New Camera - any ideas?

JoJoArmani

Ok, I have decided to use some of our wedding gift money to buy a new camera. We have not had a decent camera in years and now is the time.

I want to use it mainly for general photos of the kids etc, but also for my daughters dance competitions and shows. And, I would like to take up photography as a little hobby as would my eldest who has signed up for the photography club at school. (since the wedding it has intrigued me how some of the shots are achieved and I want to learn)

So, I have been looking and reading and making notes and I have decided a CSC camera is what I am looking for and I thought I knew which to go for, Panasonic G3 or G5 - but I have been to look at them in the shop and I think they are a bit too bulky for me - I would prefer something a bit lighter/slimmer.

Is there an alternative? Preferably under £400 (am seriously considering buying second hand with it being a new hobby), with built in flash (for those random indoor shots - but I guess not the end of the world if it doesn't have it) and ideally a viewfinder - I don't quite fancy just using an lcd screen for taking the photos somehow (and I wrong?).

Any advice gratefully received - being a complete novice and having only learnt about cameras specs via the internet over the past couple of days.

Thank you :-)

InsideInsurance

To achieve what your typical wedding photographer does you need to be able to control the shutter speed and the aperture as these allow you to do motion blur and control the depth of field.

If you do go for a body/ lens option like SLR or CSC then invest in the lens and scrimp on the body. Lenses last for a decade or more where as bodies change much more frequently.

It would be useful to see an example of exactly what you want to be able to achieve as I have seen a few wedding togs that use a tilt and shift lens which currently can only be used on a SLR or a lensbaby which is coming to CSC but not sure if they are out yet.

Generally it is considered good to have a view finder if nothing else but because it forces you to hold the camera in a more robust stance

JoJoArmani

thank you for replying... to be honest I am not sure what you would call I want to achieve! It will take me a lot of time to become any where near any good, but I would like to be able to take interesting photos - not just boring photos - interesting angles/light/focus etc - like I say I am a complete novice but I know what I like and having spent ages looking for my wedding photpgrapher it opened my eyes to the amazing things that can be achieved with a camera. (I love fearless photography styles - anything unusual).

I probably sound a right idiot with no idea what I am doing - but I just need pointing the right direction with a choice of camera to get me started. Would prefer something small-ish easy to take out and about with me - but with option to add lenses as I can afford them. Any ideas?

Bollotom

Once you have your camera...and tripod There's quite a good course by Alison online. Keep to the advert included one and it's free. I found it to be very good with some of the theory and you can go at your own pace. The ad-free ones you have to pay for but the ad-included ones are free. Oh, I've also done electronics with Alison so I can recommend it. Good luck. :cool:

http://alison.com/courses/Digital-Photography

JoJoArmani

Cool, thanks for that!

photodgm

There are a number of forums and photo sharing sites on the internet - if you can't describe what you like - try finding images you do like and then look at what equipment was used to make the image

nickj_2

if you want a good book to give you plenty of tips and ideas try scott kelby
digital photography, it's very easy reading , and the way he puts things across means that his tips are easy to remember , it is cannon /nikon based but they can be used for any camera,

JoJoArmani

Went with the Lumix G3 in the end as it was the only one in my price band with the features I wanted. Had it 1 day and love it already! Now for that E-course :-) Thanks for all comments.

InsideInsurance

JoJoArmani wrote: »

thank you for replying... to be honest I am not sure what you would call I want to achieve! It will take me a lot of time to become any where near any good, but I would like to be able to take interesting photos - not just boring photos - interesting angles/light/focus etc

Do you have a link to a photo that has the sort of thing you want to achieve?

Interesting is predominately about the skill of the photographer and not the piece of kit they are using. Sure a decent camera gives you more options but some award wining photos have been taken on very basic cameras.

WTFH

My recommendations would be:
http://stopshootingauto.com/

And Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure"

As for award wining photos, last year I entered 4 photos in a competition. 3 were taken with some of the highest end gear Canon makes, one was taken with an iPhone.
Out of hundreds of entries, guess which one was the winner.

[Deleted User]

It's a shame, i love panasonic compact cameras (I have a panny LX7) but I wouldn't touch their micro 4/3rds offerings.

Why? Lenses. They're bloody expensive for 4/3rds. It's far cheaper to go down the canon/Nikon route, long term. I had a Panasonic L10 SLR, full size 4/3rds. The lenses are so expensive I was forced to buy old OM lenses and use them in manual focus with an adaptor. I did get some outstanding stuff out of them, but manual focus is a PAIN.

I'd have gone for a budget canon, bought a nice 50mm f1.8 lens, an external flash and a cheap tripod