I everyone My name is Lori and I live in Wilmington, North Carolina. I'm new to all this photography stuff and I couldn't tell you the difference between ISO 400 and ISO 200. I really enjoy looking at all the beautiful photographs on this site. For someone like myself that is just starting out learning, what is a good camera to start out with? I don't want to spend a lot of money, but something that I could learn on and still get some clear pictures. I have a inexperience camera now that doesn't get very clear pictures like I would like. Does anyone know about a Pentax 10.2 D-SLR? Is this a good one or will I just be wasting my money? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Looking forward to being able to one day post my own photographs on here.
If you are serious about getting inot photography, a DSLR is the way to go. I'm not familiar with the Pentax, but any name brand entry level DSLR should do the trick for you.
Welcome to NPN! This is a great place to learn and show your work as you progress.
There is a lot of information to answer your questions, both asked and implied. I'll start easy and let others fill in the gaps.
I am assuming that you found this site because of an interest in nature photography. In that case, I'd start immediately with John Shaw's books on nature photography. Read all of them, except the one on photography as a business (although maybe in a few years...). He has the best practical explanation of exposure, film ISO's and its effects on exposure (digital is for practical purposes the same - whenever he mentions film, think digital), lenses, the effects of lenses, composition, all that stuff. There are books out there which go into more detail, or are more technical but his is the best practical explanation of a lot of stuff.
For cameras, there are a lot of roads to take. You asked about a digital SLR. That is probably the best choice out there as you will get immediate feedback on your shots instead of waiting for film to be processed.
Now which brand? That is an almost perpetual flame war between Canon, Nikon and everyone else. This is one of the few places on the net where this doesn't occur. To a large degree, there really isn't a right answer. A lot of it depends on budget, interest and what feels right in your hands. Pentax is a good brand and their DSLR's are pretty good.
What you will find is that Canon and Nikon are the industry leaders and are by far, the most popular brands out there. You'll get more information about them vs Pentax plus thee is a lot more third party support for those brands. I'd at least look at them.
The one piece of advice I'd give is to go the route of an SLR with interchangeable lenses. Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony (who now owns the Minolta line) all offer cameras with this feature. What this will allow is the ability to use different lenses appropriate to what you are shooting.
For those four brands, there are plenty of third party lenses out there which will help with the budget. The primary brands are Tamron, Tokina and Sigma - the last is probably overall the strongest of the three brands.
Not knowing budget, I am going to suggest something in the Canon line, more because that is what I shoot and I am very familar with that camera system. A Rebel with a kit lens would make a good starting point.
If you buy online, be very careful. There are a lot of really slimy places with camera stores that are even lower on the food chain. Check out the store's reputation first. I've dealt with the following companies and they are completely honest: B&H, Adorama and Midwest Photo. I seem to remember that either Wilmington or Raleigh has a very good camera store, but I've forgotten the name of the place.
And last: ASK QUESTIONS!
Posted by Fred Stearns on May 16, 2009 at 12:32 AM
Dan offered a lot of very good advice. I will add one more thing to the list. It might not seem important, but it really is. If at all possible, go to you local camera store and try out the different cameras that you are interested in. he one that feels the most natural to you will be the one that you can use the best. Like Dan, I shoot Canon. However, the last thing I did before bought a new camera when I was getting back into photography was to go to the local camera store and try out the Canon and Nikon offerings. To me, the Canon felt more natural. For you, it might be the Pentax or a Fuji or an Olympus. You might also be surprised to find that you local camera store has comparable prices to the big mail order firms or they are willing to meet their prices.
I have the Pentax K10D (which the company has now replaced with the 20D), and have been very satisfied with it. They also have other models (for starters such as you) that you may want to look at. Self cleaning sensor, in-camera shake reduction, and the fact that older lenses made for Pentax all work on the newer models is a good reason for going that route. For a beginner, the fact that the Pentax brand is less expensive, but every bit as good, would make it well worth your time to check the brand out. B&H has good prices and a great reputation!
Hi Lori,
As you can see from the replies so far, there is definately no one right camera answer. I shoot primarily with an Olympus DSLR.
I did alot of research online first. What I did was define the features I wanted and then identified what cameras with those features fit my budget. (No OCD here, nope not at all)
Once I had it narrowed down to a few cameras, I went to the local camera store and picked the one that "felt" right for me.
B&H and Adorama are both excellent online stores, have bought from both. B&H also has some really good basic photography tutorials on their website that I would recomend reading.
While it can be a bit intense, I found the reviews on www.dpreview.com helpufl. There are sample photos taken with each camera. The reviews themselves are abit more than I ever wanted to know about a camera, so I just skipped to the conclusion portion of the review. DPreview also has a few tutorials as well.
