Please help a newbie!!!

[roosevelt]

Hi...
I have a passion in photo taking but i dun really know how to start???wat kind of camera to buy or where can i learn taking photos???i realli wan to learn so can anyone who is kind enough to help???i hear nikon FM 10 is a pretty good camera...is it true???or which brand or model is good???my budget is onli around $600-$700...i know is abit little but can i get a good camera...???thanx if anyone who reply me!!!

 

[PLRBEAR]

Hi...
I have a passion in photo taking but i dun really know how to start???wat kind of camera to buy or where can i learn taking photos???i realli wan to learn so can anyone who is kind enough to help???i hear nikon FM 10 is a pretty good camera...is it true???or which brand or model is good???my budget is onli around $600-$700...i know is abit little but can i get a good camera...???thanx if anyone who reply me!!!

There's a section for newbies on the main page. Perhaps your question will be better answered there, and not in the Buy/Sell section. :thumbsup:

 

[zaren]

Hi...
I have a passion in photo taking but i dun really know how to start???wat kind of camera to buy or where can i learn taking photos???i realli wan to learn so can anyone who is kind enough to help???i hear nikon FM 10 is a pretty good camera...is it true???or which brand or model is good???my budget is onli around $600-$700...i know is abit little but can i get a good camera...???thanx if anyone who reply me!!!

hmmm.... for $700 u can get a mint condition entry-level Nikon film SLR system; F65 body, 28-80mm 'standard' zoom lens, 75-240mm medium telephoto zoom lens, SB22s external flash unit, ML-3 remote control, lowepro camera bag. should cover most of your shooting needs! u can then learn photography from all your sifus here at clubsnap.

 

[mich_2103]

Hi,
Compared with some of the freelancers/professional photographers, I'm just an amateur but I'm just stating and sharing with what I've seen or heard. But feel free to correct me if you think I'm rambling nonsense.

If you really, REALLY have a passion for photography, I really suggest you should borrow/buy some books related to photography techniques, e.g., depth-of-field, aperture, shutter speed, framing etc. Know what is the minimum basics about photography.

Wait, I've a reason for saying this because I'm constanly seeing examples like you all the time in my school.

Some people who says they've got all the passion for photography and thinks photography is the best hobby they've. Then they see people around them buying SLR cameras, they follow suit, without thinking twice. These people are influenced into buying SLR cameras blindly because of the peer presure and they thought those pictures in NatGeo or fashion magazines are as easy as pressing the shutter.

Then they invest several hundreds into an SLR, not knowing all the little knobs on the camera and their functions. People end up being discouraged why their pictures turned out crappy, and the camera will most likely end up settling somewhere in the house collecting dust, and never see the light of the day again.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you're one of them. But I hope you won't become like them.

My lecturer, and almost all the professional photographers told me that there is no such thing as a good or bad camera because at the end of the day, the quality of the photo mostly lies in the skills of the photographer.

Personally, perhaps you can try with the FM10 because it's fully manual. There're a lot of those pro-consumers SLR on the market recently. They've those programme/auto-focus modes so the camera sets almost everything for you. Just my two-cents worth, you can't really learn much with that so getting an FM10 would be a good choice for starters. During my first year, the FM10 was also the first SLR camera I lay my hands on. I feel it was a very good learning tool.

The reason I'm sharing my experiences is because, as we all know, photography is a very, very expensive hobby, and it's a well-known fact.

Sometimes, it makes me a bit sad to see people around me investing huge amounts of money on a good tool without knowing a single thing how to use it.

Regards,
-Michelle-

 

[roygoh]

Welcome to ClubSNAP, roosevelt.

I have moved your thread from the Buy & Sell forum to Newbies Corner.

Thanks.

Roy

 

[Andy Ho]

Hi,
Compared with some of the freelancers/professional photographers, I'm just an amateur but I'm just stating and sharing with what I've seen or heard. But feel free to correct me if you think I'm rambling nonsense.

If you really, REALLY have a passion for photography, I really suggest you should borrow/buy some books related to photography techniques, e.g., depth-of-field, aperture, shutter speed, framing etc. Know what is the minimum basics about photography.

Wait, I've a reason for saying this because I'm constanly seeing examples like you all the time in my school.

Some people who says they've got all the passion for photography and thinks photography is the best hobby they've. Then they see people around them buying SLR cameras, they follow suit, without thinking twice. These people are influenced into buying SLR cameras blindly because of the peer presure and they thought those pictures in NatGeo or fashion magazines are as easy as pressing the shutter.

