mytimephotography

A few people and friends have asked recently what camera I would recommend for getting started in digital photography.Generally the first thing to consider at this level is price.Have a figure as a budget.Much better value can be found on-line rather than the high street, auction sites such as e.bay can turn up some great bargains, especially if you are prepared to keep an eye out over the course of a few weeks.I find this also gives you a good idea of a second hand value and helps you to get the kit that represents the best value.Many are imports from Hong Kong, although generally cheaper I would recommend a UK model, foreign models can vary in spec. voltage etc.Make sure you are buying a UK market camera.

I use Pro Spec.Canon EOS equipment myself the much cheaper non- pro range of bodies and lenses are of course significantly cheaper but I find Canon hard to beat so this is what I will focus on here.Of course Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Sony are also in the running, although Nikon & Canon have been at the forefront for many, many years and also have huge ranges of compatible equipment.

Also remember to include in your budget cash essentials like memory cards and editing software-Adobe Photo-shop Elements is a powerful programme and is around £69 and contains 'elements of the full program.The full version is around £600.You will need a camera bag and also things like a flash and a tripod are desirable as your skills improve.These of course can be purchased later on.Of course you will need a PC, laptop or Mac with a fairly decent processor of 1 or preferably 2 GB RAM plus and preferably though not essential a decent size hard drive around 100GB plus would be ideal or an external hard disc.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN RESEARCHING YOUR FIRST DSLR

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Resolution The all important Mega Pixel count of the camera-usually between 10 and 16 Mega Pixel (mp) at this level is important as it will give a good print size before the image breaks up or 'pixelates'.It is important to have a good pixel count but It can be more important how the camera 'processes' a digital file that has an impact on image quality.The higher the quality 'engine' the better the image quality.
Glass At this range it is safe to say the lens supplied with any new DSLR is usually a wide angle to portrait 18- to 55mm in focal range and a bit of a 'bottle bottom' of a lens.The glass and plastics are usually cheaply manufactured.Now comes a bit of advice that may be worth consideration-if you could find a 'body only deal' and find yourself a fixed focal length lens of say a 50mm f 1.8 you will get far superior images especially if you are mostly taking portraits.Of course the fixed lenses are not as versatile as a zoom and would not really be much use for things like landscapes etc-it all depends on what you will be concentrating on.
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Sensor An important consideration on purchasing your new DSLR will be what kind of sensor the camera has.Sensors are the bit of technology that replace traditional film.The sensor sits in the same place roughly as the film would have been but instead of light travelling down the lens and hitting film-it now hits a sensor which is made up of tiny light receptors.These receptors would normally only be able to record monochrome images but have colour filters placed over them which allows penetration of only a particular colour of light.At your initial purchase stage you will need to be aware of 'crop factors' your camera body sensor will apply.This comes down to the actual size or format of your brands sensor.Some are the same size exactly as a piece of 35mm film or 'full frame' but most in the entry level/mid range will have a smaller sensor than full frame.This will affect the focal length of your lens.A crop factor of say 1.5 would make a 100mm lens become the equivalent of a longer 150mm lens on a 35mm camera.The image at the back of the lens does not change-just the amount of the image that is recorded.It is important to be aware of this when buying your camera and lenses.From an amateur point of view it is not all bad news as with a telephoto lens you will have more 'pulling power' which can be useful for wildlife or more candid portraits.It may not be so beneficial if you want to work more at the other end of the focal range for say wide angle shots.14mm would become 21mm at 1.5x.more here http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/crop-factor.htm.
Shutter speed,ISO & Aperture.The three elements of an exposure, these three combinations produce an exposure, exposure is controlled in the camera or manually by the cameras light meter.Shutter speed is how quickly the shutter is opened and closed and can vary from minutes or even hours open to many thousandths of a second.ISO is what used to be called film speed and has a bearing on your exposure, low film speeds would be 50ISO and gives little grain or 'noise' and High1600ISO and above would allow use in lower light situations but at the cost of image clarity with added grain or 'noise' as it is called digitally.Check the ISO range when considering your purchase (some are also expandable),the more extreme the range the more flexible the camera.A new feature on some models is Auto ISO.The more you spend on your equipment the better performance you will get in these areas, allowing you more photographic freedom.Aperture is how far open or closed the iris of the lens is when the shutter button is pressed.This has an effect on exposure as well as 'depth of field' or the amount of space that is in focus or out of focus in an image.Aperture can be used creatively to highlight a subject in sharp focus while throwing all around out of focus, or can be pin sharp right through an image.Their is a lot to learn and it is an infinite subject to learn, however Practise is the key.Good luck and enjoy your Photography.