Recommendation for a camera???

[EverElevate]

i am new to photography, and this forum for that matter. hi everyone :mrgreen:

I am looking for a recommendation on a camera for me. Something with good quality and good capabilities. Within the $1000 mark. Less money the better of course.

Thank you in advance

 

[Samanax]

DSLR, right?

Are you looking for a kit (body and lens) or just a body?

Are you partial to any specific brand?

 

[dxqcanada]

What camera's have interested you so far ?
and why ?

 

[EverElevate]

i am a complete nooby to photography. I was never interested in it, or ever had a camera of my own for that matter.

I just by chance ran into a column about the depth of photography recently and it really got me intrigued on the whole thing. I just never realized what an art form photography was before.

Now i want to give it a shot.

So in honesty; What camera am i interested in.. i dont know, i never had one. Am i looking for body or whole kit? i should get the whole kit right? i would want one right? not sure.

DSLR?

 

[dxqcanada]

OK.
What interests you about photography ?
Why do you think you like it enough to spend up to $1000.00 ?

 

[EverElevate]

OK.
What interests you about photography ?
Why do you think you like it enough to spend up to $1000.00 ?

I see photography as a very distinct form of art. You need perseverance to pursue the topic at hand. You need agility and quick wit to capture the moment that you sought after. And you need that certain intelligence and depth to capture images with meaning (symbolic or otherwise), not just beauty.

Something i want to try my hands at. Besides, i dont have a camera. Everyone needs a camera:mrgreen:

 

[Samanax]

DSLR?

Digital Single Lens Reflex...these are the type where the lens can be changed. You can't change the lens on point and shoot (P&S) cameras.

So in honesty; What camera am i interested in.. i dont know, i never had one. Am i looking for body or whole kit? i should get the whole kit right?

You'll want a camera kit...unless you know which body you want and which lens you want. But seeing as you're new to photography, get the camera kit.

I'm a Canon shooter so I'll say take a look at the Canon EOS Rebel XS kit for around $500. Then you can use the rest of the funds for a external flash, battery/vertical grip, memory cards, tripod, camera bag, etc...

 

[Chairman7w]

That's the exact camera I just got yesterday (EOS Rebel XS). It came withe 18-55 lens, and I also picked up a 55-250 IS lens.

I'm VERY new to the hobby myself, and look forward to learning a lot here, looks like a great forum.

 

[BrandonS]

You're wear I was last year. I wanted a new P&S and just wanted to know what the numbers on the front of the lens meant. Ended up reading more and more about photography and decided I wanted to try it.

I ended up with a D80. I broke the LCD 3 months ago, but the camera still works. I loved that camera. It had enough features on it to not outgrow quickly, but not enough to be overwhelming. I've upgraded since I've broke it, but excellent camera. I have a buddy who shoots Nikon and he had an Xti. He upgraded fairly quickly to a 40D.

Don't play into the brand war too much. The top 3 make good cameras, although Nikon and Canon will have a wider availability of in house lenses. Oh and you'll go nuts trying to compare them. Nikon and Canon like to make cameras that split each others model lineup so you never have a camera from each camp that directly competes.

I'd go to a camera store and hold a few of them. Read on the net about equipment as well so you can get some reviews on different ones and to understand what different feature sets will offer you. That will allow you to pick a camera based on what you think you're going to photograph.

 

[Katier]

Don't play into the brand war too much. The top 3 make good cameras, although Nikon and Canon will have a wider availability of in house lenses.

Whilst Nikon and Canon seem to be the DSLR of choice I have to pull you up on this point. Pentax have a BIG benefit for they use essentially the same lens mount from the K1000 all the way to the latest DSLR.

Therefore there is a HUGE range of lenses to choose from that all fit straight on without an adapter.

The swapping of lenses gives you the benefit of having a lot of flexibility in the shots you can take while keeping the quality of the resultant image up. So if your forced to take your pictures at range ( for example a sporting event ) you'll use a telephoto lens or telephoto zoom lens, Say a 80-300mm zoom. ( the bigger the number the higher the magnification in effect). But if your doing portraits you would probably need something around 50-75mm due to the close range and then for architecture or wide angle work you might need on occasion to go into wide angle. So say 28-70 or 18-70 or similar.

