Starting Out

[Liar]

I really want to get into photography...and I was woundering what is a good camera to get?

[GPR1]

Answering a few questions will help:

1. What's your budget?
2. What are you interested in photographing?
3. Do you have any experience (your post suggests not).
4. What do you want to do with the photographs once taken?

Some other people may have additional questions, but these come immediately to mind.

Greg

[Steveo31]

Film? Digital? What's your budget? Desired subject matter? Do you like shooting in the field or in the studio?

[Liar]

Well my budget depends...Im not even sure how much cameras cost. I dont really want the fanciest camera. Im intersested in taking pictures in stuff that I think looks cool or I might get interested in skateboarding photography stuff like that you know. I would want to develop after I take em i guess.

[Penguin_101_1]

Then I think that you want digital. The quality is measured in megapixles. They range from 0.3-16 :lol: . The best is the highest number. The prices are from $30.00- for .7 or so - $6,000. What you need is a beginner A60 (2 MP) or A70 (3MP). When you get the the better cameras like the A60 then you get a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and there you can see the picture right after you took it giving you the advantage of not having to wait 1 hour for development at Target. If you want the option of lenses then you can go from wide angle 24mm to Super Telephoto 1600mm. I will warn you know that after you buy an film or digital SLR you will want more lenses. We have a nice support group here to slow you down so you can still have money to buy food. Film SLRs new are very cheap now because of digital at about $110. Digital SLRS (DSLR) are at $800 w/o lens at the bottem level (6 MP). Then there is the best DSLR that is the Canon 1D Mark II. Before you buy go to a local camera store and try them. Then go to bhphotovideo.com and look at their price. It is almost always cheaper than other places.

I hope this helps!

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

[Jon]

Digital will get you involved in playing with your pictures on a computer, so you'll need to have ready access (not a shared machine at school or the library) to a fairly recent computer ( MAC OS X or PC 2 GHz with 1 GB RAM and Windows 2000 or XP) as well.

You really don't want to get into developing your own colour film right off. It's fussy and expensive (BTDT). If you want to do your own developing it's either digital (not really developing, but souping up the pictures) or black and white film. Even B&W film will mean some additional equipment (tanks, processing trays, enlarger, safe light, timers, tongs) as well as the chemicals. I'd say to find out if you like taking pictures first, since you don't really seem too sure about what you'd be doing.

Inexpensive "point-and-shoot" film cameras with a moderate zoom start under $100, but it'll run you $15 or so per roll of film regardless of how things turn out. A comparable performance, digital with moderate (2 Mp) may start at $120, depending on the maker.

If you want to shoot fast action like skateboarding, though, most of the P&S-type cameras will disappoint you unless/until you learn to work with their limitations. For instance, they all have "shutter lag" - the picture isn't taken the instant you push the shutter button - the camera will try to focus and do some other housekeeping which may take almost a second. There are ways around this, but SLRs (Single lens reflex - you look through the lens that will take the picture, so what you see is what you get) (film or digital) respond more quickly (the more you pay, the faster they respond).

Since this is the Canon Digital Photography forum, of course we'll be glad to recommend a Canon to meet your needs. The A70 isn't a bad choice for a starter, and will cost $150 or so. A digital SLR like the Digital Rebel, with the standard lens (lenses are often separate on SLRs) will run you $800 or so, including a smallish memory card (film equivalent - again, usually sold separately in SLRs but not in P&S). A film model Rebel with lens will start at $200 or so.

[Liar]

Alright, thanks for your help guys.

[AshScache]

I'm just starting in a lot of ways too. I had a Canon Powershot A20 (old school, 2mp) that took fine pictures of friends and stuff for posting to the internet and laughing at over a beer.

Then, at Christmas, i got a Powershot A540 (6mp, bigger LCD). That was awesome and caused me to 'get the bug' as it were. Now I just bought a Digital Rebel XT with the kit lens. All up, with a memory card, that cost me $500 from Adorama. I'd reccomend it to anyone, because it seems as though it will 'grow' with me as I get better. My aunt is a professional photographer and swears by her Digital Rebel and kit lens, so I'm confident in the advice.

That being said...

You can get some VERY good pictures from a good P & S. I'd heartily reccomend the Canon A540. If you get a 2gb Secure Digital card too, you can shoot almost 1000 pictures at full resolution without filling the card. It'd cost about $200 total. Thats pretty sweet. But you'll probably end up wanting an SLR too. If you've got someone to physically show you how to do the basics, like zoom and focus and stuff like that, I might say go right to the SLR....or pick up a very used P&S off ebay really cheap so you don't put yourself $200 further away from the SLR if you get the bug.