Art Club discussion

Okay so I've had 7 cameras in my life.
1. Some cheap barbie digital camera
2. some cheap disposable camera
3. a silver samsung camera that lasted about a year and a half or so until it randomly stopped working right
4. the pink samsung camera I got afterwards that recently randomly stopped working right (the first time I was getting horizontal stripes and weird lighting; this time the flash doesn't work - and it never worked well - and I've got spots somewhere in the camera - cleaning off the lens doesn't work - and... I forget what else)
5. the camera on my phone :p I have no way to get pics off my phone at the moment
6. the camera on my computer XD
7. my ipod. which is what I'm using currently.


I really really really really REALLY want a camera with a lens so you can adjust the focus, but that also has automatic focus for unimportant pictures. I really like photography and I really like taking pictures of eyes and stuff and that's why I got out my pink camera again - my ipod isn't smart enough to focus up close. I looove close-up pics.

I think I'd be okay with digital manual focus.

I have a really small budget. Like I have $150 or so and I'm saving for a $500 computer as well as the camera (my computer's fan doesn't work right and it overheats and the screen is super reflective and the batteries don't work well so I can't take it anywhere so what's the point of having a laptop???).


Anyway here's what I've found so far:

http://www.amazon.com/Fujifilm-FinePi...

*drools*
I don't reallyyy want to spend $400 on a camera with my history of cameras randomly breaking though....


I'm hoping Sara has some advice? it doesn't take me super long to save up money. I can make $50 a week if I want to (starting next week).

oh, plus indoor pics look green on my ipod.

Ahhh... wouldn't we all like a manual camera for a cheap price? ;-D

There's a couple of options I'd recommend to you:
1. Splurge on a laptop first. I bought a laptop last year instead of a new camera and it was a great decision. It's way faster thus uploading and editing isn't a painful process. It got to the point with my old computer that I hardly ever spent any time on photography because it was just so painful dealing with the files.
2. If you RIGHT THIS SECOND need to have a new camera, go for something cheap to hold you over until you have more money after buying the computer. There's a lot of both good and bad point&shoots out there. You really have to do your homework. This is mine: http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot... I got it on sale. Places like Flickr will become your best friend during camera research.
3. Don't get an expensive camera unless you're really dedicated to learning how to use it. Buy an expensive lens instead of an expensive body. If you have any questions about slrs and stuff, ask me.
4. If you're willing to deal with it/have a walmart/costco/etc that develops film near you, look into film! You can get a film camera that is just as good or even better than a digital equivalent for way less. I have a Canon EOS Rebel G and I get my film from Wolf Camera (which is about $10 for a four pack of the one I use). I get my film developed and put onto a disc for digital use at Walmart for $8-$10 a roll.
5. Go rummage sale/garage sale hunting! I've heard stories of people coming home with expensive gear for way cheaper this way. I know that my church last year had DSLRs for $20 but I didn't get there in time. :-(
6. Focusing close for a picture doesn't just rely on focusing correctly- it relies on how close your camera can focus. Different lenses have different focal lengths.
7. Of course, some brands are more popular than others but don't get into the stereotypical Canon vs. Nikon debate, etc. What depends most is personal preference/budget- especially for DSLRs. It's harder to buy a bad SLR than it is to buy a bad p&s.
btw the greenness of your indoor pics is from your ipod setting an incorrect white balance. You could look into an app that lets you correct this or use post-processing to fix this.

Oh and there's lots of places that repair slr bodies so don't worry about having it break. Odds are you'd be able to get a local place to fix it up.

hmm
thanks

I was actually hoping for a budget of $150 XD I'm crazy I know, but I have to buy new violin strings soon and I haven't had my bow rehaired in over a year and idk if it needs it or not cuz I washed it :/ plus I just became allergic to silver and my only earrings I wasn't allergic to were silver :p XD

neeed moneyyyyz XD



I don't have very much camera experience. I just desperately wanted a camera for christmas 2007 and I got a cheap digital one. well not that cheap. my sister got a really cheap one XDXD

yeah that was random.

but thanks for typing all that ^^ check out what I got my camera to do today, and the spots on the lens/not on the lens may have temporarily disappeared......

