Have £300-400 to spend, advice for a beginner please!

Scam · 12 Mar 2006 at 20:00

So for my 21st, my grandparents have offered to spend £300-400 on a digital camera for me. I'm not a photographer, although I'm about to graduate from studying Media Technology where we have studied analogue and digital photography way back in the first year. So i know the basics, and tbh it was a subject i quite enjoyed. I like the idea of playing about with depth of field etc.

So, anyway. I'm pretty clueless! They had the idea that i'd want a 'serious' kinda camera (i.e. a dslr) whcih i'm quite keen on, although i'm not sure if £3-400 is enough. :confused:

Secondly i'm kinda having doubts on whether i'd get the use out of a dslr, i can see myself getting a flash dslr then ending up never going out to use it properly, whereas a compact would be easy to get use out of (i.e. take it everywhere!). Any thoughts on that? Maybe any dslr's that are smaller?

So i've done some research and i guess i need to choose between a compact or a dslr? Am i right? What kind of dslr could i get for that money? :confused:

Any advice and suggestions appreciated!

Scam · 13 Mar 2006 at 01:29

Thanks. My grandparents actually live in NZ and theyre gonna send it back with my mum after her trip, so second hand deals probably wouldnt work

But um, i did a bit of googling and the Fuji Finepix series seems to rate well, the S9500 or S7000 look interesting, although the price seems to vary a lot. Are there any store links you guys can post (without breaking rules here!) to give me an affirmative price for some of these?

Thanks for the link, King4aDay.

Scam · 16 Mar 2006 at 18:04

*shameless bump*

I'm still looking for advice here. I think i'm set on getting a dSLR and not a compact if that helps. I've been looking at the Nikon D50, Fuji 5600 and 9500 (probably out of my range). Really just looking for as many manual features and options as possible.

Scam · 16 Mar 2006 at 19:08

Hmn this is confusing! So the Fujis and that Sony one are 'SLR-like'? Correct? What exactly does that mean, besides the slightly more attractive price?

Scam · 17 Mar 2006 at 12:34

Thanks, the Nikon D50 seems to be a nice camera according to dpreview.com anyway. Any other review sites out there that i should take a look out?

So the D50 is the cheapest out there? Any other potentials i could consider? I shall try and get into town and see if i can mess about with one in a store if possible.

Thanks for the advice.

Scam · 18 Mar 2006 at 01:20

Thanks for the advice. My grandparents have emailed me saying its possible to transfer the money if i wanted to try to buy something over here, so i guess second hand is an option now. Do high street stores generally sell second hand stuff? In fact how trustworthy are any high street stores.. coming from a PC/hardware background its never occured to me to go into the big purple shop or anything (always online!). Is it 'safer' in the photography world?

Scam · 18 Mar 2006 at 13:47

Hmn, its tough to gauge really. I wouldnt class myself as 'new' to photography, i'm comfortable with most technical aspects of it from doing analogue and digital photography in my first year at Uni, and i've produced a fair few videos and done cinematography etc. which obviously uses some of the same principles. I kinda think if i got a point-and-shoot i'd just sit back and use it as that. If i got a dSLR i'd go out and make something of it. Make sense?

Gah i dunno :confused:

Off into town later today to have a looky round the shops.