Noob to it all

HotWire

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Aloha to everyone from Hawaii,

I am pretty much new to photography or I should say I want to start atleast taking photos :lmao:. I have had some camera's in the past and really enjoyed taking photos while I was a teen. The first real photos i took was with my Dad's Camera which was a Minolta dx570 35mm. I really loved the clarity and true to life images that this camera produced. I then tried to get into the digital thing and a few years back I purchased a Fuji FinePix S5100. It was the biggest piece of junk I have ever used. Unfortunately it is still the only real camera I have used since. I majority of the time end up just using a cell phone and pretty much hate that lol.

I am not sure as to why I have not purchased a new Digital Camera but perhaps it was for the bad experience I had with my first one.

Now... Since I have moved to hawaii and the wife and I have started to visit places, I really want to start capturing the wonderful things we encounter. However, I just cant bring myself to buy a point and shoot as they just dont do it for me.

I really want to start shooting nature scenes as we have beautiful cliffs, Ocean scenes, and well pretty much everything lol. I also want ot be able to take shots of non stationary people enjoying themselves surfing hang gliding, hiking, and ariel photos would be great as I took my first flight lesson.

Anywho, thats my story and I hope to find some good information on which Camera to buy soon lol. So far I am leaning to a DSLR or I may just go back to a 35mm I dunno just yet.

:D
 
My wife bought the Fuji S5100--it took some magnificent shots, occasionally. When things aligned just right, it turned out some great pictures, but other times the results were not as good as one would have hoped. She has had pretty good luck with the Nikon D40, which is very small and light and unobtrusive as far as a d-slr goes.

Canon has some awfully nice small cameras, like the newer Rebel models; I think the small, silver-bodied Rebels make a person look like a casual shooter,and are more likely to be disregarded by security at events and places where the rule is "no professional cameras allowed". I bought a small, silver-bodied Rebel this summer, just to have a small, silver "invisible" camera for times when some big, black brick of a camera is not needed or wanted.

I hope your prior bad experience doesn't put you off of buying a digital camera--there are some really nice ones on the market now, and the Christmas season usually means some good sale prices on cameras and lenses.
 
Hi HotWire, and welcome aboard! I think you can't go wrong with a dslr by either canon or nikon. Buy a lens or two to start, and build from there. I happen to shoot nikon because I liked the feel of the camera body in my hand better than the equivalent canon, but I've shot with canon too. My first lens was a 60mm macro from nikkor and I love it. Take a workshop or two to get yourself started, if you wish, and you'll be having fun in no time. :)

Hope you enjoy it here! :)
 
The camera's that I am looking at is the Pentax K-7, Nikon D5000, and Sony DSLR500. I really like the High Dynamic Range feature the Pentax and Sony has and the Nikon is supposed to be pretty impressive. Of course this all comes from reviews etc... I know that the Nikon D90 is supposed to be a dot it all type of camera but first gen video capture is something I am think I should stay clear of. (I never buy first gen of a tech). The Pentax also has the weather sealing which may come in handy here in hawaii. Lot of rain, Ocean Mist, etc... However what kinda holds me back fromt he Pentax is not knowing how well t does in low light situations oh and its priced higher than the others lol.

I cant just focus on one type of shooting as all types are wonderful to me. Love low light/night photos, Big into landscape, and when dealing with taking photos of waves crashing over lava rocks, etc I would think I would need something that is fast also. I guess I am on the hunt for the reasonable cost do it all camera like everyone else is :confused:
 
Hey there HotWire,

DSLR is the way to go to be sure. if you enjoyed the experience you had as a teen on the Minolta platform, you will be ecstatic with a DSLR. Remember the image and colour fidelity you got with the Minolta glass, you have that with the Sony now; and you can use all that legacy Minolta/Konica glass. I am using some wonderful legacy glass that can be had for a reasonable cost as well as some very fast and expensive Zeiss glass. You will not be lacking for glass choices. And they all have that wonderful Minolta optical engineering. (Although Sony/Minolta doesn't have a shif-tilt lens yet, so you'll miss out there).

I would suggest the a550 is a great choice. You will be able to do fantastic low-light shooting; image stabilization IN CAMERA (I can't stress how important that is. Shooting 300mm hand-held when it's not full sun is awesome!!). I am very impressed with the HDR introduced in my a700. a350 was OK, but I didn't get excited. The a550 has the same if not better HDR engine than the a700. And live View is something I wish I had on the a700. I wouldn't give up my a700 body for the world, but that is the one feature on the a350 that I miss on the a700 when shooting tricky angles.

Remember, whatever system you buy, you will be buying for the glass. You will upgrade your bodies as advances are made and your passion grows, but you will take your glass to the grave (your good glass at least).

Cheers!
 
Thanks wtdeane!!! Im really glad to hear about your experience with the sony line of dslr's... I'm thinking it is the way to go for me for sure. Its good to hear that someone else like the Minolta glass lol. I posted kinda the same info on a different "tech" type site and just got a bunch of negative feedback about how sony sucks and just buy a cannon. Fortunately not really the response I was looking for :lol:.

Im not really good at pointing things into words and such so its just nice to see that you got where I was coming from.:thumbup:

The biggest concern that I have though with the a550 is all the bad press about the viewfinder being very dimlighted and basically junk. They all just say to use the viewfinder on the camera instead however that is not really something I like doing. lol
 
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