DDog

For a beginner? I've always wanted to go into photography, but they don't have a classes at my school. That means i'll have to learn by myself through study and basically just fooling around. But theres so many different types and it can get quite confusing, and like I said i'm a beginner, so when your telling me the good qualities of the camera, please explain. I'm looking to take pictures of nature and people with kind of a professional look, so it's obviously going to cost me quite a bit. I want a digital one, but I don't know because since i'm a beginner, should I start with film? Like i said, I would really like a digital one rather film, but if that's absolutely impossible please make note.
And also I sorta of have a price range.
$550 is all i'll go up too. I understand that that is low compared to some of the other prices, but keep in mind I am a beginner and if I end up buying some fancy $2,000 camera I won't understand it anyways, so it'll be a waste. Also what brand should I go with?
So:
-Professional Look
-Up to $550
-Nature && People shoot
-Brand?
-And Beginner.

Thank you so much for your help!
And if you have any tips on how to use the camera you provided for an example please e-mail me at
sammyohdarling@yahoo.com

Thanks Again!

GIRLRACER

I recommend film for beginners. The cost per frame really makes you slow down and really consider what you are doing. You can always step down to digital later. It will still be there.


You might check this out:

http://www.keh.com/OnLineStore/ProductDetail.aspx?groupsku=NA020090356810&brandca tegoryname=35MM&Mode=searchproducts&item=0&Activat eTOC2=false&ID=&BC=NA&BCC=1&CC=2&CCC=1&BCL=&GBC=&G CC=&KW=n90

Couple that to a 50mm F/1.8 lens and you have an awesome beginners machine.

Hamm007

cannon rebel eos should be very close to that price and a cannon 30d eos should have dropped to that by know the 30d is definatly built better there both digital film is good and all but you have to be very carful to make sure all the settings are perfect its hard to edit them end it limits you to what you can shoot plus its a lenghty delicate expensive prosses to get them finished and you have to have access to all the exspensive equipment even though there is that special feeling that a film photo has i personaly think film is the way to go especialy for a beginer so that you dont loose to much money i have had a 20d for i belive the past 5 years and i love it

FvxzcvX

I just bought a Nikon D40 this weekend. The kit normally includes the body and an 18-55 mm lens for $499. This week though there's a special on it at many photography shops for $449, plus the option of adding the 55-200 mm lens for just $549. AMAZING deal.
So far, I've just played around with it around the house, and I'm already in love with it.

Oh, and plus it comes with a great bag, and instructional DVD from Nikon!

GETEEX

Beginning with digital has good and bad points, depending on how you use it. I agree that film will force you to slow down and understand and make a serious effort to achieve good composition and exposure, but while in the learning stage, you are going to be spending some bucks on film and processing. Then when you get the photos back, unless you take very accurate notes on each shot as you take it, you may still not know what you did right or wrong. But then you can get a great 35mm film camera and lens for a song compared to digital.

As for digital, it CAN be a good learning tool, but the problem is the great majority of people will not use it as such. They fall into many bad habits that are not condusive to good photography. They become monkeys just firing away shots with no regard to learning exposure and composition. They look at the monitor or the computer at downloaded photos, then delete 90% of everything they shot. They may have one really good shot out of 50, then go around thinking they are good photographers. They never bother to learn, keep the camera on AUTO, and have no idea of how to consistently get that one good shot, much less EVERY shot being good. They just trash the bad shots and forget it. With film, you have a tangible negative staring you in the face as a constant reminder of your lack of knowledge.

If used correctly though, you can progress with your learning faster with digital. Learn about shutter speeds and apertures and ISO and composition, and experiment with your new knowledge. You can see the results immediately without having to buy film and pay and wait for processing. When used as such, digital can be a really good, accelerated way to learn photography. Downside is, you pay for the speed and conveinance of instant feedback.

The Nikon D40 is a very good digital SLR for beginners, and advanced amateurs too. You can get the camrea and kit lens for under $500. Just check the usual places such as Amazon, B-H, Adorama, Ritz, Best Buy. Even Wal Mart may sell this on line. Just be sure you buy from one of these known, legit retailers. There are LOTS of scam camera "sellers" on the net and in photo magazines that bait you in with a very low price, then use all types of dirty tactics to get a LOT more money out of you, and if you don't pay it, they never have your camera "in stock" and it takes a major battle to get your money back. So use common sense where you buy.

As for tips on using the camera, the best place to start is a thorough readiing of the manual that comes with the camera. It never ceases to amaze me the people on here asking questions that are fully explained in the manual. I have no patience with people that will not bother to make any effort to help themselves first.

There are also plenty of online photo resources from which you can learn. Here are two:

http://www.betterphoto.com

http://www.kenrockwell.com

Good luck with whatever you decide.

steve

JohnD

Thanks for taking your time and viewing my photos

As far as a beginner with the camera...

I started off using the Nikon D40 and the 18-55mm lens it came with.

As I progressed I bought th 55mm-200mm lens.

Good luck with your photography, hope I helped =)

GIRLRACER

If you are really on a budget and want the best quality for the money, check out the P&S Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 which has more features than most pro DSLRs that require auxiliary lenses not even equal to the single initial full-range lense that comes with the FZ28. It is reviewed at:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2008_reviews/panasonic_fz28.html

It just came out on November 4, 2008.

It's an all-in-one 10.1 megapixel DSLR camera which includes (i) built-in image stabilization; (ii) HDTV quality video [Quicktime]; (iii) a 18x zoom [27 - 486 mm (35mm equiv.)] "Leica" lense for nature photography; (iv) up to 0.39 inch macro option; (v) up to 6400 ASA; (vi) takes up to 380 pictures per 120 min. battery charge; (vii) has a "burst speed" of 13 fps; and sells new for $270 at amazon.com.

Here's an actual handheld picture of the moon:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/d5/c0/66b1810ae7a03f4d99e6c110.L.jpg

Good luck!

MJWorner

If you are serious about photography, look at lenses before cameras. When I got into photography there was no digital, so Nikon 35mm was the way I went, just because they had the best lenses (IMNTBHO). That meant that Nikon was the way I would go when I went digital. (D-80 in my case) since my Nikon glass would fit.

That being said, it seems that Canon and Nikon are the two big players in lenses, and if you get cameras with glass compatibility you can't go wrong.

As for lessons, take a look at an on-line course offering called "The 1-2-3s of Digital imaging. Starts right out with "This are a camera" and goes all the way to advanced lightroom techniques (Photoshop). Costs '$50 and very good value. go to 123di dot com for information.

There is also a good site called dpreview dot com which has in depth reviews of digital cameras as they come out. Extremely informative.

Whatever you get, make sure you have complete control of all settings available to you. The only way you will ever be able to tell an f-stop from a shortstop is if you learn to manipulate settings yourself. Once you get to where you can outguess your light meter (I would get a separate one of those early in your career too) then you can sit back and let the automatic take over and chastise it properly when necessary (about 30% of the time in my experience)

Good luck,
Matt (about 500 weddings on film under my belt)