What is a quality beginners camera for photoshop use?

[Alaskan]

My wife is taking upper level photoshop courses and I want to surprise her with a good beginners camera, any one have a suggestion? How about the D3200?

 

[Laser Chick]

Have several Nikon's. The D3200 is a nice body.
I bought it as a brand new bundled package from an on-line store with 2 lenses, tripod, a bunch of accessories for eight hundred and change. One lens was the Nikkor 55-300mm
Have not been disappointed in the camera, do a lot of outdoor shoots and it holds up well to the environment which can be rough at times.

 

[RB astro]

What is a quality beginners camera for photoshop use?

Any DSLR is suitable for Photoshop use.

Ok, couldn't resist.

But seriously, these days DSLRs have come a long way and it comes down to personal preference.
Nikon, Canon, Sony all make nice cameras.

Which company most people go with is usually dictated by the various lens offered by each company for their cameras.

I personally exclusively use Canon because I love their lenses and cameras.
I find the cameras more intuitive to use but that's just me.
Canon's lenses are also awesome but other companies also have fantastic lenses.

In the long run, once you build up a collection of lenses, you tend to or have to stick with that company.
Cameras come and go but your lenses stay with you for life, unless you're the type that always chases the most newest megapixel body.

Pick a company and stay with it, building up your lens collection.

If you pick Canon then any of the lower end entry level bodies are great, as with Nikon.
Don't just look at megapixel count, that's not what makes a great camera.

If you want a good starter camera look at Canon 750D or 760D, mid range camera look at Canon 70D.
These are all APS-C size sensors, meaning they are a smaller sensor than the old 35mm film size, this gives them a 1.6x crop factor so effectively you only get the inner portion of the image which makes the image look "bigger" than in a standard 35mm frame.
What is happening is it's just recording the inner part of the frame not the full 35mm frame that the old film used to record.

A fantastic full frame camera at the lower end of the market is the Canon 6D but I'm not sure of your budget.

Sorry I can't help with Nikon or Sony, my area of knowledge centres around Canon.

Hope that helps somewhat.

RB

 

[Laser Chick]

@ RB astro
You said it perfectly. Lenses is where it is at once you start getting into it and expanding your collection. The next lens up for me is $1200 for just one lens!
Yeah the title about Photoshop made me grin also
As long as you stay with a name brand company you can't go wrong unless the one you get is a lemon but the camera company/supplier will replace that for you.

TIP: The card that it uses, be sure to get nothing slower than 10.
4 speed is okay for a little point and shoot but if you are getting a picture of a life time and want to take rapid shots, you need 10 speed.

I usually use this company = Cameras for Sale | Buy a Digital Camera from Cameta Camera

I went with a package deal like this = Nikon D5300 Digital SLR Camera & 18-55mm G VR DX II AF-S Zoom Lens (Black) with 55-300mm VR Lens + 64GB Card + Battery & Charger + Backpack + Tele/Wide Lens Kit

Have fun as you can drive yourself nuts looking at all the different brands. options
Once you narrow it down to say 2 or 3, be sure to read reviews on them.

Have fun!

 

[RB astro]

@ RB astro
You said it perfectly. Lenses is where it is at once you start getting into it and expanding your collection. The next lens up for me is $1200 for just one lens!
Yeah the title about Photoshop made me grin also

Yes lenses are where the party's at !
Which lens are you getting L.Chick?

It's hard to believe that some lenses we use are more expensive than the camera but it's the truth, you get what you pay for.

 

[Laser Chick]

My next lens will hopefully be around a 600mm to 800mm
Do a lot of long distance wild life photography. Just got back from Northern New York doing a shoot on the white deer herd up there at the old army depot. Got a lot of bucks, birds of prey and pure white deer.


White Deer & Wildlife Gallery

 

[Alaskan]

Thanks everyone, I'm thinking the D5300 might be a better choice now. Much appreciate your feedback.

Chris

 

[GR3EN]

Great place to look for lenses are garage sales as well. Lenses hold their value pretty well. It doesn't matter the brand despite what people say or think. They make adapter rings for every camera brand so you can use whatever lens you can find/afford which broadens selection greatly. Only difference would be is if the lense has an electronic function. In that case the said function wouldn't work with the adapter for obvious reasons.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

I have a DSLR, and a decent assortment of lenses, but I don't use it because it's a pain in the ass to bring around with me. The most important camera will be the one that you have with you. If that means always having a camera bag, or some bulky thing around my neck, I might as well not even own a camera because it won't be with me.

DSLRs are great, don't get me wrong, but I don't like to have to plan on bringing "the camera" all the time. Instead, I use a higher-end compact camera and it works well for me. I'd probably go for a Canon S120 or the upcoming S130 simply because they're small, but pack a punch.

If you go the DSLR route, consider getting a wide-angle lens, such as a Tokina 11-16mm, and have your wife get up and personal with whatever she's photographing. Angled viewfinder attachments are fun too.

 

[Benm]

For me it's the same thing: i can take proper shots with a dslr, but they are so large i'd never bring one unless i went somewhere specifically to take photos.

A good compact can work miracles really. I managed to pick up an S120 recently for $275 or so, and that is a really good little camera. These things are hard to find at good prices though since they do not have much features that stand out in marketing - only 12 megapixels, 5x optical zoom, nothing you can really brag about. The S130 model doesn't seem to be available to this date.

If you are looking to really shell out for the ultimate compact camera the sony RX100 4th generation would be the thing to buy, but that'd set you back in the order of $1000 for a (VERY good) compact.

 

[Davidx]

Just bought a camera two weeks ago. I know zilch,so asked friends are big camera nuts. Guy I respect a lot has Cannons, cause he has lots of lenses, suggested I get a Sony a6000.
Smaller then the big ones, so I can through it in saddlebags. Amazon, $625 with 16 50 lens.
Week later price dropped $100.
I'm recommending it to you so you can help me learn how it works.

 

[Benm]

It varies by what you want really.

The current trend seems to be a great amount of optical zoom, regardless of lens maximum aperture. This caters to users that do not require great night performance but are taking casual holiday shots.

What is useful to you is entirely personal - but the compact camera's that cater to the photo enthousiasts at a budget seem to be few and far between nowadays.

 

[Sigurthr]

Lots of good posts in here and you've already picked so I'll just comment generally.

I'm an Olympus man, absolutely love the features of their modern MILC cameras. As such, I have 2.0 crop factor cameras, which are smaller and lighter than traditional DSLRs, but larger than compact P&S cameras, yet retaining most of the features and capabilities of DSLRs. The OM-D E-M10 II is well worth every penny, and the lenses are smaller, lighter, and less expensive than the APS-C brethren while retaining equivalent quality. The only thing you can't do as well is Astro because the apertures are smaller and the raw noise level is higher.

 

[Benm]

Guess that depends on what you need certain features for.

I like to have large apertures - not only for capturing more light in dark conditions, but also to have limited depth of field in bright ones. For compacts, a built-in ND filter can be helpful in bright light.

Virtually all new compact camera's lack this option though - there seems to be little market for compact camera's geared towards enthusiasts. Most of them don't even have a manual option.

I'm sure things like 20 or 30 times optical zoom and 20 megapixels do appeal more to the general market. This comes at the expense of a lens that can do f/3.2 at best and a 1/2.3" sensor. But hey, it does 280 different scene modes so what is there to worry about

Ofcourse there are some notable exceptions to this trend, but those will cost you - more for a compact than for an entry level dslr in many cases.