Good starter Digital SLR?

[Lovin]

I'll go for Nikon D40.

[tegan]

Well, Marko and I take different points of view. He says: Don't buy more than what you need at the present time and upgrade later if you need to. (That is paraphrasing.) He is not necessarily wrong. It is more a matter of approach. He saves money by not buying features he may not use.

I tend to go with: Buy more than what you need, so that you will not have to upgrade so quickly. I save money by not upgrading quite as fast.

Most consumer DSLRs are at the 10 megapixel level and will be at 12 megapixels and higher before the end of the year. Impossible to keep up, but nevertheless I would not recommend that anyone purchase a DSLR at under 10 megapixels.

Just my view.

Tegan

[Lovin]

Both of you are right.
Now, Nikon D40 is not a nexpensive one, and also not a professional one.
There is a D40 with 10 megapixels, and is not so expensive. For me expensive goes from $1000-1200 and up.
Now I have to check if D40 have auto-focus, not that I want to rely on autofocus, but for start it will help me.
Anyway I want a Nikon.

Thanks for the advice Tegan.

[tegan]

Both of you are right.
Now, Nikon D40 is not a nexpensive one, and also not a professional one.
There is a D40 with 10 megapixels, and is not so expensive. For me expensive goes from $1000-1200 and up.
Now I have to check if D40 have auto-focus, not that I want to rely on autofocus, but for start it will help me.
Anyway I want a Nikon.

Thanks for the advice Tegan.

All digital cameras have autofocus but in low lighting conditions it is often necessary to focus manually.

Tegan

[Marko]

Well, Marko and I take different points of view. He says: Don't buy more than what you need at the present time and upgrade later if you need to. (That is paraphrasing.) He is not necessarily wrong. It is more a matter of approach. He saves money by not buying features he may not use.

I tend to go with: Buy more than what you need, so that you will not have to upgrade so quickly. I save money by not upgrading quite as fast.

Most consumer DSLRs are at the 10 megapixel level and will be at 12 megapixels and higher before the end of the year. Impossible to keep up, but nevertheless I would not recommend that anyone purchase a DSLR at under 10 megapixels.

Just my view.

Tegan

Just to explain the reason for my reasoning... is that MOST people get into photography not as a lifetime hobby but rather as a temporary hobby. It's very similar to a short lived new year's resolution to get to the gym. People get all lit up about photography and then 3 months later, their desire wanes. So in good conscience I can't advise most people to go spend thousands on their first camera.

On another level, for those people that DO indeed become advanced amateurs or pros..there is a learning curve to producing great photography. And in that curve, current technology is changing too rapidly to suggest that a first 'good' camera be a several thousand dollar one.

Get comfortable with photography first. Practise. Learn about light. Then by the time you are ready to buy that first amazing camera that may well cost$ 2,000+ for just the body, you'll know what to do with the bells and whistles that you would otherwise never use.

An expensive top of the line camera is a fairly useless tool if you have no idea how to use it. Yes a bazooka can kill a fly. But if you are only going to kill 2 flies a month, a fly swatter does the same trick for much cheaper.

Just my 2 cents again...

Thx!
Marko

[tegan]

Good points, Marko. Come to think of it, some newbies think the camera takes the great photos and when they discover that it takes a lot of knowledge and work from the photographer, they give up.

When you grow up with photography as I did, the challenge, effort and work necessary is not even thought about.

Tegan

[Lovin]

Ok, ok , I know that the photographer is taking the picture, but can I do a good practice with a Nikon Coolpix L5 with 5x optical zoom (http://techgage.com/article/nikon_co...igital_camera/) ? ...or I can learn more on a Nikon D40 ?
That's my question.
I think that I can learn more about exposure, light, etc etc with a entry lvl camera such as Nikon D40 (or D40x).
And is not so expensive.
Am I right ?

I know what are you talking about : $2000 only the body : Nikon D300 or D3 or Canon Mark.

Thank you for your advices, I really appreciate it .
Lovin

[Marko]

To learn about photography your camera in my opinion NEEDS to be able to do the following:

Adjust the ISO
ADjust the aperture
adjust shutter
change lenses and manually focus the lens

ANY camera that cannot do this, is in my opinion a waste of money for LEARNING photography.

ANY camera that works, that can do this (Even the non digital pentax k-1000 which is a 100 dollar camera) is a PERFECT camera for learning photography.

I'd recommend any digital SLR that does the 4 things above over ANY point and shoot that cannot for the purposes of LEARNING photography.


Hope that helps,

Marko

[tegan]

I am not the average photographer so I would not recommend what I do.

Nevertheless I like a good quality adjustable pocket camera to carry around where cameras are not allowed or where there is some danger involved in carrying cameras around.

I like a compact super zoom with a fast lens such as 28mm to 200mm f. 2.8 to f 4.5 which allows me to travel light for some projects as well as the ability to switch to high res. video at 800 X 600 or greater for the length of the card. I have mixed stills and video for legal related work.

DSLR is of course great for low light, extreme telephoto, macro, portrait and other work where quality is necessary for publication or printing and I am currently working in that area.

So, I make a broad use of all 3 types of cameras.

Tegan

[w3rk5]

You can learn more about photography with any D-SLR than a point and shoot. Just set everything to manual mode until you can take properly exposed pictures consistently.

Taking better pictures because you're using a D-SLR is debatable .

Since you're favoring Nikon, I'd get the D40 instead of the D40x. Why is more mega pixels better for you? How will the extra mega pixels benefit you? Is it worth the extra $$$? If you can answer those questions, then maybe the D40x is better for you.

I hope this helps a bit.