Board index Photography Artistic Questions Fairly new...seeking advice

Artistic Questions

Fairly new...seeking advice

Discuss style and artistic aspects of photography
tiffanyjeanne
 
Posts: 35

Fairly new...seeking advice

Post Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:41 am


This may seem like an odd question. I currently use small digital point-and-shoot type cameras. After looking through my gallery, would anyone recommend that I step it up a bit and actually invest in a DSLR? If so, what is recommended, as for megapixels and zoom? As you can see, I love the outdoors, nature, shots.
(I am new to this and would like to go further.)
Thank you for any advice!

-Tiffany


akmc_in_au
 
Posts: 954

Re: Fairly new...seeking advice

Post Sat Dec 27, 2008 7:26 am


tiffanyjeanne wrote:This may seem like an odd question. I currently use small digital point-and-shoot type cameras. After looking through my gallery, would anyone recommend that I step it up a bit and actually invest in a DSLR? If so, what is recommended, as for megapixels and zoom? As you can see, I love the outdoors, nature, shots.
(I am new to this and would like to go further.)
Thank you for any advice!


Hi Tiffany,

It's really a question that you need to answer for yourself. You've done some very good work with your little Coolpix, particularly in your Flowers gallery, but then there are other galleries where I noticed images which might have benefited from the greater flexibility and better sensors and lenses of a DSLR.

Really the two big questions are:

- Do YOU feel that you're being limited by your current equipment? In other words, do you feel constrained by what you can do now and want to "step it up", or do you feel that there's still room to grow your techniques with your current equipment? Are there features on your existing camera that you haven't used, or do you feel that you're using all of them already? I don't really know the Coolpix range all that well so I'm not sure how much manual control it gives you, but if you want to get into photography seriously you'll probably (eventually) need the extra freedom that a DSLR will give you in being able to control the aperture, exposure time, ISO, exposure compensation and so on. This is a long learning curve (I wouldn't even consider myself to be half way up the metaphorical mountain yet), though of course the sooner you make the change the sooner you can start climbing... IF it's a mountain that you WANT to climb. If the work that you're already doing gives you satisfaction, and with many of those shots there's no reason why it wouldn't, then you may not want to start that climb at all. (Though the tone of your post does suggest that you are starting to feel a bit constricted.)

- Can you afford both the money and the time to make the change? As for the money, you'd probably want to look at something around the Canon 450D (possibly the cheaper 1000D, but I think the 450D would allow more room to grow) or the Nikon equivalent. (Again, I'm not really up on my Nikon product range so I couldn't make any recommendations there.) Try taking a look at, say, B&H for indicative prices (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/); I know what they are HERE, but Australian prices won't help you. (Except maybe to feel waaaaay better about the prices that you'll pay in the US.) Probably more important than the body will be the lenses, and these will in fact probably be more expensive than the body. To begin with you'd probably need a decent "walk around" lens; one which covers a fair focal length range (say, 24 to 70mm), with as low an f/stop number as you can afford (f/4 OK, f/2.8 better). Best to avoid the "kit" lenses that come with some models; I don't think that they're necessarily bad lenses (some people do, though), but they aren't great either and it's probably better to get one of the more capable lenses that you can grow into. The reviews on Fred Miranda (http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/) are a good starting point for finding a lens, though if you have any specific questions on some models there will no doubt be PBasers in the Forums who can answer them for you. You can also search for sample shots by camera and lens type to get an idea of how they perform. With regard to the time that you'd need to invest, my own feeling is that you'd need to make the time to take your DSLR out at least once per week, otherwise you're going to forget how to use some of its features and will get bored and frustrated with it.

Don't get fixated on megapixels; pretty much any prosumer DSLR (like the 1000D or the 450D) will give you more than enough megapixels to make a decent print at A3 and beyond, and when you're displaying an image on screen you should reduce it to probably no more than 1000 pixels on the longest side at 72dpi anyway. (I noticed that some of your images, notably some of the portraits, weren't reduced; I do recommend it, partly because people often won't wait for an image which is 3072 pixels wide to load since it takes some time. Those images can be the better part of a megabyte in size. More importantly, such an image is too big to fit on the majority of screens, and more importantly than THAT, people generally look better when you can't see every strand of hair, every freckle, every blemish, etc.)

Also, "zoom" (in the sense of 5*, 10* etc) is largely a concept that you'll leave behind in moving to a DSLR. Far more important is the question of focal length, but that's a whole 'nother topic.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

tiffanyjeanne
 
Posts: 35

Re: Fairly new...seeking advice

Post Sat Dec 27, 2008 7:54 am


Thank you!
As for the the comment "room to grow with current equipment"....there is I am sure, unfortunately, the equipment is not the best. For some reason, after about 2000 photos, they wear out. I have been through 3 point-and-shoot cameras in the 1.5 years I have been into this.
I appreciate the advice on the size of the photos in some galleries...I didn't realize they were that large...OOPS!

akmc_in_au
 
Posts: 954

Re: Fairly new...seeking advice

Post Sat Dec 27, 2008 8:00 am


tiffanyjeanne wrote:Thank you!


You're most welcome. Just a couple of extra notes; apparently the Canon 450D that I referred to is known as the EOS Rebel XSi in the US, and the 1000D is known as the EOS Rebel XS.

(And I definitely shouldn't have looked at that, because the comparison in your prices to ours (even allowing for the exchange rate) is soooooo depressing...)

xtranch
 
Posts: 11

Re: Fairly new...seeking advice

Post Sun Dec 28, 2008 2:59 pm


the canon xsi would be a good choice, I agree. just ad a tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and you will be set until you go for telephoto.

tiffanyjeanne
 
Posts: 35

Re: Fairly new...seeking advice

Post Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:09 pm


Thank you, so much, both of you! I have looked at online store, and camera shops in town...the best that happens is that I am overwhelmed by the choices and more choices...did I mention choices?!?! Anyway, you both have given me a good starting point and I am grateful. One thing I did learn from visiting local camera shops...NEVER ask a salesman for advice on how to get started...LOL! :mrgreen: If I had taken that man's advice...yes I would have had an excellent camera, and dozens of lenses and filters and other stuff that would have cost thousands. That may great as I improve my techniques and learn more about the different lenses and what they are best for...but for now I need something that I CAN continue to learn with, that will last longer than my point-and-shoot collection :mrgreen: and not leave me broke!

THANK YOU!!!


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