time for me to join the ranks in this particular part of the forum

vincent1989

vincent1989

vincent1989

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right.
well, this year i pretty much bombed my college courses (1 C @ A level 1 D and E and a U at AS) and so wasted two years of my life and two years of taxpayers money (sorry :p). so anyway, i finished college and upped my hours at work to 30 and it seems to be my life at the moment, i do very little outside of work appart from surf these forums and play computer games, and have very few friends that want to do stuff (raikiri is one).

anyway, i've just been getting more and more depressed about the whole situation, until today. i've decided i want to go back next year and do another course (BTEC level 2), in photography, i realised part way through college that i hated being stuck in a classroom doing nothing more than copying off the board and reading books. this is not me, i like to be active and creative while learning and also photography is something that always appealed (i just never really had the money to buy decent bits till now).

right, thats the life story, now heres the rub

i've been looking at digital cameras and have come up with this: the fujipix S9600 the cheapest i've been able to find it for is £220-30. can any of you lot point me in the direction of a better camera in the £200 - £250 price range? and do you have any tips?

the hope is i will complete this course and a course on line/pencil drawing and go to uni to study archeology (this is what i've wanted to study at uni since about year 7 and the recording of objects is the part i've been most interested in (my A level was classical civilizations btw))


so yeah, to sum it up anyone know of a better camera for £200-£250 or have any experience with the finepix S9600? and has anyone got any tips for photographing landscapes/plants/insects/objects (in relation to archeology) etc


thanks in advance

p.s. what lenses should i look at (and i need other general photography advice, i'm a bit of a novice :))
 
A great budget DLSR is the Nikon D50, I think you can get them second hand for £250ish. Whatever the price, it's worth it over a bridge camera. You won't see much difference in image quality between a compact and bridge camera. And the DLSRs feel awesome to use. I wouldn't trade mine for anything less than the cost of a D80 :P
Start off with the kit 18-55 lens. The Nikon one is very good quality.
 
robertgilbert86 said:
A great budget DLSR is the Nikon D50, I think you can get them second hand for £250ish. Whatever the price, it's worth it over a bridge camera. You won't see much difference in image quality between a compact and bridge camera. And the DLSRs feel awesome to use. I wouldn't trade mine for anything less than the cost of a D80 :P
Start off with the kit 18-55 lens. The Nikon one is very good quality.
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bridge camera?
 
bridge camera is exactly that, it bridges the gap between compact and Dslr, benefits of both, ie. versatility of a focus ring on the lens but the lens isn't interchangeable as on the dslr
 
you can pick up a used canon 10D these days for £250, this is 2005's equivelent of the canon 30D/40D, i.e enthusiast/semi pro DSLR, you get a magnesium alloy body so it's well built, 6.1mp sensor and would be an ideal starter dSLR for you, don't forget to budget for a cheap kit lens (it'll do you for now) and memory cards though.
 
wez130 said:
you can pick up a used canon 10D these days for £250, this is 2005's equivelent of the canon 30D/40D, i.e enthusiast/semi pro DSLR, you get a magnesium alloy body so it's well built, 6.1mp sensor and would be an ideal starter dSLR for you, don't forget to budget for a cheap kit lens (it'll do you for now) and memory cards though.
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i've got extra for the lenses and memory cards, i was just after a DSLR for £200-£300 :)

thanks for the input so far. where would you say the best place for buying second hand is, i'd be hesitant to buy of the *bay or anywhere like that
 
wez130 said:
you can pick up a used canon 10D these days for £250, this is 2005's equivelent of the canon 30D/40D, i.e enthusiast/semi pro DSLR, you get a magnesium alloy body so it's well built, 6.1mp sensor and would be an ideal starter dSLR for you, don't forget to budget for a cheap kit lens (it'll do you for now) and memory cards though.
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2003! over 4 and a half years old now. I've had mine for 18 months and it really has been a superb first slr. properly built, superb image quality.

My only gripes with it now are that it's fairly slow in comparison to modern cameras. 3fps is perfectly fine unless you shoot sports but it's the small buffer and slow processor that frustrate me. however, in the field it's more than capable. And the pretty poor iso performance can be somewhat frustrating, but it is an old camera and doesn't fair badly.

Also, it won't take EF-S lenses, which i personally don't have a problem with but some might.

Either way I still think mine is fantastic and there is no way in hell i would swap it in for a bridge camera of any description.

If you are as serious as you say you are about getting into photography then I would only be considering an slr.
 
D40x with the kit lens, £340 delivered from Hong Kong based eBay shops would be my preference. It's new, they have loads of feedback (thousands+ so they're reputable) and it's a very good camera.

For particularly good example images check out some of Messiah Kahns earlier photos, they were taken with the stock lens IIRC.
 
Raikiri said:
D40x with the kit lens, £340 delivered from Hong Kong based eBay shops would be my preference. It's new, they have loads of feedback (thousands+ so they're reputable) and it's a very good camera.

For particularly good example images check out some of Messiah Kahns earlier photos, they were taken with the stock lens IIRC.
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thanks (as i've ssaid in MSN) think i'll get that next month :)
 
Raikiri said:
D40x with the kit lens, £340 delivered from Hong Kong based eBay shops would be my preference. It's new, they have loads of feedback (thousands+ so they're reputable) and it's a very good camera.

For particularly good example images check out some of Messiah Kahns earlier photos, they were taken with the stock lens IIRC.
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Indeed they were. If you look on my Deviantart page, most images shots between 18-55mm were taken with the kit lens. :)
 
If you are limited to that budget, id be inclined to go for a Fuji 6500 or similar, as that covers a large focal range, and is enough to get you started.

If not there is the Nikon D40/X, which if you should buy second hand, it'd be much cheaper & with lenses, however you can always start with the kit lens.

If it were me, id start with a good Bridge Camera, get into the swing of things, get a bit more money & start to move into the SLR.
 
syke said:
If you are limited to that budget, id be inclined to go for a Fuji 6500 or similar, as that covers a large focal range, and is enough to get you started.

If not there is the Nikon D40/X, which if you should buy second hand, it'd be much cheaper & with lenses, however you can always start with the kit lens.

If it were me, id start with a good Bridge Camera, get into the swing of things, get a bit more money & start to move into the SLR.
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need an SLR for the course (although they say a film SLR in the prospectus i have yet to ask whether a DSLR would be alright, but i doubt it will be a problem)
 
bringerofdecay said:
need an SLR for the course (although they say a film SLR in the prospectus i have yet to ask whether a DSLR would be alright, but i doubt it will be a problem)
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Even if its not ok, then id say get a DSLR for your own use and to practice on etc, and pick up a second hand 35mm SLR as they go for pennies.
 
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