DSLR Purchasing Recommendations

[LukeMoss]

Hi all,

 

I've been given the task to now photograph school events, as it has some form of power it belongs to IT right?

 

They would also like me to photograph the students for school photos, up to now I have been using my own camera for this with the schools SD Cards, I'm a Nikon user so would prefer to stick with that and have about 1K to use. Is there anywhere you can recommend to purchase one that would accept PO numbers.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Mrpower]

Warehouse express (WEX)

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/

A great selection of camera new and used, lens, tripods, etc. I think I have bought from them before and I think they take PO's. Their grading system on the used cameras is very honest and clear about the state of the products. if the camera is in a very bad condition, they will say so and price it accordingly.

 

MPB are also very good retailer of used cameras and video equipment. Sometimes a a bit cheaper than WEX, depending on condition and shutter frames. Not sure about them accepting PO's, but there is no harm giving them a ring or send an email asking about PO's.

https://www.mpb.com/

 

On the taking pictures front, I would recommend shooting RAW files rather than, jpgs or tiffs, as it gives you more area to play with and more detail, bigger files, but overall better quality. More detail in the shadows and detail in the highlights etc.....

Lenses are the key, a good lens will make a budget camera better, the better the glass the better the picture.

Edited September 30, 2022 by Mrpower

[mavhc]

The trick to photographing 1000 students is to not spend any time on each photo. And to make sure you know who is who, that everyone is in the order they're on the spreadsheet, photograph their name/class anyway to double check, then exactly n photos of the child, then next child.

 

So good lighting, backdrop, another human to prep the children. Then a script to display the theoretical name next to their photos to make sure they're correct.

 

If you spend a minute on each child that's still 16 hours, or 3 days of work.

[Ketlane]

My trick is to print an A4 sheet for each child with name and their roll number.

Line the pupils up in alpha order, or roll number order, whichever works for your processing of the folder.

Photo once with the A4 held up in front of them as in a police mughshot

Photo again without A4 sheet.

Bin the A4 sheets after each picture. You now have a pile of A4 sheets listing the ones you missed out.

And your photo folder has the pictures in the right order and with clear ID. Easy also to delete the mugshot pictures from the folder.

Just beware of the identical twins. We had a pair, one of whom had a T shirt with the slogan "I am not James" and the other "I am not Ian" though it wasn't clear which was wearing which (or indeed if there were two of each shirt as well.......)