help ?!?

[melbells1126]

so, a friend of mine and his mother are pbasers and I started logging on to see their work and got addicted. As I am seeing all the galleries I am getting inspired with my own ideas, but I have NO idea where to start. The only camera I have is a little digital one that I've used once, and it doesn't take clear pictures. Money is really tight, so I'm wondering if anyone can give me info on a decent, inexpensive camera...or what features to look for in a camera. I am open to film cameras as well. Any help would be appreciated!

[marxz]

My opinion - get a good compact or bridge camera (the "not quite compact not quite SLR models) and just get out and shoot... no film not cost just keep shooting see what works what doesn't what you like what you don't like.

There are lots of decent compacts out there (you didn't say what model you have at the moment) that will get you in the door, my first year returning to photography was done with a Canon powershot A80 ... now OK that was top of the line consumer compact back then and worth a fair bit of money but you can pick up new compact cameras that are better than that for a 1/3rd of the price.


Canon Fujifilm, Nikon, Sony, Samsung all these and more make good compacts and bridge cameras.


alternatively the budget end of the Nikon, Canon and Pentax DSLR's come with pretty good capabilities and half decent kit lenses.


and all of these DSLR's are out there in the used market too, a second hand EOS 350D will set you back about half the price of a 400D (under the cost of a new high end compact or bridge camera).

[dharden]

based on the results my 11 year old stepson is getting from it then i'd say the Fuji S6500 (S6000 in the US) fd is well worth looking at.

http://www.pbase.com/joeday

It operates like a compact if you want it to and can also handle like an SLR (almost) as you progress (i can vouch for that - I use a Canon 20D and a 5D and i'm impressed with the Fuji!).

28-300 (effective) MANUAL zoom lens, AF or MF (with a great little focus assist button if you need it), really good quality RAW images when you want to move up a level and good JPEGs when you're starting out or just snapping away. Gets a little noisy and fuzzy over ISO400 in JPEG but the RAW files are much better....

58mm conventional filter thread too so you can use "normal" filters without any fiddly adapters.

For the price (less than £150 in the UK) it's an absolute steal. The lack of stabilisation could put some off but then it's a good thing when you're learning, IMO, as you need to learn how to be steady!

The plastic tripod bush is a little off-putting but it's fine if you don't abuse it. It doesn't have a hotshoe either, just a built in flash, so if you want to use flashguns then it's not for you....

This is only a suggestion for one to look at. Read the reviews, go handle a few and see what you think suits you the best - there are a lot of very good bridge cameras around at the moment.

[stsva]

Don't worry too much about the camera (check out http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm). Make sure you have the technical basics down to get properly-focused and exposed pictures, but once you have that, concentrate on the picture you want to make (take a look at http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/howto.htm).