Any camera/photography aficionados here?

[beats me]

On a related note a friend just bought a $500 GoPro camera. To my knowledge he doesn’t bike, skate, ski, snowboard, boat, skydive, or base jump. Any picture or video has ever sent me is of him kicking it with his bros, food, or concert/rave footage which looks like every other concert/rave footage you’ve ever seen. So what’s the first thing he shoots with his GoPro? His sister’s engagement party. FFS. That could have easily been covered with his iPhone 6.

[H20nly]

iPhone 6 Pro, maybe.

[Pitch Black]

This has got me moist at the moment:



Handheld 3-axis stabilizer gimbal with 4k video camera from drone maker DJI. I hope they're going to sell it separately from the 'copter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVj5ON2T4Sc

[acroberts]

What kind of pictures does she want to take? Kids, family, portraits? Outdoors or indoors? Sports?

Advanced Amateur photographer here - started with Canon DSLR (Canon Xti, then 50D) with a bunch of lenses with a lot of opinions, lol.

Here's the deal, if she's going to keep the camera on the green box (auto everything) and never buy anything more than the kit lens, she may be perfectly content with the kit. Check out Ken Rockwell for his recommendations - I like how he presents and what he recommends.

Problem is, even a smaller DSLR and kit lens is too big to have handy all the time, and the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have on you when you need it.

I'm now selling off everything to go mirrorless Fuji (X100s & X-T1) and 3-4 quality lenses. Smaller gear, incredible quality. The X100s is the camera I have on me all the time and I love that thing dearly.

[doghouse]

She's just not happy with a point and shoot, and thinks a DSLR is the only way to get really nice pics. There's no plan other than she wants to take better pictures. I'm all for her getting more into photography, I just have a feeling that very quickly she's going to get sick of lugging around a larger camera and a bunch of lenses in order to do so.

OK, here's the dirty secret to better pictures:

1. better composition

2. better lighting

Rather than spending $500+ on a DSLR, taking some classes or reading some books will do a lot more to improve her pictures. The Canon P+S you have is already capable of very good results.

When I was 11 years old and the photo bug bit, my parents gave me the cheapest Kodak Instamatic camera for Christmas but I barely had money for film and processing (about $2 for a 12 exposure roll in those days, my allowance was only $1 a week). I read every book and magazine on photography I could find in the library during the year I saved up the money for my first 35mm camera. That's how I learned about photography.

The gear vs. knowledge balance is the same in photography as it is in music.