Spec me a beginners camera for an 11 year old

[Greebo]

my 11 year old niece wants to get into photography and hence wants a proper camera, better than her potato.

Budget is only £100 but fine with used. Uncle Greebo may cheat a bit and chip in a little bit extra if needed

So what would you suggest I look at/consider please?

I guess dslr will be off the cards with the budget.

 

[Jono]

You could pick up at 400/500D for that much I'd have thought?

 

[Steeps]

Canon: 450D/1000D for use with a SD card, 400D slightly cheaper but would need to source a CF card. Add in a 18-55 IS kit lens and you can get a good quality beginner bundle for under £150, cheaper if you don't mind it looking a bit rougher. Have a look at www.mpb.com to see what's available

 

[D.P.]

yeah, you could pick up an old DSLR and kit lens. These will be pretty robust. Can be used in automatic mode to begin with so your son can concentrate on simply taking good photos. Later on they can start playing with aperture settings for example. Image quality of even a veyr old DSLR wipes the floor with a small point and shoot in terms of details. Our of camera jpegs aren't great but not a big deal, and again in the future he can start to learn some editing. And if it doesn't work out you can seel it on for much the same price as you paid for it

 

[Abraxaz1]

Pentax k1000 + 50mm f1.8 and a lot of film at different iso. It's what i started with, my granddad's old camera.

Or any old dSLR with a kit lens.

 

[Energize]

I'd definitely agree with the suggestion of buying a 2nd hand SLR, I don't think there's any point in buying a camera to learn photography if it's not an SLR or mirrorless. Because it will be nigh on impossible to customise and experiment with the necessary settings. I bought a 2nd hand D3200 kit for something like £200, so older models like the D90 must surely be around that price point now?

 

[Holst1981]

How technically competent is she?
I could have used a complicated dslr at that age but I would have needed plenty of help.

It may be difficult to beat the potato camera if she wants fast work flow and social media.
My nikon dslr sucks for this. Processed photos are fantastic but I can't share immediately.