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Powershot...
BOOM. I'd recommend doing more research but if you want something cheap just to use for now, this one is worth looking into.

thanks
I looked into it and decided I'm going to wait and save up for a better one.

My problem is that my cameras keep randomly breaking (no, I do not drop them :p) after a year or so AND they're really slow... at least this one is. It takes forever auto-focusing and then it often gets the focus wrong, plus ever since I got it if the flash setting was turned on it would take like 30 seconds just preparing the flash, and then it wouldn't take and I'd have to explain to my subjects that it never works the first time and then do it all over again, and then the flash would make everything look weird XD


however I do like the discreet mode (: I just figured out yesterday how to turn off the red lamp thing on my camera but it doesn't stay off so I have to keep turning it off... my cat hates that. I forgot to link but here are the pics I took yesterday: http://thedragonsghost.deviantart.com... you can see, camera + cat were being annoying XD





but I might not be buying anything for a while ... my dad randomly said yesterday that he doesn't think we can afford to homeschool or take music lessons. (my lessons are $60 a week for violin and $60 a week for piano, and my sister's are similar to that) so then they were saying I should get a job to pay for my music lessons. and then they realized that since they haven't paid for me to get a license that they'd have to drive me. and then they talked about me getting a job within walking distance yet obviously I can't really handle a job right now cuz I'm also failing school. (not the grades, just getting the work done.)


soooo .... sorry if you actually read that :p plus we had to take the cat to the vet to get her fur shaved off cuz I didn't brush her.

DSLRs have next to no shutter lag. And duh, that's nothing unusual- flashes have to charge. Some are just faster at it than others. try loookujg into things like flash diffusers.

I don't see any new pics but maybe it's just my iPod.

I'm sorry that your family is having trouble.

"The best camera is the one you have with you."

I don't remember who said that but you see it a lot in the online photography world. :-P

hmm thank you

new question: how much does it cost to get blue highlights? (in your hair XD) permanent, at a more expensive place but with a person who likes you and usually charges less.

I have no idea. Most of my friends just do it themselves.

I'm estimating $60 but idk if that's even close...

I wasn't actually expecting you to answer that btw XP

I love taking pictures! I should post some I took from Colorado.

Silver wrote: "I wasn't actually expecting you to answer that btw XP"

lol I know. I was just answering anyway :-P

ShayA-Hi! wrote: "I love taking pictures! I should post some I took from Colorado."

Do you have your own topic yet? That's the place to do so. :-)

No topic yet, but I shall get to it!

GOGOGOGO! :-)

OKAY!

Other brands are worth looking into as well though. Canon and Nikon are the big two people usually buy but other brands such as Pentax and Sony are worth a shot. And one of the things to keep in mind when buying an slr is that eventually you'll probably want an upgrade and if you stay with the same brand, you wont have to keep spending money on lenses and other gear.

I don't recommend Samsung. or whatever brand I had. basically when I was ... twelve? that I needed a camera, like I had this overwhelming urge to take pictures and I didn't have a camera. so anyway I was the first person in my family to get a digital camera XD got one for Christmas. a few years later, RIGHT before my cousin got a first place trophy at a tae kwon do competition, it randomly broke/stopped working right. this is also right when I had volunteered to take the pictures for my stop animation class. (was supposed to be an art class but I got outvoted.)

lol. so I like don't have any pics from the best vacation in my life :(

then a few months later my parents surprised me with a new camera .... same kind, newer model ... and it was pink.


and it got spots on the lens. I tried cleaning it off. didn't work. they had to be somewhere inside the camera. and like the lens would get stuck and stuff. finally it wouldn't turn on for more than like a second so I got rid of it.


supposedly.


my dad still has both of my old cameras and my dead ipod >.< he can't get rid of things lol


-end horror story-

so somewhere there's a video from our stop animation with horizontal lines across the screen from my camera.