Olympus SP-810UZ

[Perpetual_Noob]

Last week I purchased this camera from eBay for £80:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-SP-810UZ-Compact-Digital-Camera/dp/B005EPU132/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1467969024&sr=1-3&keywords=olympus+sp-810uz

As a complete beginner looking to get into photography as a hobby, was this a good purchase?

Reviews seemed to be mixed for this camera and bridge cameras in general.

Admittedly, when I pulled the trigger I didn't really understand the difference between bridge and DSLR cameras. However, I'm hoping this will still enable me to produce decent photos for the next couple of years.

So are bridge cameras really that bad? Any tips for getting the most out of them?

Thanks

 

[K.C. Leblanc]

The issue with bridge cameras is they usually have very small imaging sensors, it's the only way they can make a small camera with such a long zoom.

The main two issues this causes is lower image quality (especially in low light) and also means you can't achieve a shallow dept of field. If you're expecting to take sharp portraits with fuzzy backgrounds then dream on.

The key things to put time into is to start thinking about the composition of photos, read up on the rules of thirds and all that and start looking about how professional photographers position things in the frame.

Learn how the use of the zoom changes the perspective of the image, how you can flatten a scene by moving away and using more zoom or make the perspective more extreme by moving closer and zooming out.

You should also put some time in to make sure that you understand shutter speed, iso and aperture and how to trade off again another.