New Camera? Which One?

[iHEARTflorida]

Hi,

I'm a beginner at photography, but want to get more into it, currently i have a sony cybershot, not a proper photography camera i'm guessing. i want a camera so that i can do proper night shots and stuff of fireworks.

what kind of camera should i buy? nikon? what lens??

budget £200-£300 / $500 - $600

also what tripod should i buy, i want a light easy to use one as i will have it in the back pack for the theme parks. i have heard about alsorts of different pods, monopods, gorillapods tripods???

thank you in advance

and if there is any other kind of advice you can give me, i'm open to it

aslo what is the best photo enchancing software out there?

 

[DueyDooDah]

What is your budget?

 

[iHEARTflorida]

What is your budget?

probably around £200 - £300 for a camera so $500-$600, i dunno how much a pro camera costs

 

[ukcatfan]

For that you are probably going to be looking at the entry level Pentax DSLRs, the Canon Rebel XT, and the Nikon D40 or D50. The XTs might be harder to come by at your price range outside the US and the D50s are almost completely gone now(both XT and D50 are discontinued), so it pretty much come down to the Pentax K110D, K100D, and the D40.

If you are looking for low light, you are eventually need to get a prime lens (like a 50mm f/1.4). It is probably out of your budget right now. That said, the inexpensive 50mm prime from Nikon will not auto focus on the D40, so you either will have to manual focus or go for a much higher cost lens on that camera. The difference in the Pentax models is that the K100D has in-body image stabilization and the K110D does not. There is usu. about a $50 difference in the US. There is also a rebate going on here right now, but I have no idea what is going on over there.

I have the K100D and I have been very happy with it. There are now a decent number of Pentax DSLR owners on this forum, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

Kevin

P.S. For your price range, you might only be able to get the standard kit lens right now, but for Pentax the DA50-200mm is a good compliment to the kit if your budget allows it. Also, the Pentax kit is not a bad lens.

 

[Master Mason]

The XT's are still pretty easy to come by at least from US firms. The Nikon D40 probably fits your budget, but there is the lens compatibility issue to deal with. If you want Nikon, I would serch for a D50 myself, there are still a few out there. Pentax's already mentioned would also be good.

As for you question about Pods, there are many types for many uses, need to know what your looking for before anyone can offer advice.

Photoshop is as close to an industry standard in processing software that you can find, so I would veture to say that the statistics will report it as being the best. The full version cost about what your camera buget is, so that might not be for you right now. They have a version called elements that is significantly cheaper, and operates pretty much the same, so that might be a good place to start.

There are also others, and some free ones such as Gimp out there as well.

 

[iHEARTflorida]

thank you, i never realilsed photography was so expensive!!

 

[iHEARTflorida]

thank you, i never realilsed photography was so expensive!!

 

[GrumpyOne]

Photography in brightly lit areas is cheap.

 

[Master Mason]

Photography in brightly lit areas is cheap.

Photography is cheap, try owning a boat for a hobby

 

[GrumpyOne]

Vehicles are never cheap, tech diving and now photography are enough for my bank account.

 

[Groucho]

You might be able to get by happily with a big-sensor Fuji PnS like the F31 or the S6000. They don't have the low-light capabilities of a DSLR but they're much better than just about any other PnS.

As for boats... my father is nuts about boats and every time I look at his new acquisition (which cost more than my house, I am supremely grateful that boatlust completely skipped my generation. I have enough expensive hobbies already. Boats make my car hobby look downright cheap!

 

[DueyDooDah]

Wow, you all named the big 3 - boats, diving and photography. Try getting a job that'll support these.

I'm able to support 2 out of three so, I need a friend with a boat that will take me diving so I can get my underwater photography fix in. (I know, I could shore dive, but...)

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Don't forget flying. I've seen some relatively well off people get really poor because they got into flying.