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soapy

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Hello all, have been told to ask on this forum for advice regarding choice of a digital slr for my step daughter, she is at uni at the moment and will need one for the course that she is taking, the university have told her to go for a canon (for what reason i know not) I have absolutely no idea about digital slr photography, hence requesting advice from all you good people.
We are looking at buying secondhand with a budget of £250.
 
For my tuppence worth the Canon EOS 20D would be a very good start. They should be easy enough to get hold of for around £150 or so for the body leaving you enough for a zoom lens or even a basic kit lens such as the 18-55 and a 50mm prime lens.

Your budget would also stretch to a 30d but would leave lens options more limited. You won't be able to access the classifieds just yet being a new member but have a look around the forums and you'll pick up advice and tips. Don't be shy to get involved and give opinion where you feel you have one. Most of us don't bite! :-)

Have a look at MPBPhotographic.co.uk They usually have a good choice of stock, their prices are reasonable and their service is very good.

All the best,

Ray
 
has she been given advice on lenses? I got a 2nd hand 400D for around £200 and it came with the standard (kit) lens.

In case you are unaware - the lenses can be changed, so the camera without any lens is known as a camera body. The standard lens will be 18-55mm also known as a kit lens. This is what the camera is usually sold with (new). It's a fine lens and does most things. Very good for starting out. The next best lens in my opinion is a 50mm f1.8 prime but this has no zoom function so a bit harder to work with. They are around £80 new.

telephoto lenses allow you to take 'long distance' pictures. Again I got a 200mm 2nd hand one for under £100

hope that helps

PS my son has a sony which is also good, not sure of the model.
 
Would like to thank Mondo 74 and sturisoma for taking the time and trouble to reply and offer their advice it was greatly appreciated, have to say though I expected a bit more response from a forum that is supposed to noted for members that are very "friendly" and helpful??
Have now bought a new Canon for my step daughter, if by any chance she joins this forum in the future, I would like to think members would take i liitle more interest in her as a "newby" than you have with me.
 
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Fair comment about the lack of replies, but seeing as you bought her a new camera which i'm sure was more than 250 quid, would it have mattered what anyone else had said anyway
 
soapy said:
.........................., if by any chance she joins this forum in the future, I would like to think members would take i liitle more interest in her as a "newby" than you have with me.
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one problem with this forum is that it is actually very large and on any night there can be 100s of members on-line posting images, comments and help suggestions

what happens then is that your ''post'' very very quickly gets bypassed and ''falls off the page'' of ''new posts''

as an example - there are 12 pages of new posts in the last 10 hours

it has been discussed before and no solution appears to work ATM

meantime i would suggest that your step-daughter does indeed submit her images for advice / comments.....:)

usually :D we are respond fairly quickly......................:thumbs:
 
As a relative new boy as well, I would add that the advice you were given by the two responders was difficult to improve on, so what would be the point of using up server storage space by repeating what was already said?
 
soapy said:
Would like to thank Mondo 74 and sturisoma for taking the time and trouble to reply and offer their advice it was greatly appreciated, have to say though I expected a bit more response from a forum that is supposed to noted for members that are very "friendly" and helpful??
Have now bought a new Canon for my step daughter, if by any chance she joins this forum in the future, I would like to think members would take i liitle more interest in her as a "newby" than you have with me.
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I am a regular and I have to say that I had not even seen your post, to be honest I tend to skip "I am new what can I buy" as there are so many, and I and I assume many others have specific topics we look at.

You also need to give people a chance to answer, just because people have not responded does not mean a lack of interest, and I think it unfair saying we have not shown an interest people here (perhaps not me) are superb at helping others and don't need a guilt trip.

No insult intended, welcome to the forum.
 
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soapy said:
Would like to thank Mondo 74 and sturisoma for taking the time and trouble to reply and offer their advice it was greatly appreciated, have to say though I expected a bit more response from a forum that is supposed to noted for members that are very "friendly" and helpful??
Have now bought a new Canon for my step daughter, if by any chance she joins this forum in the future, I would like to think members would take i liitle more interest in her as a "newby" than you have with me.
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We are generally very friendly and helpful as you can see by the replies you received. It does, however, pay to remember that the world does not revolve around you. ;)
 
The23rdman said:
We are generally very friendly and helpful as you can see by the replies you received. It does, however, pay to remember that the world does not revolve around you. ;)
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Agreed.

