tmorgen Loc: Palm Bay, FL

Have you taken any courses in Photography? Taking courses may enable you to answer your own question. I started with two Minoltas, an X370 and then an X700. I decided to get into Digital and bought and paid dearly for an Olympus that was mostly a point and shoot. It did take nice pictures as long as I wasn't into distance shots. Close up or in a room full of people, it did a fine job for 3.0 megapixels. I then went to a Canon EOS Rebel and was satisfied with that for a while. Next was an EOS t1i Canon which I am pleased with. I have a Nikon L820 that I bought on impulse. I should have waited and bought one with an eye-piece viewer. My Nikon has to be used with a screen so outdoors with the sun in the picture, you never know exactly what you are shooting. So, you take several. I have gone from one lens to another on my Canon. I am finally pleased with the combination I have. SO.... I guess you can tell I never took a course in Photography and I'm sorry I did not. Now I am getting a bit too old for such things. I forget too much of what I learned.
Regards and keep the group in mind, let us know how you make out.
Regards,
Ted in Palm Bay, Florida

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Ah, grasshopper, you have much to learn first! Don't fall victim to GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) until you know enough to make intelligent choices. And don't feel like you HAVE to buy a Canon or a Nikon, just because they're the popular brands. Last thing you want to do is plunk down $3000, only to figure out it isn't what you want. Rent and try, before you buy! It's amazing how the FEEL of a device affects your ability and desire to use it.

Get some experience writing with light, using any adjustable digital camera. Once you understand the interplay of f/stops, shutter speeds, and ISO (say EYE SO, please, it is not an acronym, but a trademark --- look up the history), plus depth of field control with aperture and distance, perspective control with focal length and distance, and motion control with shutter speed and camera location... Once you learn about composition, tonal contrast, color contrast, squaring horizon lines, waiting for the right moment... Once you have a FEEL for what you want to photograph and why... Once you have a POINT OF VIEW to express visually, that's when it's time to drain the savings account a bit.

www.dpreview.com has TONS of gear reviews. You can drool over every brand made. One thing is pretty clear: Almost all gear made today performs quite well in the hands of a competent photographer.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Since photo opportunity of the moment and composition are the two key elements in winning photographs ... not image quality as those who pre-buy a Canon 5D Mark IV camera for $3500 plus $1000s for lenses!!! think about it, why??? In a lot of places in the world (including USA) it will get you killed!!!

It is paramount to have a good quality with multi lenses at the "moment in time." How, well a pocket super zoom has a wide range of lenses built in weighs ounces not a bag full of DSLR weighing 40 pounds.... buy the best pocket zoom (not bridge ... too big) that you can afford.

Gun fighter: You pull it out of your pocket and auto push the on button like a gun fighter of old west ... by the time it is at your eye it is ready to shoot. The settings are taken care of by auto settings by the camera via an expert photographer sitting at a desk in the far east doing your bidding. Later you can learn settings, composition comes first... wordless picture stories is the world of winning photography; just like kid's books.
http://www.childrens-books-and-reading.com/wordless-picture-books.html

You must learn to be quick on seeing a story and framing the composition and zooming out the garbage left right above and below. If you look for a story in photos and paintings those that tell a good story putting the viewer in the moment are the winners. Children's books keep the visual story simple... limited elements... bokeh (blurred) background. Best composition reference I have found is:
http://truecenterpublishing.com/photopsy/article_index.htm

Hopefully you have $ left for denoise, detail, contrast... while I use Topaz (cheaper at Christmas usually) there are freeware or low cost software.... not essential... PSE or Paintshop Pro by Corel will do a lot. PSP is low cost especially the last years model. GIMP is free. Refurbished cameras are OK too.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

I had an extensive Minolta system from my film days. For the reason you mention, I bought a Sony a300 on ebay for chump change, and I can use my Minolta AF lenses, including a mint prime 50mm f1.7. >>> Alan

marty wild Loc: England

Join local camera club and have a quick play on there's. It's a mine field that your stepping into if you have the cash to splash go for it, you will not look back! If not the new IPhones and filter apps may just be enough for you to bit on

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Welcome.You did not state a budget or interests so answers will be broad based.
Nikon and Canon are the 2 800 lb gorillas currently on the market. Both are excellent products and will not disappoint.
For Nikon go the 7XXX series or higher if you wish to use legacy lenses as D5xxx and lower are not compatible, yes they will mount but that is it.
For Canon any EOS will work with any EF lens ever made. But they do make a subset of EFs lenses for crop sensors that are smaller and lighter.
You would be wise to look at Olympus cameras and Fuji cameras. Both are superb quality and have excellent lenses but a more limited number of options but for most budgets they have what is needed and wanted by a majority of photographers.
Have fun looking.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

I use PSP, and it does everything I need (not much). Google has a new FREE system out called "NIK," which is something many of us should look into.

>Alan

ronf78155 Loc: Seguin Texas

My son, a police officer and not a young kid recently started photograph and went with a Canon T5i.
He liked the idea of being able to add to his lens collection, without breaking the bank.
The fact that he could draw from my L series lenses didn't hurt !
He has done some great photography already after a online photography course

Silverman Loc: Michigan

Shone; I too am a DSLR newbie, having just bought a Nikon D3300. I did much research. Rated very good for Beginners. Go to the site called "Wirecutter" and they give and excellent review of this Nikon D3300.

LaoXiang

This is an unusual but reall excellent view of the matter.

