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| LMoliviatis Sat 28th Mar 2009 08:43
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anyone have any suggestions? i've even tried looking on ebay and can't seem to find much under $500. it will be my first DSLR and i don't need it to be phenomenal, just something better and more professional than the point-and-shoot i'm using now.
if it helps, i'm used to film photography and have done that for years. but i figure i need to get a good digital camera now that film's going the way of the dinosaur (which makes me sad). i'm also going to want decent optical zoom because digital zoom is just idiotic (i can crop a picture on my computer, thank you).
even if you know of other places to look that i haven't thought of, that would be a start.
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| Seentoday Sat 28th Mar 2009 11:34
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Buy Olympus E520 or E420, they are small, lightweight, have many options you can use to learn, and are under 500 usd. Or a Nikon D40 or D60, their image quality is superb, and their prices have fallen a lot
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| LMoliviatis Sat 28th Mar 2009 14:15
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Originally posted by Seentoday:
have many options you can use to learn
i'm not so much looking to learn, i'm pretty well-versed in photography (self-taught on 35mm film SLR, plus 2 courses on B&W photography, 1 on color photography, and 1 on digital) but i'll keep both of those in mind as an option.
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| LisaSam67 Sat 28th Mar 2009 15:27
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I'm still hooked on my film camera L
You know what the DSLR is great for? The instant review to get things the way you want and then shoot the film shot!
Try circuit city online and see if they have anything left for cheap. B&H photo online is safe to buy from. Craigs list maybe?
Get the same brand as your film camera if you can because you can use the lenses usually.
I use my 1983 film camera's lenses on my D300 body!!!!!! I just have to tell my digital cam what the widest aperture is on it and then manually focus. But we are both used to doing that already!
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| PhotoPro PRO Sat 28th Mar 2009 16:54
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Originally posted by LisaSam67:
Try circuit city online
Only in Canada - they are all closed in the US, went into receivership and bankruptcy...
Check http://www.pricegrabber.com/ for fairly competitive pricing and be sure to check bbb.org for the reliability of the site/company.
If you go with one of the Nikons - there is a 70-300mm (105-450mm) "G" lens that runs around $100 USD. I took several thousand shots with mine and was delighted with the results.
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| LMoliviatis Sat 28th Mar 2009 16:59
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yeah, i'm decently good at telling how a shot's going to come out while shooting. i had pretty high standards for my film photography. but yeah, that's one of the things that's nice about digital, you can take throw-away shots. it serves the same function as polaroids were used for by photographers for many years, the ability to preview a shot.
Originally posted by LisaSam67:
Get the same brand as your film camera if you can because you can use the lenses usually.
that's gonna be difficult:
"On January 19, 2006, Konica Minolta announced that it was leaving the camera and photo business and that it would sell a portion of its SLR camera business to Sony as part of its move to pull completely out of the business of selling cameras and photographic film."
i know the lens mount is MD though. so if i could find an adaptor for that type of mount.....
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| LMoliviatis Sat 28th Mar 2009 17:03
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Originally posted by PhotoPro:
Only in Canada - they are all closed in the US, went into receivership and bankruptcy...
online store. the website is down for now, but it says it will probably be back in a couple weeks. even if the stores are closed in the U.S., they might still ship to the U.S.
and yeah, i'll check that pricegrabber site.
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| PhotoPro PRO Mon 30th Mar 2009 05:50
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Originally posted by LMoliviatis:
online store. the website is down for now
website went down the Friday they announced the receivership - CC is no longer an operating US co. All stores, merchandise, fixtures etc. no longer belonged to CC and they fired all the "staff" except those needed to close all US operations. Bummer - 34,000 employees.
I highly doubt the website will return unless someone else buys it. The Canadian stores may not be in much better shape - they all came from a company that was going out of business when CC bought it:
http://investor.circuitcity.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=368438
Pricegrabber is just one of many price "aggregators" - but I use it consistently as a price check and at least a 1/3 of the time it is the best. I can't help but laugh at the buying frenzy people get into on ebay - I almost always get stuff 10-50% cheaper, brand new with US warranties. :-)
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| LMoliviatis Tue 31st Mar 2009 23:40
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trust me, i shop around. spending hundreds of dollars isn't something i take lightly. grew up in a penny-pinching middle-middle class family, so i learned to be frugal. even if i do indulge myself occasionally.
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| LMoliviatis Fri 17th Apr 2009 14:12
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getting a lot back from the federal and state governments this year on my taxes, so i'll probably shell out a little more for a camera than i was looking to when i posted this.
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| LMoliviatis Tue 28th Apr 2009 03:14
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Got myself a D60 kit at Best Buy for $599.99 ($200 off the normal price). Score! And I found out that my bank has a $500 per day limit on debit. I was able to pay the rest with a check though. :)
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| DragonSpeed PRO Tue 28th Apr 2009 05:38
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Congratulations on your new camera! The fun just begins here. Sooo... where are the first pics?
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| LisaSam67 Tue 28th Apr 2009 12:56
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A new Nikon team player!!! Whooot ;)
Congrats
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| DragonSpeed PRO Tue 28th Apr 2009 17:54
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I wasn't going to bring up his poor judgement. ;)
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| megmet PRO Tue 28th Apr 2009 19:15
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Originally posted by DragonSpeed:
I wasn't going to bring up his poor judgement. ;)
Well I supose somebody has to take them off their hands! ;-))
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| LMoliviatis Wed 29th Apr 2009 03:38
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Originally posted by DragonSpeed:
Sooo... where are the first pics?
i'm gonna be doing a little more shopping first. a Ritz camera shop in the area is closing and having some good deals from what i hear, so i may have to check it out. also, i work during the day and the weather's going to be nasty for the next few days. Saturday may be my first shoot with it (assuming my model is free). I'll upload a select few from the set when I get it done.
also, "a good photographer can take a good picture with any photo equipment at hand" (assuming he/she understands how to use it). i live by that. i've taken decent pics with disposable cameras.
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| LisaSam67 Wed 29th Apr 2009 11:31
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As long as it's a disposable Nikon ;)
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| PhotoPro PRO Sat 2nd May 2009 06:07
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Originally posted by LMoliviatis:
Saturday may be my first shoot with it (assuming my model is free). I'll upload a select few from the set when I get it done.
also, "a good photographer can take a good picture with any photo equipment at hand"
Why wait for the model - a good photographer takes photos wherever they are...:-)
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| LMoliviatis Sat 2nd May 2009 07:59
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because i didn't have any days off from work until today and tomorrow. and today was a big drinking day for the college students and myself. buggered if i'm letting a brand new camera around that.
i work days and when i'm done i usually just feel like passing out. also, the model is someone who's pretty special to me, and who's been wanting a photographer for a while, as i've been wanting a model.
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