Any amateur photographers here?

[cookie_monster]

I currently don’t know much about photography (other than the obvious) but would like to start taking some high quality pics while out and about. I’d like to buy myself a digital SLR anyone got any recommendations of a good starter camera, second hand is fine? I’m also going to look into an evening class.

Any other tips would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[gibbo_ap]

Nikon D60 Great camera!

gibboap on deviantART
Flickr: gibboap's Photostream

[DevilsAdvocate]

I love my Canon 450d!

[powdarrmonkey]

It's getting on a bit now, but I adore my Canon 350D: as well as the stock lens I bought a fast 50mm prime lens for portraits. They're pretty well priced second hand now, and they're still reasonable new.

Recommended:
[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Camera/dp/0817463003/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246871328&sr=8-10]Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera: Amazon.co.uk: Bryan Peterson: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/40-Digital-Photography-Techniques-3rd/dp/8931433697/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246871328&sr=8-12]40 Digital Photography Techniques, 3rd Edition: Amazon.co.uk: John Kim: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Exposure-Handbook-Ross-Hoddinott/dp/1861085338/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246871328&sr=8-15]Digital Exposure Handbook: Amazon.co.uk: Ross Hoddinott: Books[/ame]
and [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Photography-Masterclass-Photographic-Image-manipulation/dp/1405315563/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246871328&sr=8-6]Digital Photography Masterclass: Advanced Photographic and Image-manipulation Techniques for Creating Perfect Pictures: Amazon.co.uk: Tom Ang: Books[/ame]
all excellent books I devoured, particularly the first one - lots of lessons about light and how the camera interprets it.

[p858snake]

I'm just amateur, but I don't have a dSLR or SLR of any kind but you will be surprised what you can do with basic point and shoot camera, A lot of people think that I use a dSLR but I've never touched one, some examples of my photography can be found at p858snake on deviantART

[webman]

Another vote for the Nikon D60 for starters. I don't have one myself but a few friends do. You can pick second-hand ones up fairly cheap.

[bottletop]

There have been soom good starter cameras mentioned here. I still use a Nikon D50, I have used this to do various types of shoots from weddings to music gigs.

You need to get a couple of decent lenses. ideally some sort of wide angle lense 18-55 or better and some type of zoom lense say from 55 - 200 or even upto 300. I tend to use my beast of a lense 80-200 mm f2.8 continuos.

[bottletop]

Forgot to add the book mentiond above by Tom Ang is a good starting point I have read this plus a few others from the same guy.

[JJonas]

Nikon if you already have lenses.

Canon if you dont.

I love my Canon 400D

[cookie_monster]

Yeh i'd seen that Cannon do some good budget cameras and that there is a good second hand market. I'll take a look at a few.

[plexer]

A200 for me lovely little camera works well and lots of lenses available for it.

Should be some good prices available after Sony announced the replacement A230

Ben

[SteveBentley]

Another vote for the Sony Alpha - a decent supply of second hand lenses as the Minolta AF range are compatible.

[powdarrmonkey]

If you're going to buy Canon lenses, make sure they are EF mount and not EF-S: the latter only fit their budget end cameras, wheras EF generally fit budget and pro series.

[tmcd35]

Here's my current DigiCam -

Steves Digicams - Canon Powershot A650 IS - Hands on Review

12MP, 6X Zoom. Only thing it hasn't got is interchangable (DSLR) lenses. Love this camera - fantastic pic quality. Not bad price either. I paid around £300 for it about a year ago!

[Ric_]

Another Canon fanboi here

I've had a 350D, D30, 10D and now have a 1Ds. Second-hand lenses are easy to come across as are the bodies. I definitely wouldn't buy new.