Well, she’s gone and done it. Blondish bought a camera. It must of have been months ago when she first asked me what she should get. She told me she was interested in a point-and-shoot, so I recommended a Canon Powershot. Still do, for those who want a point-and-shoot. As I understand it, Canon makes the best of these, providing the best quality and the most control for these kind of cameras. I’d actually really like to have one for myself, but my photo gear list is many pages long, and I’d have to burn through three to five grand before that particular item came up. My favorite photographer who uses this camera is Officially A Mom, on Flickr. She used to have a blog, too, but she rarely posts there anymore. Her photographs, however, continue to amaze.
But if you want a camera with interchangeable lenses (and you do), you want an “SLR.” Stands for “single-lens reflex”. Sometimes you’ll see “DSLR”: “D” for digital. I’m already in trouble for it, but I recommend that you go with either Canon or Nikon. There are many other fine brands out there, and many fine photographers using those brands, but I think going with one of the two big guns makes sense for a number of reasons. Not the least of which are the large communities of users that you can tap into if you have questions along the way.
Canon or Nikon?
With only a few exceptions, most everyone I know shoots Canon. Everyone else I know shoots Nikon. These brands have been around a long time. They both have what are widely considered to be superior lenses, and large secondary markets for lenses and accessories. If you get into this photography thing, you will want lenses. You will want speedlights, and lighting gear, and tripods and eyepieces and filters. You will want stuff that costs all kinds of money, and If you go with Nikon or Canon, you’ll be able find the stuff you want, both new and used, in a number of places. You’ll be able to compare prices, and find more information about whatever expensive thing you’re considering, and how it compares to other, similar less expensive and more expensive things.
First Cameras To Consider:
Canon’s entry-level offering is the Rebel. My good friend Aaryn got started with that, and you can see all kinds of amazing images she took with it, here. Melanie, my new idol over a BeanPaste does all kinds of cool stuff with her Rebel, and K-k-k-katie has a 20D (It’s a step up from the Rebel, but an older model. Canon’s got a 40D now, which Aaryn is presently making use of.)
Nikon’s entry-level offerings, are the D40, D50, and D80. And now a D60, I hear, but know nothing about. I suppose it’s the new D50? I have a D80, which I love. If I didn’t have one or two kids and husband in bed with me every night, I’d probably sleep with it. But the reason I probably love it so much is because it’s been my first camera. I learned to shoot on it; I’m attached to it. I love the way it feels in my hands, and because the camera is a manual as well as a visual instrument, there’s a lot to be said for how it feels in your hands, where your fingers fall in relation to the buttons, etc. . . . So that’s another piece of advice. Before you buy a big-girl camera, go to the camera store and get your hands on the models you’re considering, see how they feel. When you get your hands on the one for you, you’ll know.
Trustworthy places I like to buy online are here, here, and here.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: GET YOURSELF A FIDDY
A normal lens on a digital SLR means a lens with a focal length of 30 to 50mm. “Normal” means not telephoto, and not wide-angle. It means that when you lift the viewfinder to your eye, what you see through the viewfinder doesn’t change that much. You don’t get a telescopic “zooming in” or a wide-angle “stepping back” effect.
Nikon has three good options here, the Sigma 30/1.4 (it lives on my camera), the Nikon 50/1.4 (it’s in the mail to me now), and I think there’s also a Nikon 50/1.8 (cheaper than the 1.4, a fine lens, but not as sharp at all apertures). Canon also has a fast, sharp 50/1.8, which is supposed to be excellent, and 50/1.2, which costs well over a grand—not your starter lens, probably.
A fast normal lens will allow you to shoot indoors, using natural light. And natural light? Makes prettier pictures. These lenses are sharp and fun and you will take beautiful portraits, fabulous night shots, and really get a handle on what your camera can do and your eye can see. Note: these are fixed-focal-length lenses. They do not zoom.
The kit zoom lenses that come bundled with your camera are kind of crap, frankly. Zoom lenses, unless they’re super-fast (like 2.8, which makes them cost about $1500 minimum) are not as sharp, have less attractive out-of-focus areas, and are useless indoors without flash. On-board camera flash creates harsh shadows and ugly highlights, and freezes all the life out of most pictures when you’re starting out. There are good uses of flash, but almost none of them come attached to the camera, and none of them are cheap or easy to figure out when you’re just getting started.
There’s more I could say (there’s always more to say about cameras) but I’ll stop here with a call-out to all my photographer-grrrrrlz. You know who you are. What do you say when someone asks you what camera they should start with? What lens lives on your camera?
Right. I have not been blogging. Every day I think about it while I’m working on 13 other things. The day goes by; I am sleepy; I have to get up and trek up the hill in the morning; I am laying in bed with Babe-ish all snuggly and (finally) still in the crook of my arm, and I debate: Get up and work on stuff, or stay in bed and sleep?