I have always had answers to the questions i have asked no matter how noobish they were.

Some answers were fast some were slow but always someone helped.

A sure way not to get any help is to have a go at the folks on here in your first few posts IMO.

Anyway welcome.:)
 
Hello Soapy and a belated welcome aboard.

We really are a very friendly bunch here, but TBH I'm a bit puzzled by your post. Although you only received 2 replies to your question, they were 2 very good ones and it would have been hard for anyone to add any more to them. You specifically wanted a 2nd hand Canon (and presumably a lens) for a relatively small fixed budget - that narrows possible recommendations down quite a bit :)

As already said, this is a busy forum and posts do slip down the page very quickly, so it's also worth remembering that forums are a two-way thing and you tend to get out what you put in. From your side, you asked the question on 3rd December but have only just got back to the thread.
With the large number of posts on here, seeing that somebody hasn't returned to reply in their own thread really doesn't encourage other members to contribute further to it - it also leaves the thread at the bottom of the page!

Had you maybe responded to the direct question that Summer asked you, or got back to Ray to say that you'd looked into his recommendations it probably would have turned into a livelier debate. As things stood nobody could have added much more and it was starting to look like you were never going to return to your thread . . . I'm not sure what else you were expecting ???

Anyway, as I said welcome aboard. I sincerely hope that your daughter does join up and that she gets as much out of the forum as I have. This genuinely is a great, lively place to be - if you just get stuck in and give it a chance.
 
Hi Soapy, welcome to TP. Perhaps you could give us an outline of what you were hoping to see?
 
Soapy,

I have to echo SarahLee's sentiments entirely. I saw the thread, did my best to give a little advice based on my experience and subscribed to the thread looking for a follow up from yourself whereby I would be happy to get into dialogue as to how your needs could be best served. This would have undoubtedly kept the thread a bit further up the line and more visible to others, some of whom would have happily joined in.

I feel your rebuke is quite unjustified. I acknowledge and appreciate your thanks directed towards myself and sturisoma however the tone of your response is most disappointing.

I wish your step-daughter all the very best with her photography and would ask that you encourage her to join this forum. It is far more friendly than you appreciate and I'm confident your step-daughter will see for herself.

Wishing you all the best for the festive season.
 
Soapy,

I too am very new to this site but have found everyone to be extremely honest and offer some outstanding and experienced advice.

I personally thought that the replies you had received were clear and well explained.

I don't know what you were expecting and I note that after your last post you have not had the courtesy to even reply or acknowledge the comments made.

Welcome to the site and i'm sure we would all love to see some of your daughters work.

V
 
I do believe that people assume that they will receive the sort of instant advice and feedback that they would get when in a shop, often forgetting that this is a site 100% full of ordinary working people with lives, fathers, mothers sons, daughters who work, go to school, college etc and come here when they have spare time.

Often I am sure, replies from people are often looked into before they are posted so that they are as accurate as possible, this can also involve the person replying looking on "google", or checking their own equipment or reading instructions before a reply is posted, something a questioner will not take into account, which is why before I ask a question not only do I do that but do my best to check/search "previous posts".

I hope they chap and his daughter return, though he has not come back to this thread.

Oh and by the way, he did say thank you, but there are many many posts I have read where no "thank you" has followed a reply, so when people have gone to so much effort a little "thank" does not go amis.
 
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Got two good replies to a limited question (brand and budget), thread finished, no need for anymore. And even those two replies were both within 20 minutes!
 
soapy said:
Would like to thank Mondo 74 and sturisoma for taking the time and trouble to reply and offer their advice it was greatly appreciated, have to say though I expected a bit more response from a forum that is supposed to noted for members that are very "friendly" and helpful??
Have now bought a new Canon for my step daughter, if by any chance she joins this forum in the future, I would like to think members would take i liitle more interest in her as a "newby" than you have with me.
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LOL
 
POAH said:
LOL
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Another thought came to mind, he has commented as though he pays a subscription or membership, people here spend their time responding because they want to not because they have to, if this is his response to a free, forum with ordinary people I would hate to be a member of staff in any shop he went to especially if he had faulty goods, he would probably want someone sacked.

Oh and I have JUST noted, not a PLEASE or THANK you in any of his question

for example Please can you help and, any help would be appreciated, thank you.

