Looking for advise on camera purchase

[CCC]

Hello! Does anyone have advise on which camera to purchase for a super-beginner for product photography for our website. I currently have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28K purchased 4 years ago which doesn't quite cut it. It has to be able to shoot in RAW or NEF (I don't even know what this means, but my web person needs those). I know very little about photography and settings, so it sort of has to be good in an automatic mode. We usually have a photographer take our web shots, but it would be really nice to have one that I can have for adding or changing products quickly when needed. My budget is up to 500.00. Thanks in advance!

 

[Designer]

Raw image format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NEF is Nikon's proprietary nomenclature for RAW. Same thing.

The webmaster can probably use any of the major brand's proprietary file formats, but you just need a camera that will produce it.

Start looking for a lightly-used DSLR of either Nikon or Canon or some other well-known brand.

What products, and how big are they? Do you have a studio? Do you have lights? Tripod? backdrop?

You should have some idea of what lens to look for before you purchase anything.

 

[CCC]

Thank you. I have a make-shift studio. Fairly decent lights that seem to work pretty well. I have a tripod and a white backdrop and floor. The products are animal cages - very colorful and large, with stands, bins/storage underneath. Many accessory products that go inside the cages. I wasn't sure of the rules posting our website. My concern is my inexperience with cameras. Our current photographer is using a Nikon D3000 but seems complicated.

ETA: Can't believe I spelled advice wrong.

 

[brunerww]

Hi CCC and welcome to the forum. Don't sweat the misspelling - there are misspellings in most of my posts

The D3000 may seem complicated, but in auto mode, it can be pretty simple. And if you want to sell your products, you want the best image quality you can afford.

Since your group is already shooting Nikon, I would get a $410 Nikon D3200 body and a $100 Nikon 18-55 kit lens with an 11" minimum focusing distance. With the tripod, backdrop and lights that you already have, you should be able to get pretty high quality 24 megapixel images.

When you get your camera, select the Green "Auto" setting on the dial (click below for an image), get some tips from your current photographer on how he or she uses the D3000, and you should be in business!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41OYm3J4p8L.jpg​

Good luck,

Bill

 

[CCC]

Excellent! thanks so much. I was looking through this forum on similar posts and wrote down a lot of the suggestions, trying to narrow it down, and the Nikon 3200 was at the top of the list, so that just cemented it for me. thank you!

 

[goodguy]

Hi CCC and welcome to the forum. Don't sweat the misspelling - there are misspellings in most of my posts

The D3000 may seem complicated, but in auto mode, it can be pretty simple. And if you want to sell your products, you want the best image quality you can afford.

Since your group is already shooting Nikon, I would get a $410 Nikon D3200 body and a $100 Nikon 18-55 kit lens with an 11" minimum focusing distance. With the tripod, backdrop and lights that you already have, you should be able to get pretty high quality 24 megapixel images.

When you get your camera, select the Green "Auto" setting on the dial (click below for an image), get some tips from your current photographer on how he or she uses the D3000, and you should be in business!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41OYm3J4p8L.jpg​

Good luck,

Bill

Another vote for the Nikon D3200, for a beginner this is a wonderful camera and actually even for more then a beginner, while being the most basic DSLR in Nikon camera this is actually a very powerful tool and few of my friends has this camera and love it.
I would advise you to learn to use it outside the AUTO mode, it will give you excellent pictures in AUTO but you really should fulfill the potential by learning to operate the camera in Manual mode, Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority.

Lot of good people on youtube will teach you how to do that and its free

 

[robbins.photo]

My recommendation would probably be a either a D3000 or D3100. Both cameras feature a guide mode that will do all the heavy lifting of camera settings for you, you just walk through it step by step and then your ready to shoot. The 3100 will give you better quality images but odds are good you probably won't notice if these are just being published on the web. You should be able to find either with a 18-55mm lens within your budget either used or refurbished, and that should fit your needs quite nicely. The 3200 would also do the job nicely, again you have the guide mode, if you can find one within your budget would be really the only question. I haven't priced them in a while but last time I did I'm pretty sure they were running a little more than $500 with the lens. Again the big advantage to the 3200 would be an even better image quality than the d3100 but if your just publishing these on the web again it's doubtful you'd really notice the difference in IQ.

 

[CCC]

I know this thread is old, but I did end up getting the D3200 and I love it. I got a refurbished one on ebay. I've only used it in auto mode, but even in that I'm getting fantastic photos, and I'm very happy with it. Thanks so much for all your input.

 

[goodguy]

I know this thread is old, but I did end up getting the D3200 and I love it. I got a refurbished one on ebay. I've only used it in auto mode, but even in that I'm getting fantastic photos, and I'm very happy with it. Thanks so much for all your input.

Glad you got the D3200, its a good beginners camera.
Now get out of the AUTO mode and learn how to really be creative with it, a DLSR is like a paint brush which is used manually, it is meant to be used outside the AUTO realm, its not really that difficult, it really is scarier then it looks.
Just go on youtube and look for photography lessons, soon enough you will find yourself forgetting about AUTO mode.

Good luck