Helping a friend choose a camera

A friend of mine asked me recently what camera to buy on a very limited budget. He is thinking of getting into photography. At the moment he has a Minolta SLR and one lens. I found it surprisingly difficult to give him advice seeing as there are so many options available. He also wanted something versatile and something that would not be obsolete very quickly. A tall order these days.

Anyway here is the advice I gave him...

This is a tricky one and there isn't a straightforward answer. I can only give you hints as to different scenarios.

In sum:

You need an all round camera as you want to use it for various things from macro/closeups to portraits and environmental/street etc.

(There isn't a single camera that does all these things well.)

(No digital camera has longevity. They are pretty obsolete within 6 months although digital slrs are a bit better.)

You need something with automatic controls, but that as you get better you can bypass these and be more creative. You need a system that will expand as you do if necessary.

You need something relatively cheap.

You have basically 3 simple options (in order of complexity). The first 2 are digital the last analogue:

1. Buy a digital compact like a Canon or Fuji. Canon are pretty much one of the best value/quality companies in the digital world at the moment or at least no-one can really beat them. Make sure it has a 'macro' facility to do close ups. It would probably be better with a zoom lens - most of them are. Make sure it is optical zoom rather than digital zoom (digital zoom is simply a trick using software, not real and images are degraded). I think these almost always have a built in flash.

You need to decide how big the prints will be and whether you will do the prints yourself. If you want to go large (say bigger than A4) you need at least 6 megapixels (MP). A4 and less and 5-6MP is OK. Most digitals are 6MP + anyhow nowadays.

You can get 8MP compacts but they suffer from other problems such as digital noise and sometimes there is a big trade-off between megapixels and image quality for a given sized print. These 8mp compacts also suffer in low light situations. 6MP is probably a safer bet and it will be cheaper.

2. If you want to grow as a photographer then you probably need a system. This means getting a digital SLR (DSLR), but I don't think this is within your budget. You will almost certainly be looking at second hand.

If you did go this route then 6-10MP is easily possible and the quality is head and shoulders above a compact digital.

I have used both Canon and Nikon systems and both are good. You could start with say a Canon digital rebel and a good zoom (like the Tamron 28-75mm). But I think you would be looking at >£400 (out of your budget).

Maybe something like this:

Canon 350D

But the lenses that come with these kits are usually awful. It's better to get just a (used) body and buy a used Tamron 28-75mm on ebay. The lenses make all the difference. If you have a bad lens it doesn't matter how good the camera is, the shots will never be that great.

The advantage of getting a DSLR is that you are buying into a system of lenses, bodies and software etc. So when you upgrade your body, you keep your lenses, flash and so on and put them on the new upgraded body. So you stick with one manufacturer (Canon/Nikon/Pentax) and invest in good lenses. When the body is obsolete the lenses will still be OK if they were good in the first place. You can also do macro with a special close-up filter costing about £20 or eventually invest in a macro lens (I have a Tamron 90mm macro - excellent but costs around £300).

DSLRs also hold their value a bit better than compacts which sink like a stone.

With option 1 or 2 you also need to buy some memory cards and possibly a card reader.

3. Stick with analogue. You could use your current camera (but bear in mind Minolta have stopped making cameras so it is hard to upgrade) or buy a pretty good used Canon/Nikon/Pentax SLR and a couple of good lenses for much less than £200. You could get say a Nikon F80 and a 50mm Nikon autofocus lens for about £150 tops. I used to have this and it is top quality in terms of output. You could still get a digital SLR later that uses the same lenses.

But then you would probably need a film scanner. You can get an Epson 4490 I think for £130 new. You would still have to process film (DIY or send it to a lab). This scanner is probably OK for A4 size prints. You could upgrade the scanner later.

(At the moment I am shooting B&W film and scanning. I haven't touched my 2 digitals for ages. Quality is on a par or even better. People just think you are strange or Luddite in some way.)

I am assuming that you will get an A4 photo printer (can be picked up pretty cheap - £50-100?) but the ink and paper is expensive. Alternatively you can use those booths at Jessops.

Let me know if any of this makes sense and I will try to elaborate on one or more of the options.