camera help!

[princess_momma]

I love photography. I took classes in high school and just fell in love. Unfortunately, I no longer have a digital SLR for use and it really sucks! Plus, right now I am a single mom and can't afford one. I am in the market for a new camera and have to go with a P&S. I don't want one of the ones that looks snazzy and takes good enough pictures if you're just hanging. Unfortunately, I can't afford even some of the higher end P&S. The one that seemed nicer when I went to the store was the Nikon Coolpix 10.0-Megapixel. This one looked nice enough and was in my price range...but do you guys have an opinion? I rather use my crappy P&S now and save for possibly close to a year than spend money on one that is truly just a waste of money.

Any opinions, advice, suggestions, etc. would be helpful!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Have you thought about buying used?

 

[Chikabowa]

I'm not familiar with any PnS, so I'm a really bad person to give advice on that front. But I just wanted to encourage to follow your photography journey, regardless of the type of camera you buy.

While certain cameras do have all the bells and whistles, challenging yourself with a different type of camera is awesome! I have a friend who sells fine art photography full time who shoots some of her work with a polaroid camera and a portion of her work with a toy Holga camera. Her work is INCREDIBLE. So even with a PnS, while you'll have limitations, keep shooting and trying new things! You'll never know what amazing things you can do.

 

[princess_momma]

Have you thought about buying used?

Where would you look for a good used one? Like ebay or craigslist or do places like Wolf buy them and then resell?

I'm not familiar with any PnS, so I'm a really bad person to give advice on that front. But I just wanted to encourage to follow your photography journey, regardless of the type of camera you buy.

While certain cameras do have all the bells and whistles, challenging yourself with a different type of camera is awesome! I have a friend who sells fine art photography full time who shoots some of her work with a polaroid camera and a portion of her work with a toy Holga camera. Her work is INCREDIBLE. So even with a PnS, while you'll have limitations, keep shooting and trying new things! You'll never know what amazing things you can do.

You are definitely right!! If for any reason I can't work on the technicality stuff, I can still work on some of the other aspects of photography, like perspective stuff!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Where would you look for a good used one? Like ebay or craigslist or do places like Wolf buy them and then resell?

Craigslist might be a better option since ebay does run the risk of something having a problem and if money is tight then it may have just been lost. With craigslist you could check it out before you buy. But two favorites for buying used are keh.com and adorama.com. Both companies sell new and used, both grade the equipment, and both offer a 14 day return on any equipment you buy. That's nice for security!

Personally I find that keh is very generous in their grading and have bought several used lenses from them.

If there is a local photo shop around your area you may be able to find used equipment there as well.