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.

[mossj]

I got a Sony A200 because (at the time) it was the best budget camera, has best kit lens of the series. Also it feels like what it cost, unlike the canon which felt a bit 'muh' to me.

[alan-d]

Another Canon Fan here but I also have an Olympus 400 point and shoot which I still use occassionally

 

A good all round beginners book is this one [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Photography-Handbook-Doug-Harman/dp/1847244459/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246875979&sr=1-3]The Digital Photography Handbook: Amazon.co.uk: Doug Harman, David Jones: Books[/ame]

It covers everything from using a point and shoot to a DSLR all the way to editing and selling your pictures. From there you can decide on what further reading you may need.

[mattx]

Its amazing these days what can be snapped on a cheap digital cam.

This is a quick snap I took yesterday of one of my sunflowers - ok its slightly over exposed on the right but for a cheap fuji it's quite amazing....

[PyROm]

I started on an olympus E-500 and moved onto a canon 40D. The olympus is great (and now cheap second hand) however I found that the longer focal length lenses tended to be a lot more expensive then the canon equivelent. The only reason I changed cameras was because of lens prices.

[muppet]

Without trying to start up a Nikon / Cannon war, probably the best first dSLR has to be the Nikon D60. Where you go from there is down to personal preference, I was always a Cannon man (350/400/450D)until I got my hands on the Nikon D300.

New vs used? I've bought both, but will generally go for second hand lenses as long as I know they are in good nick. Been caught out once with mold inside a lens, but know what to look for now.

[nawbus]

I bought a Sony a200 at the weekend as my old compact was getting a bit temperamental. I've always preferred an SLR so I decided to bite the bullet. The reviews for the Sony are very good and the fact that it is based on Minolta is a big plus in my book.

I am a bit of a Luddite and still like using film (although it is getting more and more pricey) & I still use my old Minolta X300 which I guess is over 20+ years old and is working fine.

[mitcheln]

Course T189 with the Open University is to be recommended.

[pbrian49]

I agree with mitcheln, the OU T189 provides a good starting point, I did the original T189 when it first started.

 

My kit, Canon 40D with a range of Canon lenses. L series are expensive but give fantatstic quality compred to the budget ones.

 

Whatever DSLR you buy, beware the lens and accessory bug, as it will bite you!

[cookie_monster]

Course T189 does look interesting but i'm not sure I can commit 10 hours every week at the moment but i'll certainly look at it in future.

 

BUT I am interested was the course fairly straight forward, I might be able to make the time

Edited July 6, 2009 by cookie_monster

[pbrian49]

Course was pretty straight forward, though I don't think I committed 10 hours a week. What I did enjoy were the projects - taking images for a particular theme and then posting them for other students to critique. You also learn basic editing as well as Photoshop Elements was included in the cost of the course.

 

Many of the ex T189 students have been hoping that the OU would do a level 2 course in Digital Photography, but that hasn't happened.

 

There is a very active T189 group on Flickr with ex students here Flickr: The T189 Past, Present & Future (Book or Song Title) Pool

 

Brian