Camera's

Hi All,

I am looking to buy a new camera for around the £400-£500 mark in November and wondered if anyone had ideas on what to look for in a decent camera. I was looking at the Canon DSLR's but not to sure what features i should make sure it has.

Also are there any sites for learning how to take decent pictures? i have seen some local courses but they seem to be around the £100 mark and it seems a little steep.

Dude google is your best friend for camera tips. That and experience. Take your camera everywhere with you. Couldnt give you advice on cameras. I just have the Canon EOS 1000d and its the bees. Especially if your just delving in to the world of DSLR. Only thing I miss not having is video recording.

Sounds daft but I take a lot of BMX park pics and video recording would be beaut with my fisheye

My Dad is professional photographer, so I know quite a bit about this. A lot of it depends on what you are after though... Do you want ultra-zoom for spying on your neighbors? Do you want HDMI video recording for amateur adult movies? Etc.

I would stick with Canon or Nikon as they are consistently great cameras and have great lenses. Others can be fine though, just depends what you are after.

Do you want a point and shoot or do you want one with interchangeable lenses and more control? As an amateur you probably don't need an SLR, but it depends on what you want your future with photography to be.

I personally don't like digital zoom much as it degrades the quality, but look for a decent optical zoom. Megapixel doesn't mean anything nowadays as they are all more than plenty unless you plan on blowing up your pictures to poster size or bigger.

Photography is not that hard really once you know the basics, like the rule of thirds.

There's lots of review sites. If you want to say what you want and want me to short-list some for you then I'd be happy to do that.

As a starting point for DSLR's, you might want to read this: http://reviews.cnet....nners-49286113/

Edited by slowreflex, 12 August 2012 - 10:04 pm.

My Dad is professional photographer, so I know quite a bit about this. A lot of it depends on what you are after though... Do you want ultra-zoom for spying on your neighbors? Do you want HDMI video recording for amateur adult movies? Etc.

I would stick with Canon or Nikon as they are consistently great cameras and have great lenses. Others can be fine though, just depends what you are after.

Do you want a point and shoot or do you want one with interchangeable lenses and more control? As an amateur you probably don't need an SLR, but it depends on what you want your future with photography to be.

I personally don't like digital zoom much as it degrades the quality, but look for a decent optical zoom. Megapixel doesn't mean anything nowadays as they are all more than plenty unless you plan on blowing up your pictures to poster size or bigger.

Photography is not that hard really once you know the basics, like the rule of thirds.

There's lots of review sites. If you want to say what you want and want me to short-list some for you then I'd be happy to do that.

PMSL the way i read that was that your dad shoots porn

PMSL the way i read that was that your dad shoots porn

No, but I remember doing things like holding sun reflectors on models in bikini's and such... He did show up to a woman's house once to do a photo session and she answered the door in lingerie. She wanted to do provacative poses on her husbands Harley Davidson as a present for him, so of course my dad had to oblige...

Oooo someone I can help! (I'm studying photography at university going into 3rd year.)

Ok, so I'm going to assume you know you want a DSLR and not just a compact so I won't bother going over any of those.
I'm a Canon user myself and have never had any issues, I know many people who use Nikon too and they have a few options for you there too.

From Canon your options would be:
the 1000d,
the 550d or the 600d.

550d - http://snapsort.com/.../Canon/EOS_550D
1000d - http://snapsort.com/...Canon/EOS_1000D (much cheaper but thought I would throw this in anyway.)
and the 600d - http://snapsort.com/cameras/Canon-600d

Those sites should tell you all you need to know about each camera, it's honestly just how much you are willing to spend, you will be perfectly fine with a 550d if you don't want to spend the extra for the 600d. The one most IMPORTANT thing I will recommend is that you buy a 50mm 1.8 lens!

http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/B00005K47X

That thing is the shit, it's a fantastic starter lens, it's small, it's cheap you can use it for so many different situations and it's something that will make learning how to use your camera so much easier.

If you need any questions answering just comment here or drop me a message, I'll be happy to help!

Thanks for the reply i have to say the camera's posted above were the ones i was looking at, but i think even the 550D is just outside my budget depending on what kind of bonus we get this year if any. I still want to stick with a DSLR but hopefully by November coming up to Xmas and all they might drop a little if in doubt i will put some Xmas money towards it and wait for the sales.

The bit about the lense Steve, most DSLR's are packed with these but what do the numbers stand for?

TBH i am looking for a camera that will take good photo's in the evening/night and realy crisp photo's in the day, pretty much what everyone is after i guess. I wouldn't be looking to have 10 lenses in a year or to go and take photo's for some wedding.

I just looked at this http://snapsort.com/...-Canon_EOS_550D and it seems the 550d has movie and a few other bits. I honestly hate movie's never linked the awkwardness of them also like the old skoolness of photo's.

Anyone got any decent/cheaper places to buy cameras?

Well that's everything you may have noticed that all of the above is a little all over the place, but that's the way my mind works,

Now then bud

Re the shots in different lighting. All dslr can achieve great photos in all lighting. Look up shutter speed (speed at which the photo is taken in seconds), ISO (bit harder to explain - imagine contrast (note: adds gain/grain to an image) and apeture (the amount of light let in to the lense) first of all.

Re the numbers on lenses, using the one steve linked - Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II Lens

Canon - make
EF 50 mm - Not sure about the ef. Think certain models use certain values IE: EF. The 50mm is the focal length (zoom). 50mm is a fixed focal lentgh. 18-55 would be 18 standard zoomed out and 50mm zoomed in.
f/1.8 - the lowest f stop (apeture) the lense can acheive. The lower the apeture the greater light let in. In this case its great for low lighting.

Remember - a flash and tripod are necasarry