Hope this helped,
Pat
Posted by Eric Vaughan on May 17, 2009 at 10:55 AM
Welcome to NPN, you will find this is a great site for nature photography. As far as what kind of camera, I think the other posts covered that pretty well. My only suggestion is you learn about cameras and the technical part needed to create great images that are sharp and properly exposed, then you will need to learn how to compose and create dynamic images with great lighting. One great source for that is a book I HIGHLY recommend by Brenda Tharp called "Creative nature and outdoor photography". It is very well written with lots of example photo's and covers so many great elements on how to create dynamic images. Another thing is be patient, it takes a while to learn how to create images like you see here on this site, photography is a long going learning experience and sometimes new photographers get discouraged because they don't get results like they were hoping for in the beginning. Look forward to seeing some images from you in the future.
I agree 100% with what Kent says. I would add that you may want to think about what kind of photography interests you, because there are some specialty lenses which you may be able to find in one brand and not another.
Discussion
9 repliesIf you are serious about getting inot photography, a DSLR is the way to go. I'm not familiar with the Pentax, but any name brand entry level DSLR should do the trick for you.
There is a lot of information to answer your questions, both asked and implied. I'll start easy and let others fill in the gaps.
I am assuming that you found this site because of an interest in nature photography. In that case, I'd start immediately with John Shaw's books on nature photography. Read all of them, except the one on photography as a business (although maybe in a few years...). He has the best practical explanation of exposure, film ISO's and its effects on exposure (digital is for practical purposes the same - whenever he mentions film, think digital), lenses, the effects of lenses, composition, all that stuff. There are books out there which go into more detail, or are more technical but his is the best practical explanation of a lot of stuff.
For cameras, there are a lot of roads to take. You asked about a digital SLR. That is probably the best choice out there as you will get immediate feedback on your shots instead of waiting for film to be processed.
Now which brand? That is an almost perpetual flame war between Canon, Nikon and everyone else. This is one of the few places on the net where this doesn't occur. To a large degree, there really isn't a right answer. A lot of it depends on budget, interest and what feels right in your hands. Pentax is a good brand and their DSLR's are pretty good.
What you will find is that Canon and Nikon are the industry leaders and are by far, the most popular brands out there. You'll get more information about them vs Pentax plus thee is a lot more third party support for those brands. I'd at least look at them.
The one piece of advice I'd give is to go the route of an SLR with interchangeable lenses. Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony (who now owns the Minolta line) all offer cameras with this feature. What this will allow is the ability to use different lenses appropriate to what you are shooting.
For those four brands, there are plenty of third party lenses out there which will help with the budget. The primary brands are Tamron, Tokina and Sigma - the last is probably overall the strongest of the three brands.
Not knowing budget, I am going to suggest something in the Canon line, more because that is what I shoot and I am very familar with that camera system. A Rebel with a kit lens would make a good starting point.
If you buy online, be very careful. There are a lot of really slimy places with camera stores that are even lower on the food chain. Check out the store's reputation first. I've dealt with the following companies and they are completely honest: B&H, Adorama and Midwest Photo. I seem to remember that either Wilmington or Raleigh has a very good camera store, but I've forgotten the name of the place.
And last: ASK QUESTIONS!
I would add Hunts Camera in Boston to Dan's list.
Good luck and welcome!
I have the Pentax K10D (which the company has now replaced with the 20D), and have been very satisfied with it. They also have other models (for starters such as you) that you may want to look at. Self cleaning sensor, in-camera shake reduction, and the fact that older lenses made for Pentax all work on the newer models is a good reason for going that route. For a beginner, the fact that the Pentax brand is less expensive, but every bit as good, would make it well worth your time to check the brand out. B&H has good prices and a great reputation!
As you can see from the replies so far, there is definately no one right camera answer. I shoot primarily with an Olympus DSLR.
I did alot of research online first. What I did was define the features I wanted and then identified what cameras with those features fit my budget. (No OCD here, nope not at all)
Once I had it narrowed down to a few cameras, I went to the local camera store and picked the one that "felt" right for me.
B&H and Adorama are both excellent online stores, have bought from both. B&H also has some really good basic photography tutorials on their website that I would recomend reading.
While it can be a bit intense, I found the reviews on www.dpreview.com helpufl. There are sample photos taken with each camera. The reviews themselves are abit more than I ever wanted to know about a camera, so I just skipped to the conclusion portion of the review. DPreview also has a few tutorials as well.
Hope this helped,
Pat
Kent in SD