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The overpaid middle class who have spent a fortune on the latest kit only to sell it six months latest for a fraction of its value because either
a) There is the new latest thing
or
b) The realised they still can't take good pictures.
I am not one of those people but I want to buy their ridiculously over specced cameras for a fraction of their value. My body is telling me I should spend more time watching dangerous things than doing them, so I thought I would try photography. This only occurred to me today and I don't want to waste more than a few hundred quid before I discover I don't enjoy it and am no good. If I turn out to really enjoy it and am brilliant then I will join the website and waste lots of money but for now.........
............I want to be able to take action shots of cars and mountain bikes. I want to be able to do HD videos. I want to be able to do some manual settings as well as automatic presets. I want any advice and help from people who know something about photographing.
Recommendations please
I buy secondhand from mpbphotographic as I like their honest descriptions of quality and their warranty.
No need to spend a fortune
Cannon EOS 750D with the standard 18-55 lens on it added some second hand longer lenses now and hopefully taking some decent pics combined with lightroom it does me well
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikewsmith/40300869604/
https://store.canon.co.uk/canon-eos-750d-18-55mm-is-stm-lens-100eg-bag-8gb-card/0592C095/
Oh and you want a cheap DSLR and probably 2 lenses to cover most situations. Then you will find the shortfall in your gear for what you are dying to do. You may need longer lenses (pricey) or ultra wide angles (pricey) but you want know until you try. Buy something 4 years old and cheap and it has already lost most of its value so you'll probably shift it on for a similar price in a year. Lenses are where to spend as they don't date in the same way glass does.
I buy secondhand from Gray's of Westminster because I like to support Scientology wherever possible.
Good shop though.
Definitely going the second hand route.
If the money is spent on the lenses can they be swapped between brands? If I buy and old Nikon now and then decide to buy a better Cannon will the kit still fit?
There are a million acronyms, spec items etc shown on every website. Which are the ones I should care about and is the biggest number always best?
For reference the 'camera' I have now is in the video at the end of this thread https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/gimbal-users/#post-9963973
If the money is spent on the lenses can they be swapped between brands? If I buy and old Nikon now and then decide to buy a better Cannon will the kit still fit?
No each brand has their own mounting system
There are a million acronyms, spec items etc shown on every website. Which are the ones I should care about and is the biggest number always best?
There comes a point where you probably can't do any more with "bigger" and "more" the one I have is 24mp so I'm happy to crop the image down and still have some very usable stuff
No harm starting at the beginner end of things and working out how you are getting on with it, had great fun all over the place sitting in dusty corners and hanging out of trees trying to get something a bit different, another model up wouldn't change much
Ffordes Photographic, based way up north in that there Beauly, have had far to much of my money over the years. Highly recommended.
http://www.ffordes.com/contactus
I'm going to break my own pledge of never responding to a '....trackworld' thread title.
Firstly, It's a bit like mtb in the 90's; the newer kit really has moved on a lot. For me the most recent kit (last 5 years) has made big leaps forward in the ability to take shots worth having in low light levels or at high shutter speeds without a very fast lens (using high ISO numbers). This is big bonus. So don't go too old - using my old Nikon D90 now would be very frustrating.
2ndly - this photographing mtbs and cars in action - do you see these mtbs and cars performing under your direction or are you just a walk up observer? If the latter you are likely to be further from them than you'd like so you will probably need some longer lenses. As they are moving at speed you'll also need to be able to shoot fast some of the time. Long lens and fast shutter speeds (despite what I said above) equals expensive. There are cheaper genres to start with. Street style photograph around the pit area of an event is often loads more interesting than another racer (motorised or pedal powered) zooming by.
3rdly - you need a mindset that good photos are hard to get. One keeper a day would make most ecstatic. Also, most photos you have seen taken by others that you have rated will have spent hours being fiddled with in Lightroom or Photoshop (or both). You need to factor in if that is something you would enjoy too.
4thly - it is one of those activities where the more you know the more you realise there is to learn. Think about a course - my wife went on a one day group course that really kickstarted her interest beyond point and shoot.
5thly - most of it is not the geekery. Most of it is an ability to see a photograph potential and then have the determination to get to the right location at the right time to make the shot happen. Lazy point and shoot from a convenient spot at a time that suits the family walk rarely yields much better than you could do with your phone no matter how fancy the camera.
Lastly - it's brilliant! I've dabbled my whole adult life but recently it's become more of a significant thing for me. Currently it's landscape photography and also playing with multiple off camera speedlights (flashes) and building up shots with many layers and masks in photoshop (static cars being object of choice at the moment). When biking and competing was everything for me getting up before dawn to do these things was easy. Now it is the same for photography.