Then they invest several hundreds into an SLR, not knowing all the little knobs on the camera and their functions. People end up being discouraged why their pictures turned out crappy, and the camera will most likely end up settling somewhere in the house collecting dust, and never see the light of the day again.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you're one of them. But I hope you won't become like them.

My lecturer, and almost all the professional photographers told me that there is no such thing as a good or bad camera because at the end of the day, the quality of the photo mostly lies in the skills of the photographer.

Personally, perhaps you can try with the FM10 because it's fully manual. There're a lot of those pro-consumers SLR on the market recently. They've those programme/auto-focus modes so the camera sets almost everything for you. Just my two-cents worth, you can't really learn much with that so getting an FM10 would be a good choice for starters. During my first year, the FM10 was also the first SLR camera I lay my hands on. I feel it was a very good learning tool.

The reason I'm sharing my experiences is because, as we all know, photography is a very, very expensive hobby, and it's a well-known fact.

Sometimes, it makes me a bit sad to see people around me investing huge amounts of money on a good tool without knowing a single thing how to use it.

Regards,
-Michelle-

Well said Michelle! You've taken the words out of my mouth! What you said is exactly my sentiments. Many people go into photography because they see nice pictures that their friends have taken but got discouraged when they failed. It is not the camera's fault. Basically, many failed to realised that it is your vision that counts. I shall not touch on that since Michelle had spoken everything that I've always wanted to say but I will just give you a piece of advice roosevelt... it is the photographer behind the lens that counts. I am a full time photographer but I am not using the best pro camera, another photographer that I know is using a Nikon F65 but he produces the best commercial photos, and another corporate and commercial photographer is using a Canon 300D. They are all in Singapore. In real world photography market, most photographer do not get bothered by the equiptment they used. In fact, they treated the equiptment as part of their work tool.

What a photographer needs most is creativity, passion, and never ending zeal. These are the qualities that sees me through for the past 13 years ever since I took up photography.

Good Luck.

Andy Ho
My CS Gallery

 

[roosevelt]

There's a section for newbies on the main page. Perhaps your question will be better answered there, and not in the Buy/Sell section. :thumbsup:

hi...
thanx for helping me out....

 

[roosevelt]

Hi,
Compared with some of the freelancers/professional photographers, I'm just an amateur but I'm just stating and sharing with what I've seen or heard. But feel free to correct me if you think I'm rambling nonsense.

If you really, REALLY have a passion for photography, I really suggest you should borrow/buy some books related to photography techniques, e.g., depth-of-field, aperture, shutter speed, framing etc. Know what is the minimum basics about photography.

Wait, I've a reason for saying this because I'm constanly seeing examples like you all the time in my school.

Some people who says they've got all the passion for photography and thinks photography is the best hobby they've. Then they see people around them buying SLR cameras, they follow suit, without thinking twice. These people are influenced into buying SLR cameras blindly because of the peer presure and they thought those pictures in NatGeo or fashion magazines are as easy as pressing the shutter.

Then they invest several hundreds into an SLR, not knowing all the little knobs on the camera and their functions. People end up being discouraged why their pictures turned out crappy, and the camera will most likely end up settling somewhere in the house collecting dust, and never see the light of the day again.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you're one of them. But I hope you won't become like them.

My lecturer, and almost all the professional photographers told me that there is no such thing as a good or bad camera because at the end of the day, the quality of the photo mostly lies in the skills of the photographer.

Personally, perhaps you can try with the FM10 because it's fully manual. There're a lot of those pro-consumers SLR on the market recently. They've those programme/auto-focus modes so the camera sets almost everything for you. Just my two-cents worth, you can't really learn much with that so getting an FM10 would be a good choice for starters. During my first year, the FM10 was also the first SLR camera I lay my hands on. I feel it was a very good learning tool.

The reason I'm sharing my experiences is because, as we all know, photography is a very, very expensive hobby, and it's a well-known fact.

Sometimes, it makes me a bit sad to see people around me investing huge amounts of money on a good tool without knowing a single thing how to use it.

Regards,
-Michelle-

hi...
i realli apperiate the precious piece to advice that u give me!!!!i did start to read up books on photographing...still in a learning process....but when the help with all of u....i will definitly be better then figuring out myself!!!thanx for all ur time and effort!!!!

