Starting photography

[Howl]

I have always thought about making photography a hobby, but I wasn't sure how committed I would be. I want to try it, so I'm going to take a photography class next month (this class counts torwards my bachelors degree). I like going to professional sports game and travel, so I'm thinking that I should buy an expensive camera.

My budget is $3000 max.

My question: how much should I be spending as a beginner? should I just go for something expensive? or just buy something cheap like a d40?

 

[Mav]

You don't need an expensive camera for sports photography, you need an expensive lens. If sports is what you want to shoot, start off with a cheaper Canon body and maybe a 70-200 f/4L. Or since you've got some budget to play with, either a 70-200 f/2.8L with or without IS, with or without a teleconverter (1.4, 1.7, or 2.0x). A 300mm f/4 telephoto prime would be fun to play with and start off with too. The best lens sorta depends on what sort of sports events you go to, where they are, how close you can get, and the lighting conditions.

As far as the actual camera, just try them out and see what fits your hand best. Any of the Digital Rebels (XT, XTi, XSi) are fine to start off with, but also try out a 30D or the new 40D. Plan to spend more on the lens than the body, though. I'd pickout the lens you want first and then get the body based on what's left over. The 28-135IS lens that commonly comes in Canon kits is a nice travel lens, but not very wide. If I was buying a Canon I'd get it with the 17-85IS lens. And I say Canon in this case because Canon lenses generally have quicker autofocusing at the consumer level than Nikons, and Canon also has a much more complete lineup of telephoto zooms. And then their telephoto primes are often thousands of dollars cheaper than Nikons. And most sports photogs all shoot Canon, so if you make friends with one and he lets you borrow a lens, there's a 99.9% chance that it'll be a Canon lens.

Sports = Canon.

If you're not sure if this will take off as a hobby for you or not, buy all your stuff used. If you decide it's not you you could probably turn around all the stuff for about the same price you paid for it, and then you won't be out any money.

 

[eminart]

Gosh. When I was a student the only way I ever had 3K to spend on anything was if I illegally used my student loan money to buy toys. .......... not that I'd ever do anything like that............. And if you did, you'd just have to pay it back later in life (not that I know....)

 

[Alex_B]

3 K is quite good for a start!

Wow.

well, I would go for one or two really good lenses plus a cheap body.

then, after a year or so , upgrade the body (there will be way better camera bodies available by then, but not any much better lenses).

 

[Early]

I have always thought about making photography a hobby, but I wasn't sure how committed I would be. I want to try it, so I'm going to take a photography class next month (this class counts torwards my bachelors degree). I like going to professional sports game and travel, so I'm thinking that I should buy an expensive camera.

My budget is $3000 max.

My question: how much should I be spending as a beginner? should I just go for something expensive? or just buy something cheap like a d40?

If this class counts towards a degree, starting out in sports is kind of raising the bar. You'd be better off just thinking general photography.

I'm also pretty sure you'll need a manual exposure film camera, like a Nikon fm2n (recommended) with, say a 50mm lens.