and secondary companies who produce even more lenses.

Basically these two are the really important ones. But there are alternatives:

- Sony. They got a lot of Minolta stuff and I read conflicting claims from different people that Sony would have stopped producing SLRs in order to completely focus on SLTs. Basically they would resign on the SLR race because they cant keep up with Canon/Nikon. Sony cameras are usually innovative. For example they have fast autofocus in lifeview which makes their video support superior.
- Pentax. This is another very innovative company. They are the gadget company, with an overboarding list of features. They also have nice gimmicks like incamera image stabilization. I personally would avoid them because their cameras are cheap, but their better lenses are so expensive.
- Fuji. Some years ago they produced cameras with the Nikon lens mount. They seem to have stopped, though. They recently published the X-Pro1, a kind of APS-C version of Leica, but with autofocus and all the shiny new stuff. And even zooms soon. Either way they arent SLRs, but have very high quality.
- Leica. They still produce manual focus cameras of very high quality. You can still use all these super old lenses from the 1960s and earlier, too. Thus Leica is a 35mm, "full frame", system. They had some APS-C digital cameras but they basically changed the moment it was feasible to return to full frame, since that was what Leica always did.

Theres more for the professionals (Hassleblad etc) and I'm sorry if I missed anyone important.

If you buy ANY of these systems, you are bound to continue to buy stuff for these cameras - especially lenses, but also flash etc. Thus deciding which camera system to join is kind of a very important choice one shouldnt do for others, unless they're your kids and you'll share lenses with them anyway or something like that.

If you really insist on buying him a camera, I would get him a point and shoot like the Canon Powershot S100. Thats a nice small camera you can take anywhere. Even people shooting with SLRs use them because SLRs are large and bulky, even the smallest of them.

Don't waste your money on lessons, mostly there for idiots that can't learn nothing by themselves, and photography is NOT rocket science (no hard feelings, but i say my opinion sorry lol), he can learn online these days from youtube and many many articles online on beginner photography.

I wouldnt call these people "idiots" but for example the "digital photography one on one" series on YouTube is highly educational and leaves you with very little unanswered questions about the techniques, if any.