 

[roosevelt]

hmmm.... for $700 u can get a mint condition entry-level Nikon film SLR system; F65 body, 28-80mm 'standard' zoom lens, 75-240mm medium telephoto zoom lens, SB22s external flash unit, ML-3 remote control, lowepro camera bag. should cover most of your shooting needs! u can then learn photography from all your sifus here at clubsnap.

thanx!!!!
by the way....care to share some of ur experience???

 

[roosevelt]

Well said Michelle! You've taken the words out of my mouth! What you said is exactly my sentiments. Many people go into photography because they see nice pictures that their friends have taken but got discouraged when they failed. It is not the camera's fault. Basically, many failed to realised that it is your vision that counts. I shall not touch on that since Michelle had spoken everything that I've always wanted to say but I will just give you a piece of advice roosevelt... it is the photographer behind the lens that counts. I am a full time photographer but I am not using the best pro camera, another photographer that I know is using a Nikon F65 but he produces the best commercial photos, and another corporate and commercial photographer is using a Canon 300D. They are all in Singapore. In real world photography market, most photographer do not get bothered by the equiptment they used. In fact, they treated the equiptment as part of their work tool.

What a photographer needs most is creativity, passion, and never ending zeal. These are the qualities that sees me through for the past 13 years ever since I took up photography.

Good Luck.

Andy Ho
My CS Gallery

thanx for ur fruitful advice....so u are suggesting reading up more books first before getting a camera??cos i been reading up a few book on basics...alway thought that if u have a camera on hand will learn things faster...is it so???

 

[Andy Ho]

thanx for ur fruitful advice....so u are suggesting reading up more books first before getting a camera??cos i been reading up a few book on basics...alway thought that if u have a camera on hand will learn things faster...is it so???

Hi roosevelt,

This is not exactly what I meant. I meant you could also buy a camera and practice as you read. It is a good start-up for you. taking up some courses might benefit you but I don't really encourage that. I personally do not belief in courses because I have seen many cases where students get so engrossed with a particular mentor's style that they neglect many more good works by other photographers. I would say have as many mentor as possible so you can learn many more different things. The cheapest way is to read from magazines and photographic books. I subscribed to National Geographic too and I am always looking through every pictures and analyzing them, figuring out how they frame the subject, how they light the subject and why did they photograph the subject.

I hope this will help.

Andy Ho
My CS Gallery

 

[roosevelt]

Hi roosevelt,

This is not exactly what I meant. I meant you could also buy a camera and practice as you read. It is a good start-up for you. taking up some courses might benefit you but I don't really encourage that. I personally do not belief in courses because I have seen many cases where students get so engrossed with a particular mentor's style that they neglect many more good works by other photographers. I would say have as many mentor as possible so you can learn many more different things. The cheapest way is to read from magazines and photographic books. I subscribed to National Geographic too and I am always looking through every pictures and analyzing them, figuring out how they frame the subject, how they light the subject and why did they photograph the subject.

I hope this will help.

Andy Ho
My CS Gallery

icic...ok...but do u have any idea where can i attend such courses???or can u show me a site where they have weekly seminar or courses for newbies??or photographer>>??thanx!!

 

[Andy Ho]

I have PM you.

 

[igpenguin]

dear roosevelt,

your budget is more than enough to get started. so no worries there!

what you need to do is to find a camera and start shooting and experiencing yourself. instead of pondering this question and that, go and do what your first instinct tells you to do. if something doesn't work out, that's a good experience too ain't it?

go find a camera, pop in some slides, apply some knowledge you already gleaned from reading up, and excite yourself when you see the processed results.

 

[roosevelt]

dear roosevelt,

your budget is more than enough to get started. so no worries there!

what you need to do is to find a camera and start shooting and experiencing yourself. instead of pondering this question and that, go and do what your first instinct tells you to do. if something doesn't work out, that's a good experience too ain't it?

go find a camera, pop in some slides, apply some knowledge you already gleaned from reading up, and excite yourself when you see the processed results.

hi...
u make me make up my mind liao....going to get a camera and get started!!!!hahaa...thanx for ur comment...

 

[mich_2103]

thanx for ur fruitful advice....so u are suggesting reading up more books first before getting a camera??cos i been reading up a few book on basics...alway thought that if u have a camera on hand will learn things faster...is it so???

Hi,
Yes, I agree with you. Having a camera at hand and viewing your pictures DOES make you learn faster.

