Alright, a new forum and another hobby for me to look into. Honestly, I’ve been interested in hobby photography for a while now, but I have little experience with the actual equipment. Mostly I’ve just used point and click type cameras, 35mm back in the day and digital in recent years. The digital camera I have right now is not that great, and I’ve considered replacing it in the near future. My question is, what kind of camera should I go with? Digital, or traditional? What features are have to haves and which ones are just for the experienced photographer? Obviously I’m not a pro, nor will I ever be, I just want to get some good nature shots and still have a camera I can get shots with at my kids birthday party. Any and all info and help is appreciated. Thanks to all in advance.
Alright, a new forum and another hobby for me to look into. Honestly, I’ve been interested in hobby photography for a while now, but I have little experience with the actual equipment. Mostly I’ve just used point and click type cameras, 35mm back in the day and digital in recent years. The digital camera I have right now is not that great, and I’ve considered replacing it in the near future. My question is, what kind of camera should I go with? Digital, or traditional? What features are have to haves and which ones are just for the experienced photographer? Obviously I’m not a pro, nor will I ever be, I just want to get some good nature shots and still have a camera I can get shots with at my kids birthday party. Any and all info and help is appreciated. Thanks to all in advance.
Your best bet is going to be digital. While film will ALWAYS have it’s place in photography. It’s uses are geared towards pro’s at this point. Not saying you can’t use film. It’s just much easier to use digital and you have a huge ammount of resources helping in digital photography vs. the handful of resources for film.
I would recommend the Nikon D40. I have played with my wifes D40 and I like it as much (if not better) than my D200 (A pro level digital camera). The D40 is great for people that want to take good pictures but don’t want to read a manual on how to dial in every setting. The only reason I’ll always use the D200 for a photo shoot though is it’s commercial grade quality. The D40 is built very well and will provides you years of pleasure. I can’t afford for my camera to stop working if I drop it. Even though I have a back up D70 body in my bag.
The kit lens (18-55 f4.5) is a fantastic starter lens too. You can get those really wide shots and still zoom in a decent bit.
Let me know what questions you have I’ll be happy to answer them.
