Novice Photographer Signing On!!!

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mattpark

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Name
Matthew
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Well hello everyone!

My name is Matt, and I'm 24 and live in Stockton on Tees.

A couple of years ago I realised that I really enjoy making great photos, and did nothing about it! :) I've continued on with a pretty old Sony compact camera, and without learning any photography theory/techniques. The result of which more often than not is me thinking "that's a pretty cool photo... but this is wrong, that's too bright, the wrong thing is in focus, it would have been better if etc..."

So here I am, finally doing something about it! Why has it taken me two years I hear you ask?

  1. I’m earning more, and can now afford to invest in an SLR
  2. My wife's pregnant, and the one bit of advice my dad's given me is "take lots of photos".

On the theory/technique side, I’ve just finished reading this lot below, so feel I'm now in a position to make an informed decision on how to spend my £1200 budget.

  1. Langford's Basic Photography: The guide for serious photographers
  2. The Digital Photography Book: The Step-by-step Secrets for How to Make:Your Photos Look Like the Pros'!
  3. The Digital Photography Book Volume 2: The Step-by-Step Secrets for How to Make Your Photos Look Like the Pros!

Would appreciate some feedback on my warehouse express shopping basket!

Nikon D90 Digital SLR Camera Body: £648.00
Nikon 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 G AF-S DX VR Lens: £524.89
SanDisk 4GB Extreme III 30MB/Sec SDHC Card: £34.99
Lowepro Slingshot 100 AW: £44.99
Delivery: £4.99
Total: £1257.86

Am i missing anything obvious on that list (bearing in mind that i have no existing equipment)?

My logic says I'm better off getting a D90 than a D300S because:
- I'm a novice, and probably wouldn't benefit from the better spec + features
- The money I'm saving can be spent on the 18-200 lens, which I'm lead to believe is a pretty neat piece of kit for the money.
- If I ever do out grow the D90 base, I can still use the lens when I upgrade.

I'll probably pop over to the convention in York next weekend so will hopefully see some of you lot there.

Cheers,

Matt

P.S. I work in the IT/telecoms industry and have loads of experience with vBulletin and systems administration, so if you're looking for any help running the forum drop me PM.
 
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have you gone into a shop and held any camera's yet? you'll find that some just "feel right" and some don't. any reason you've decided to go down the Nikon route rather than Canon?
 
Welcome to TP Matt :)

I agree if you have not held the camera yet I would do before ordering, I used a cannon as my first SLR, back in the days of film, I then swapped to Nikon because it just felt better (plus it's the dark side)!

Looks like you have all that you should need to get you under way to start with, there will always be something that you "need".

I may hold fire on the books for the moment, TP can be used to post the fruits of your labour and get good advice / feedback and help.

Looking forward to seeing some of the fruits...............

:)
 
Sniffing1987 said:
have you gone into a shop and held any camera's yet? you'll find that some just "feel right" and some don't. any reason you've decided to go down the Nikon route rather than Canon?
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for your response. Yeah sure have, I've popped in the local Jessops, and another private shop too...

I'm a pretty big bloke @ 6"6', and to be honest neither the D90 or the EOS 50D the salesman tried to get me to buy felt perfect. I have pretty big hands, and (as with most things designed for the average man) some of the ergonomics just didn't quite work for me with either manufacturer.

I guess the reason I've decided to go down the Nikon route has a lot to do with the fact that 3 of my 4 friends who are in to photography gave me the Nikon hard sell!

I found the Canon menu systems a bit more intuitive than Nikons, but the fact I can borrow a bunch of lenses of friends for a Nikon probably outweighs that.

Cheers,

Matt
 
Hi matt :) Welcome to the forums.

I am a Canon man so no idea about that lens, but the D90 is good little camera :) as indeed are most mid-range DSLRs these days. If you have friends with Nikon cameras then that sounds like a good reason to go that route, it is very handy being able to find out little tips from mates (and also the borrowing lenses bit).

You might find a 'grip' more use when you can afford one, pretty sure the D90 has one, in general they just hold another batter, but offer you a second shutter release for portrait shots and make the camera a fair size bigger and chunkier, and in my opinion nicer to hold and use.
 
martint said:
Looking forward to seeing some of the fruits...............
Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome Martin! :D

I'm looking forward to seeing the fruits too! I'd like to think I have the required "eye" for photography, you know - something that can't be taught or read in a book. So hopefully that, coupled with some decent kit and feedback from the seasoned pro's on here will produce some nice results. We'll soon find out anyway! :)

I think i'll document my journey in to photography in blog. /me installs wordpress.
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
You might find a 'grip' more use when you can afford one, pretty sure the D90 has one, in general they just hold another batter, but offer you a second shutter release for portrait shots and make the camera a fair size bigger and chunkier, and in my opinion nicer to hold and use.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome Jimmy!

Cheers for the tip. A bit of googling on the D90 grip has lead me to this deal Digitalrev, which has the grip and the lens I'm after as a kit.

Seems like a pretty neat pacakge deal. Any experiances ordering from digital rev? From what i can see Digitalrev, Warehouse Express, and Jessops seem to be the most popular online shops?
 
Hi :wave: and :welcome: to TP.
 
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