Re: good beginner camera

David Dyer-Bennet wrote: 
LisatheSequel <dontmailme@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:


Stacey wrote:

Lisa wrote:


What is a good digital camera for a beginner?  Preferably
one with the ability to zoom.


Do you want to learn photography and become better at it or just
remain a
"snapshooter" and let the camera think for you? Nothing wrong with either
but does affect what camera you should choose.

I want to learn photography. I'm thinking of picking it up as a hobby.


There are a zillion good choices. Something like the Canon A610 is a
great choice, and fairly cheap. It doesn't take all control away from
you, has good macro focusing, has histogram display, all sorts of
useful features. (Will work in full manual mode, which is useful
often.)


Thanks for the suggestion. I'm still in the compare and window shop stage, but as I'm making a list of possibles this info is very helpful.


Also learn to work seriously with the post-processing programs
(Photoshop is darned expensive, but the professional standard).  In
particular learn to use the "curves" tool (and avoid any program so
consumer-oriented that it doesn't have one).  This is the digital
photography equivalent of doing your own darkroom work for film
photography -- a *very* important step, that makes a big difference to
the appearance of your work.


I have the Photoshop CS2 (v.9.0), but I'm not familiar with the "curves" tool. I just took a look and recognize what you're talking about but as it's a sensitive feature (imo, meaning lots of room for error and having to begin over) I've never used it seriously, only played around with it.

I'll learn to use it, though.  Their help manual is pretty good.

It's funny, I thought to take a good picture you just pointed and shot, and it was the luck of the draw whether or not it turned out well. I didn't realize photographers manipulated their images using Photoshop. I thought that was more for people who owned photolabs and did it professionally.

Well, I guess the above paragraph shows how little thought I've put into this. I see I've got lots to learn.
.

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