What Camera should I buy

[living]

I was looking at a whole lot of camera's and I found a lot of good ones at

really good price ranges. My top pick right now is the Nikon D40. But it

doesn't have all the specific requirements for my desires. I like to shoot

landscape, street, people, and I want to start shooting portraits and action

shots. I realize I'll probably have to buy alot of equipment to shoot all of

those types of photography BUT! I would like to know what would be my best

thing to buy for all those types of photography.

 

OH! And I need a camera to where you can manually set everything, preferably a

camera that already comes with a manual focus lens too. I need all the help I

can get so I need someone to guide me into the right camera.

[phoneguy]

That camera covers all of your desires...It's the glass you put in front of it that suits the subject. What kind of budget do you have? A simple 18-55mm would get you started.

[Charles_Webster]

Buy a Canon XTi (400D), it will do everything you want. Start with the kit lens (18-55) and shoot until you outgrow that lens. Then start accumulating gear.

 

Start small, shoot lots of photos, listen to advice, shoot more photos. Then and only then buy more gear.

 

You have a lot to learn, and the choice of camera makes almost no difference at this point. Almost any entry-level DSLR with its kit lens will be more camera than you can handle now.

 

There is no magic formula, nor any perfect camera, so buy something, anything, and start shooting pictures.

 

<Chas>

[ronald_moravec1]

$ always make the compromise. I think you need a decent learner or first camera. A D50 is better for a few dollars more and takes more lenses. The 40 is small and requires specific lenses with a certain type of autofocus.

 

I have been into pretty serious expensive film camera for decades, but I bought a D200 and 18/70 lens, which I find much better for studio portrait work than the 18/55. So far I am happy.

 

There is no magic camera that costs a little and does everything. When you get right down to it, no camera does everything well no matter what it costs. Just stay away from the point and shoots that don`t grow as you do.

[walter_degroot]

petty annoyances to consider:

does the model you like have a long delay?

 

does it need / use an odd hard-to-find battery?

or does it use 2 or better 4 AA cells.

and most important. how comfortable is it for YOU to use?

 

a wonderful camera that feels awkward to you

is a reason to get a different camera.

[living]

Well, Chas, my budget is below $1000 for now (excluding lenses). But getting the right camera is important to me because I don't want to buy a really expensive camera and then be displeased with it. So I can't just buy any old camera! Thank you for all your responses though!

[saskphotog]

My advice is to spend more than you "think" you can in order to get a camera that seems right now to be just a little more than you really need. You will never regret it.

 

In the world of electronics, the initial cost of something is irrelevant most of the time. Amortized over the time of ownership, the initial price is minor. The cost of operating and buying accessories will prove more costly. What makes a specific thing expensive is having to lose money and dump a cheap product that you thought "would do for now", and then buying what you should have bought in the first place. I've been there, done that, many times before I learned.

 

The D40 is a bottom of the line model. If you like Nikon, move up their product line at least a couple of steps (don't buy the cheapest model of anything, actually). Maybe even try to find a little used D70. You probably don't need a D2X, but I vote against buying something that will have limits you will encounter very early in your photographic journey.

[michael s.]

Picking up on what some others have said, while I won't knock the D40, it would have one significant limitation for me:

 

One of my most used lenses, the 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor (which for portraits offers the extraordinarily useful perspective of a 75mm/1.8 when mounted on a Nikon dslr due to the 1.5x "crop factor" and at approx $100 new is truly an excellent lens) would not autofocus on the D40 because it is not an "AFS" lens.

 

If your budget goes to $1000 exclusive of lenses, have a look at the Nikon D80 -- much better viewfinder, extensive autofocus lens capability, and some other features that might also appeal to you. The D50, discontinued I believe but still around, also has more autofocus lens capability than the D40.

 

In your position, I would also have a look at what Canon and Pentax have to offer. Two of the Pentax dslr's (K100D and K10D) have body-based image stabilization, a very useful feature, and extensive lens compatibility (but Pentax has nowhere near the menu of modern lenses that Canon and Nikon offer, which may or may not be important to you).

 

Olympus has some good cameras, but I'm much less familiar with them. Sony (which acquired the photo end of the Konica-Minolta business) has I believe only one dslr camera for sale at the moment, and while I didn't like it, you might.

[fabien]

The Sony and Pentax have that huge argument in their favour, the built in stabilizer. On other brands you must get expensive professional stabilized lens. The Pentax K10 is splash proof and you can pilot slave flash directly from the built in flash.

[living]

Thank you all for your responses! I really do greatly appreciate it! I've found all of you guys helpfull, and I have narrowed my choices down to a few camera's. A Canon xTi, Nikon D80, or a Canon that I really like that a friend of mine has. I don't know the exact model but I know it has everything I want and it prints GREAT digital prints, clear, LOTS of color too!

Thank you all

Correy

[yinkamd]

Correy,

 

The Canon XTI will do just fine for all your needs. All my photos were taken with the older version, the XT.

 

Best wishes

 

Yinka