You cannot buy good images ... you have to learn to take them, and a camera which does the work for you lets you focus on seeing the shot. (I have a friend who just started a few months ago; I told her to keep it on Full Auto for a while to learn to frame stuff.)

This is an expansion of that---a small, light camera which you could take absolutely anywhere, and with the zoom, still get a lot of different shots. You could see something anywhere which you think is worth shooting--and shoot it, instead of wondering how the picture might have looked if you had a camera handy.

I have a 60D and a 7D and a load of lenses and I am thinking of following this advice. I need to carry a load of gear ---fragile gear---to take a photo , which means a lot of the time I don't have a camera handy. If I had something I could slip into a pocket without a care I would shoot a lot more, and I can definitely use the practice.

Funny ... long ago I had a cheezy Kodak Advantix, and I shot everything everywhere all the time because it was tiny and fun to use. Now assembling kit is such a process I often don't bring a camera.

There will always be refurbished low-cost, high-quality cameras available---and the longer you wait, the better they get (A Rebel now is a Lot better than the Rebel I started with a decade ago.) If you are just starting out, focusing on photography instead of cameras makes a ton of sense ... to me at least.

Silverman Loc: Michigan

Also check www.dpreview.com for in depth camera reviews.

LaoXiang

One further thought on this issue.

if you are going to buy a camera and you Absolutely know you are going to stick with photography for several years or much longer .... consider Not buying a beginner DSLR.

I got a Rebel and a couple pretty decent lenses (lenses each cost about as much as the body.) After a while I tried a (big deal at the time) Canon 50D and was so impressed with what it did in terms of frame speed, focus, ... features and quality in general ... I decided to upgrade.

A friend tired to save me some money and suggested a refurbished 60D. I used it for a while and it is great (still my second body.) But after a couple years I bought a 7D (also refurbished) for maybe $150 more than the 60D ... a price I probably could have found two years earlier.

The 7D is so much more useful to me .. . I really wish i had bought it first. if I had, I could now afford the 7DII I want to buy now but cannot afford because I bought the 60D. Not that any of these are anything but great cameras ... but ...

Look at the Rebels line, or if you choose Nikon, look at the 3000 line (or whatever Nikonistas recommend) but also but also look at the features of cameras a couple levels up. If you are still shooting in a couple years you might end up buying one anyway ... and the extra up-front cost amortized over the years is actually pretty minimal.

Get a really nice zoom point-and-shoot, and see how much you really like photography. if you know in your heart that it is part of your path ... consider getting a good camera. Think about what you want to shoot and like to shoot and might like to shoot.

You cannot buy good images, but you can buy better low-light performance, better focus and more frames-per-second if you shoot anything moving ... (My Rebel shoots like two fps and maxed ISO at 1200 ... the 7D shoots like seven fps and 12000 ISO.)

One more thing .... consider (after making sure you want to invest a lot of time and money into photography) that a good lens will do more to capture a good image than a good body. For Canon something like a 24-105 L series ... but any lens which lets in a Lot of light and also has close-to-medium zoom and really good image quality .... A lens like that gives to a ton of range options and brings that extra bit of sharpness. One good close-to-medium zoom and a good body (hopefully both refurb) might cost less than two grand and last you for about the rest of yuor life.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Welcome to UHH. Start with simple. Simple usually means cheaper. Fixed lens, popular brand, used camera would do just fine. Start with Auto mode and the various Scene modes, then practice practice practice. Study the technical side and move on to Aperture, Shutter, Program and Manual modes. If and when you want to transition from snapping photos to planning photos, then consider getting a more sophisticated camera.

ronf78155 Loc: Seguin Texas

Being a Canon owner it's hard not to be thoroughly impressed with the Canon EOS M2
Tiny, great pixel count, and accepts all my Canon lenses (with the adapter).
The reviews I've read on it , even with the stock M series lenses are very good.

krvitali

If you go with a camera from any major manufacturer you will not be disappointed. Canon and Nikon are the major players with every lens and accessory available under the sun. From beginner to pro DSLR they will all give excellent results.

Any earlier post really said it. ..... You cannot buy great photographs.... the ability to capture great photographs lies with in the user not the equipment.

The question is what is your budget and how far do yo intend to go with it?

My feeling is when it comes to quality spend the money on the lens, not the camera. Lenses are forever.... or almost forever. Cameras come and go. As soon as you buy a camera it is obsolete in a matter of months. The lens technology lasts muchs longer.

Find a camera that the controls make sense to you. I am a Nikon user but have found Canon a little more intuitive to use. On the cheaper side you could consider a Nikon 3300 or 5500 or Canon go with something in the rebel line up.

I would also consider a zoom lens in the 18-105 range to start. This is a good travel tourist setup with someone with very little ability but will also allow you to learn and hone your skills.

I personally prefer fast lenses and have 3 core lenses that are fast, meaning wide aperture. My three core lenses being a 15-30 2.8 a 50 1.4 and a 80-200 2.8.

If your have a few bucks to spend buy a lower to moderate end camera and buy exceptional glass. If you wanted to spend more money start with the Nikon 7200 and a 24-85 2.8-4 it will allow you to grow a little more with out upgrading immediately.

At the end of the day any of these cameras and lenses are capable of taking great photographs.

Here is a quick blog article I wrote on what makes a great photograph....https://newenglandfineartphotographyblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/what-makes-a-great-photograph/

The camera and lens is low on the priority list. Composition and lighting tops the list.