Lenses that are depicted as a number-number means you can alter the zoom range. So 28-70 would be wide angle to portrait focal lengths. If they just have a single number, say 50mm, then they are fixed focal length. Fixed lenses however usually can let much more light in so they're good where light is poor.

I could go on but I think that's enough to go on for now

Oh and another BIG plus ( for me ) of the K200D ( or the K110D if going second hand ) is that it uses AA batteries. I LOVE this as if I find myself short of battery power can just pop into a shop and buy some. That said the best batteries I've found for my K110D are NiMH Rechargables.

 

[DRoberts]

Whilst Nikon and Canon seem to be the DSLR of choice I have to pull you up on this point. Pentax have a BIG benefit for they use essentially the same lens mount from the K1000 all the way to the latest DSLR.

Therefore there is a HUGE range of lenses to choose from that all fit straight on without an adapter.

Yes thats true, but the same is true for Canon. (not a Nikon guy so can't say for sure about that.) Any EF lens will fit on the newer EF Canon mounts.
Now the down side of being able to use older lenses is that the older lenses don't have the speed or quality glass as the new lenses do. In addition alot of the older lenses, even though they will fit on the camera, do not have the electronics to utilize the Auto Focus features.

EVER ELEVATE-
Buying a new entry level DSLR is a good idea. Basic ability of the camera is good for a beginner.
More important than having a good camera and glass though, is having a base knowledge of photography theory and concepts. The best equipment in the world with no knowledge of photography principles will only result in bad pictures, and a bad experience tending to make you want to give up.
Read about exposure, lighting, composition etc. Get the basic ideas down first. Practice with the basics and realize you are not going to shoot gallery, or magazine quality photos in a few days. Continue to read and learn and apply what you are learning as you go.
If you enter this with realistic expectations and a motivated attitude you can have a long lasting and sastifying hobby and possibly career.
Good luck with your decision.

 

[Katier]

Yes thats true, but the same is true for Canon. (not a Nikon guy so can't say for sure about that.) Any EF lens will fit on the newer EF Canon mounts.

Except a Pentax K fit is 35 years old and some old glass is at least as good as modern glass, possibly better. EF is much younger by comparison.

Granted you lose autofocus but that's not the end of the world, I turn auto focus OFF a noticeable amount of time.

Also Pentax bodies give the image stabilisation so you get it even on a 1973 lens. Personally I don't worry about it ( heck the K110D doesn't have it ) BUT it is a nice plus point.

 

[BrandonS]

I believe you can use lenses back to 1959 for the Nikons. The caveat to that is with the D40/40x/60's as they won't be able to autofocus them do to not having a body focus motor. They rely on the lens to have it built in.

I do believe their are issues with metering on the old non CPU lenses on D40/40x/60/80/90, as in they won't meter correctly. Not sure on the D200. The D300 and up you can set it up in the menus for each focal length I do believe.

 

[Katier]

I believe you can use lenses back to 1959 for the Nikons. The caveat to that is with the D40/40x/60's as they won't be able to autofocus them do to not having a body focus motor. They rely on the lens to have it built in.

Yes, I allways thought that the K mount was the only one unchanged from when the manufacturer in question went to Bayonet but your right, Nikon also use an evolution of their first bayonet mount. Olympus and Canon both have distinct mounts for AF/Film/Digital etc.

 

[Katier]

Oh and for information to the OP. The reason this talk of mountings is relevant is because each manufacturer uses a system called a 'mount' to attach the removable lenses onto the camera body.

Pentax uses K-Mount and it's evolutions and as such all lenses will mount on all K mount bodies since 1973. There is a caviat in that the very latest pentax made lenses often don't work on 1973 bodies.

Nikon use the F-Mount and it's evolutions summarised above.

Canon and Olympus both developed auto focus and/or digital mounts that mean older manual focus lenses won't work on their bodies without adapters. Sony use the Minolta autofocus system again meaning older manual focus lenses dont' work.

For many people this doesn't matter but having access to manual focus lenses can mean access to cheap, and often extremely good quality, lenses at much less than a brand new auto focus lens.