Getting into photography

Sakebomb

These are the type of photos I hope to take

Can I get some advice on what type of cameras I should be looking to buy?
How much should I expect to spend?

BigMcLargeHuge

I started out by upgrading to a digital SLR. I went with the Canon Rebel XT body, and bought a lens separately to save some money. It's a very versatile camera, and mid-range as far as SLR's go price wise.

I recommend checking out Flickr.com, and filtering your searches out by a specific camera model or lens. It will give you an idea of what a lens and/or camera is capable of.

ufo

well it really all depends. do you really want to get into photography or do you want to just be able to take photos with a decent digital camera? are you thinking of maybe going analog instead of digital?

the best advice i can give you is that if you really want to get into photography is that the price of your equipment does not equate to the quality of your photos. you need to really get acquainted with your equipment and get an eye for the type of shots so that at the very least they are appealing to you.

assuming you want to go digital, i would reccomend getting a lower end digital slr body and either just a good fixed lens like perhaps a 50mm or also get a decent telephoto lens. i dont think you will find anyone to agree on what brand is better (nikon vs canon) so once you get an idea of your price range your best bet is to go to an actual store that carries cameras to hold and try them out. personally i love nikons.

if you decide a digital slr is what you are looking for then i can offer more info.

Nova_C

The quality of a photo is as dependent on the photographer and subject as it is the camera. I've taken some really nice photos with my Canon A550 digital while doing photography with my friends, who are very well versed in lighting and composition.

However, an SLR is probably what you want - Canon makes great equipment and my friend who is regularly hired to do weddings and the like (Although he is actually a mild-mannered aircraft mechanic by day) swears by Pentax.

EDIT: A decent SLR will probably run you about $1K+ and will ramp up quickly from there.

Adrenaline

I wouldn't get a D40 due to lack of built in autofocus (IIRC), if you decide to go DSLR, Canon 350D (XT in the US) or Pentax K100D would be a good starting point.

That said, like ufo said it has almost nothing to do with equipment. A talented photographer can take terrific pictures with a simple point and shoot, and if you shell out $300-1000+ on a DSLR and get frustrated (due to the relatively complicated nature of DSLRs) you'll be out quite a bit of money. Also, one kind of cool thing to note is some cheaper Canon point and shoots can have their firmware 'hacked' (read: replaced) for RAW capabilities. This basically means you get photos from the camera that haven't been edited with the camera's own post-processing and can be edited on a computer much more easily and convincingly to look amazing.

So yeah, my advice is to get a decent point and shoot (Canon S2 IS or S3 IS are good 'bridge' cameras -- between a point and shoot and DSLR, these have very long zoom capabilities) and learn the basics of photography. If you like it, you can invest more. I have began that way and I think it's the best way to go.

ufo

i forgot to mention if you do indeed want to go the digital slr route make sure to get an actual decent tripod. for example night shots of a bridge or anything will greatly benefit due to the lack of shake and flash.

BigMcLargeHuge

ufo wrote: »

i forgot to mention if you do indeed want to go the digital slr route make sure to get an actual decent tripod. for example night shots of a bridge or anything will greatly benefit due to the lack of shake and flash.

Yeah, that helps immensely. With a nice wide-angle lens and low aperature, you get some really awesome time lapse traffic shots.