That is how I ask

Finally you say you bought a new Canon for her so the question was pointless anyway.
 
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I can understand the frustration (as a newbie myself) when posts don't get a huge response. It also narks me when I see the same *few* members getting lots of replies. I believe this is because you can subscribe to your friends' threads, but I have no idea how to do it lol
 
sturisoma said:
I can understand the frustration (as a newbie myself) when posts don't get a huge response. It also narks me when I see the same *few* members getting lots of replies. I believe this is because you can subscribe to your friends' threads, but I have no idea how to do it lol
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I have asked for help and received everything from one to twenty replies and I have subscribed to nothing, no one wants me as a friend :'(
 
You can subscribe to any thread, can't remember how to do it via the full site but if you use the iPhone app it's under the same top arrow you press to reply to a thread.
 
JSER said:
Another thought came to mind, he has commented as though he pays a subscription or membership, people here spend their time responding because they want to not because they have to, if this is his response to a free, forum with ordinary people I would hate to be a member of staff in any shop he went to especially if he had faulty goods, he would probably want someone sacked.

Oh and I have JUST noted, not a PLEASE or THANK you in any of his question

for example Please can you help and, any help would be appreciated, thank you.

That is how I ask

Finally you say you bought a new Canon for her so the question was pointless anyway.
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JSER said:
Another thought came to mind, he has commented as though he pays a subscription or membership, people here spend their time responding because they want to not because they have to, if this is his response to a free, forum with ordinary people I would hate to be a member of staff in any shop he went to especially if he had faulty goods, he would probably want someone sacked.

Oh and I have JUST noted, not a PLEASE or THANK you in any of his question

for example Please can you help and, any help would be appreciated, thank you.

That is how I ask

Finally you say you bought a new Canon for her so the question was pointless anyway.
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Seems that I have upset more than a few people on the forum, and for that I apologise, it was certainly not my intention to do so.
The reason that I bought a new Canon, was partly because I only received two replies after requesting advice for recommendation,( which I felt was no recommendation at all) also the fact that I had no idea what would be a suitable and reliable camera for my step daughter,plus the fact I have a little extra piece of mind now with a warranty.
I realise that newbies asking the same old questions over and over can be a pain in the proverbial, I know as I have first hand experience of them on forums where I have a reasonable amount of knowledge and it is I answering their questions........... but if I had a few more replies along the lines of...... agree with the above, good choice of camera, etc it would have given me more confidence to invest in second hand, and saved me money.
Seems a shame though that it took a post with "slight" criticism to bring about such an active response. So once again I apologise for having upset members on this forum, and I thank you all for now replying. So would like to wish you all a happy and stress free Christmas.

P. S. I would'nt want anyone sacked :lol:
 
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Although I disagree with the op in that I believe the advice he got was sound, I'm with Splog here re those last two remarks...
 
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I don't feel it was uncalled for at all. OP asked for advice, got some, didn't appreciate it, replied 2 weeks later still on a downer because the advice was deemed not good enough.

The fact that they didn't get ripped apart just goes to prove that this is a friendly forum indeed and why my remark was kept purposefully mild.
 
soapy said:
but if I had a few more replies along the lines of...... agree with the above, good choice of camera, etc it would have given me more confidence to invest in second hand, and saved me money.

So would like to wish you all a happy and stress free Christmas.
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Maybe that lack of response can sometimes be an indication that the community agree with what has been said.

You won't be aware of that being a newcomer of course, but I can assure you when some tripe is offered up or disputed the thread can run for many pages, infact subsequent responses are now being challenged for their 'tone'.

Often when someone suggests a particular camera is the best for the money, a counter argument will come from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Fuji *add/delete as applicable, possibly leaving you none the wiser.

Stick around (and/or step daughter), don't judge the forum on one posting.;)

Happy Xmas :thumbs:
 
Being a forum noobie is a learning curve for some of us. It can be easy sometimes to post a rant and then all of a sudden find you've upset the whole community. Soapy has apologised. End Of!

I was narked the other night about a minor thing and wrote a sarcastic comment, but quickly edited it after posting...After all it's just the internet.
Through experience, I realised after posting that why the f*** am I making a thing of it and it looked like I was trolling. :gag:

Forgive and forget and move on.
 
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