Although previously I did mention that it will be best if you start reading photography books, but there are at times certain things will not be mentioned in the books and you will not know it until you have experienced it yourself.

E.g., Depth-of-Field. It took me nearly 6 months to figure out what the heck it was. I tried reading from books and most of them had a whole chapter dedicated to it. The more I read, the more confused I get. I went back to my lecturer and asked him for advice. He chuked 2 rolls of slides to me and said "Go out there this weekend and snap some stuff that you like, then come back to me again." I returned with the developed slides, then he went through one by one with me. Sorry, I can be a rather retard at learning things sometimes. :embrass:

Anyway, photography is NOT mathematics. For my part, I will describe photography as something practical (hands-on), personal and expressive. To me, I feel photography is like an aphrodisiac; something that makes me happy, something that entirely belongs to me.

Here is an advice for you - first, get a dry cabinet together with your camera. Usually the stores will give you a bigger discount if you buy more things together. Getting a dry-cabinet is darn freaking important, at least to me.

My dad has a 50-yr old Nikkormat and he keeps getting fungus in the lens. I kept telling him to get a dry cabinet and he won't listen. Finally after spending nearly $300 just for servicing, which is more costly than the cabinet, he finally got one a few years back. Getting a dry cabinet is a long-term investment.

Singapore is too humid already. If you don't get a dry-cabinet, your tools won't last long. You won't believe how fast the fungus can grow. Before my dad got one, fungus got both of my lens and they were completely destroyed.

Anyway, I hope you will have lotsa fun with photography. I believe everybody here will agree with me, that once you start photography, you never wanna put down the camera again, although the financial part is the only major setback... :embrass:

Regards,
-Michelle-

 

[Andy Ho]

Again I couldn't agree more with Michelle. But regarding the fungus part??? I am not sure.

I do have a dry cabinet but I almost never use them because I am shooting so frequently. My cameras and lenses never really develop fungus except my 80-200mm f/2.8 lens. What happened was that I went for a short trip to Thailand for 1 week and decided not to bring it along so I kept it in the lens pouch, but that was after shooting under intense rain and not drying the lens yet. I actually forgot to dry the lens and remove it from the pouch before going to Thailand. In just 1 week my lens is a zoo of fungus.

My final verdict? If you shoot frequently, your lens stand very little chances of fungus attack except when you are careless (in my case). If you are not a frequent shooter, listen to what Michelle says. She is very very right.

Andy Ho

 

[mich_2103]

Again I couldn't agree more with Michelle. But regarding the fungus part??? I am not sure.

I do have a dry cabinet but I almost never use them because I am shooting so frequently. My cameras and lenses never really develop fungus except my 80-200mm f/2.8 lens. What happened was that I went for a short trip to Thailand for 1 week and decided not to bring it along so I kept it in the lens pouch, but that was after shooting under intense rain and not drying the lens yet. I actually forgot to dry the lens and remove it from the pouch before going to Thailand. In just 1 week my lens is a zoo of fungus.

My final verdict? If you shoot frequently, your lens stand very little chances of fungus attack except when you are careless (in my case). If you are not a frequent shooter, listen to what Michelle says. She is very very right.

Andy Ho

Hi Andy,
I know perhaps it sounds ridiculous but that was what happened to me. The fungus got to my lens that fast. One of them was attacked because I hardly used it, and left it lying on my cupboard. The other was somewhat like your incident - came back from Taiwan after celebrating CNY there, then I was too tired or too lazy to air my lenses. Fungus reached the lens before I did.

Regards,
-Michelle-

 

[Andy Ho]

I guess we should all practice a higher level of discipline when it comes to taking care of our equiptments. I really admire those who took good care of their lenses and cameras like as if it is part of their religion.

I once know someone who wrap all his lenses (individually) with cloth when he comes out shooting, even his camera. It is like a ritual to him but I wish I had that luxury of time to slowly unwrap the lenses each time before I change lens on my camera.

Andy Ho

 

[ellery]

Andy that sounds like shades of lens mummies.


Roosevelt - Fm10 is a workable camera actually any camera at this stage is a workable camera. Brand or model does not matter for you at the moment. Once you have out grown the Fm10 if you do out grow it - you can move on to the next body. Just try to budget more for film and printing. Slide shooting is fine but you will need either a light box and a loupe or a slide projector to be able to fully review yr picture.