I'm having trouble deciding

seisky

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I'm going to get a digital camera soon. I can't decide if I want to get this camera: http://www.techondigital.com/product.asp?productid=15747988
or save up a lot more to get this: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5607412
I'm an amateur photographer with pretty much no experience with manual controls, but I want to learn. Both those cameras have manual controls. I also want to be able to get different lenses and filters for my camera. The S700 has many lenses and filters that are under $100, while the D40 lenses are pretty expensive, considering I'm a 15 year old. I've done a lot of research on the S700, and some pictures I've seen from it are amazing. Do you think it would be a good choice to get the S700 and a couple lenses/filters instead of the D40 with a simple lens? I'm leaning towards the S700 because of the price, picture quality from stuff I've seen, affordable add on lenses/filters, and everything an amateur photographer would need.
 
I don't come on this forum very often. But I'm here, and I have the S700 that you link with the first link.

You are looking at 2 VERY different cameras. The Nikon linked is a digital SLR camera. If you don't know about cameras, read around here and you will see the difference.

The Fuji is a nice camera for a small budget. I'm fully enjoying it. It allows me to learn a bit about photography and camera setup while only spending a little bit of cash. The really big differences between these two types of cameras is the quality of the image sensor (what reads and saves the image you are photographing) and the lenses. The type of camera that the Fuji has does NOT have extra lenses available. It is a fixed lens camera, though you can get external lenses that multiply what it already has. I'm looking into that, but it doesn't look favorable in the quality of the image taken.

With the Nikon, it is not a fixed lens camera. You must have a lens attached to take a photo. They generally come with a "kit lens" that is quite basic. If you want to shoot telephoto (zoomed far), you are looking at an additional lens at a few hundred dollars to near a thousand. If you want to shoot very close up, you need an additional lens. Basically, you have to change lenses to what you want to shoot.

Digital SLRs also have much greater maintenance and care to be taken then something like the Fuji. Every time you remove and replace a lens, you have the possibility of dust getting into the camera an onto the image sensor. Without great care taken in cleaning the sensor, you can destroy it quite easily.

Yes, a digital SLR will take MUCH better pictures than something like that Fuji. It's components are of a much better quality and that shows in it's price. You need to decide what you want to do with a camera. If you are looking at taking snapshots of your buddies, then the Fuji is more than enough for you. Mine does take quite nice photographs. If you want to learn a bit about photography, but not sure how far you want to go, the Fuji is a good start because it has full manual control. If you are very dead serious about getting into photography as a hobby, then dSLR is definitely the way to go if you don't have a small budget.

Like I said, I have the Fuji S700, I just bought it right before Christmas, and I'm a full beginner in doing anything with photography other than "birthday party snapshots" of my young children. The Fuji is more than enough for what I need at the moment and I'm perfectly happy with it so far. A camera is just a camera, photography comes from you. There is much to learn about composition, lighting, and understanding what you are seeing. A camera doesn't help you in that.

Oh, and that's a pretty good price for the Fuji. I paid $199 at a Ritz Camera store. Don't forget that there is shipping charges involved. If you went to a store, you can pick it up in your hand and look at it in first person. I was in the market for a small point-and-shoot that I could fit into my pocket until I picked up the Fuji in my hands. That is when I decided to go with something larger than the little pocket cameras. It also felt nicer in my hand than the other similar cameras that were there. From the way I gripped it to where all the buttons were was better than the others.
 
thanks for all the help! I knew that the Nikon was better, I just wanted some opinions on if the S700 would be a good starter camera. I have a small budget, I'm only 15 years old and I only have a summer job. I'm serious about becoming a photographer, but I want something to just get acquainted with using manual controls and learn how to get the most out of the camera. I've been doing a lot of research, and I think I'm gonna start with the S700. Its got plenty of stuff for an amateur to learn on, and there are affordable(for me) add-on lenses for different shots. I've seen some amazing stuff from the S700, below are some pages with some good shots from the Fujifilm S700.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cybermaniak/
http://forums.steves-digicams.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=571679&forum_id=16
 
The Steve's Digicam site is one of the ones I used to hunt for info on the Fuji after playing with it in the store. That exact thread is one that I read.

If I can take shots of the moon such as this one, I'll be extremely happy. I don't have a tripod, so the following is a daytime shot of the moon I attempted handheld.....



I also have this one for another example. I'm by far, not great at this stuff yet. And, I don't have a tripod yet, so everything is taken handheld in my very shakey hands :D.

 
those look really good!
 
even if you're only making minimum wage...you should be able to buy an SLR in a couple weeks.
Have you looked at the Canon Rebel XT as well? It's a great deal.
 
I don't work on a regular schedule. I work for a small fruit market. one person works at a time, usually not too many customers. get $5.90 an hour. every couple weeks, I get between $100 and $200. hopefully I can work some more this summer. I think I'm gonna get the S700 and save for a dslr by next Christmas.
 
Enjoy that $100 every couple of weeks. It's far more than I have left over after all the expense of being an adult with a family, hehehe :lol:
 
oh, and I will be able to get the S700 in a few weeks.For my birthday, I'm getting $100 towards the camera from my mom. Hopefully I can get some lenses/filters/lighting/etc. from my dad.
 
BTW, the S700 takes pretty nice movies too. Card size limited, it will shoot until you card is full. That's around 35 minutes on a 2 gig card I think. I have young kids, so I'm messing around with the movie mode quite a bit. It runs 640x480 at 30 FPS. Inside, it is a bit grainy in lower light, but still usable. I haven't tried video outside in sunlight yet.
 

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