Advise To Those New to Photography (pt. 1)
Even though I am retired and have been collecting social security, I am a relative novice when it comes to photography.
I did start out around 1980 or so with a Minolta camera. I’m not sure of the model, I’m not even sure what lens or lenses I owned, all I can tell you with certainty that at that time photography was not for me!
“Why” you may ask. Well the most important factor, besides not being very good at it, was the long delay in pressing the shutter, and getting to see the results.
In most cases, because everything was manual, what I hoped was a great image turned out to be poor when I finally finished the roll and got it out to be printed. After the delay and the cost of processing, the results were usually sad. Out of focus, too light or dark, and poorly framed were the most common shortcomings.
The frustration of the lack of immediacy and my poor performance doomed the camera for a place in my bottom desk draw, never the see the light of day again.
However, about 5 or 6 years ago, the photography bug stung me again.
I was walking through BJ’s with the wife and spotted a camera on sale. It was the Nikon D3200 with 2 kit lenses, a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 DX lens and a 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 DX lens. I immediately decided that the time was right to get back into photography.
And why not. Things had changed so much during those 35 years. The most important changes was film to digital, manual focus to auto focus, and prints to digital. The print to digital was the most important for me because I didn’t have to wait to see a bad photo and I didn’t have to pay for that same bad print.
Seeing your results immediately allowed me to learn “on the fly” by making adjustments shot to shot. That ability totally changed my outcomes from bad to decent. I was hooked!
Since my re-introduction to photography, I have made more than my share of mistakes. Most of them were financial mistakes. As much as I read about photography and as many youtube videos that I watched, there were still topics that I either lost my train of thought when I was reading or watching, or no one thought to broach the subject.
The rest of this thread are those things that I wish I knew then, but I know now! Let’s get at it!
· Camera Brands
o My first camera was the Nikon D3200 (introduced in 2012). As I said earlier, I bought it on the spot because it was on sale. If a Canon was on sale, I would have bought the Canon. Same for any other camera brand.
o That first camera is really irrelevant. The whole purpose with the purchase is to see if you develop the passion of photography or you eventually leave the camera at home and use you phone’s camera.
o If you are to be a camera enthusiast you will know it pretty quickly. If you read and watch videos on how to …, you are an enthusiast. If you don’t mind changing lenses depending on the shot, you are an enthusiast. If you enjoy seeing the photos you have taken and like to let others see the photos, you are an enthusiast. You may never make a cent from photography, but you passion will push you to upgrade from the D3200 (or comparable with other brands) into an enthusiast model along with upgraded lenses.
o Be very careful on that 2nd camera you purchase. Do your research, look at pricing, read reviews, etc. In my opinion the camera brand you choose for camera #2 will either be the brand you stay with indefinitely, or will be the camera brand to switch out of but at a considerable loss of investment in your camera and lenses.
o Professional photographers make money to support purchasing their equipment, they also make enough money to absorb a loss of money when they liquidate their equipment to purchase another brand. Enthusiasts don’t have that luxury.
· Camera #2
o After you have done all your research and have decided to stay with your original brand or to switch to another camera manufacturer, you still have to decide what kind of camera you will buy (and I do not mean, which brand!).
o The question is now, “do I go into a full frame camera, of do I continue using an AP-C (crop sensor) camera.” - to be continued!