Hmmm. I'm about to sell up my SLR gear as I realise I haven't used it in well over 12 months
Canon EOS 500D DSLR Camera Body - Very light use
Canon EF 70-200mm f4 L USM - Very light use
Canon Speedlite 430EX Flashgun - Shows little use
Canon EF-S 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 - Signs of use
Canon EF 28-105mm F3.5-4.5 USM II Lens - Very light use
Various filters and hoods
Remote doofer that will eithet allow wireless flash or remote shutter trigger
A Lowepro rucksack to carry everything
A set of extension tubes to allow macro photograohy
All the chargers and so on, and memory card(s)
It's only gathering dust and losing value. I can take pics and send more details if you might be interested...
MPB or Ffordes are my usual go-to sites... but good kit, even used, really isn't cheap!
Look for a mid-level last gen/one before that camera. I still like my D7000, although don't use it really these days, but something of that era or newer would be a good starting point. The standard "kit" lenses are usually pretty good quality for the money.
So - ferinstance...
A very lightly used Nikon D7000 for £289
https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-digital-slr-cameras/used-nikon-digital-slr-cameras/nikon-d7000/sku-721982/
Perhaps go a superzoom - Nikon 18-200 VRII for £334
https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-digital-slr-cameras/used-nikon-digital-slr-cameras/nikon-d7000/sku-721982/
That would give you a decent starting point - you can work out future lenses from there depending what you find your needs are!
mikesmith
If the money is spent on the lenses can they be swapped between brands? If I buy and old Nikon now and then decide to buy a better Cannon will the kit still fit?
No each brand has their own mounting system
Unless you go mirrorless in which case you can delve into the endless world of old manual lenses. As the OP is just starting out it'll make little or no difference in practical terms whether he goes used DSLR or used mirrorless. Ditching my DSLR in favour of my Sony A6000 was the best move I made in terms of taking more photographs / having my camera on me more of the time and the quality is indistinguishable from a dslr.
Jimjam - this is why I have an Olympus OM-D system as well as a Nikon D850/D800E set up.
Thinking of trading the D7000 as I am not using it these days as a result!
I would be very tempted by the Fuji system too if I were buying at the moment. I know some National Geographic photographers who have switched to them over the last few years and are getting (as expected) superb results.
Capt.Kronos
I would be very tempted by the Fuji system too if I were buying at the moment.
The Fuji XT-2 is a thing of beauty and handles incredibly well. Bit big iirc, almost getting back up to dslr dimensions but it's a fine piece of kit. Would be tempted by a used one if I could justify it.
nbt - emailed you
5thly – most of it is not the geekery. Most of it is an ability to see a photograph potential and then have the determination to get to the right location at the right time to make the shot happen.
QFT. I 'dabble' but occasionally drive / lug gear around for a mate who's pro (Cycling product shoots mostly these days) and it does my head in that I just don't 'see' the same shots he does. I shoot 95% on film so even if my shots are crap, I at least get the consolation of messing around with chemicals
Jimjam – this is why I have an Olympus OM-D system as well as a Nikon D850/D800E set up.
Same here, and I really wanted to love the OM-D enough to replace my DSLR, but ... when you look at the results they're just not the same. I know all the stuff about how it's the photographer and not the camera that's important, but if I'm going to produce poorly framed and imagined photos, at least let them be sharp, high resolution and correctly exposed.
OMD does okay....
WorldClassAccident wrote
nbt – emailed you
Ahhh - not sure I saw this reply, nor an email - this thread just popped up in a search. Muchos apologies. However I have just got round to looking at getting rid of my stuff. Are you by any remote chance still looking?
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/canon-eos-500d-and-loads-of-gear/
its worth noting that for your requirements, a bridge camera might actually be a better bet. It won't be as upgradable if you do decide to get into the hobby in a larger way, but it would be
cheaper
lighter
smaller
more flexible (lens-wise)
than a DSLR. I don't know how important the lighter/smaller thing is - I find even a light DSLR (I normally carry around my 100D) a bit of a pain after a day out. I also find swapping lenses slow, and a faff, and so if I'm out and about i'll just leave the 18-250mm on it (i have a load of prime lenses when I'm taking things more seriously)
so against the advice of the above, for your question I'd reccomend something like a canon powershot SX - maybe a 430 (I haven't caught up with the latest ones, so read the reviews). Think of it like the callibre bossnut of the camera world - a pretty good tool, fine for beginners, and will give you a good idea of whether you like it or not. If you do find you enjoy it, you'll probably find the button\menu layout is similar to that in the higher-end cameras from the same manufacturer (this is certainly the case with canon, I'd imagine it's the case elsewhere too), so you can step up once you know what you enjoy, and spend money on the kit you'll use. If you don't enjoy it, you haven't spent much and you've got a small, light, easy-to-use camera that'll take decent shots when you want