Postby RBphoto » September 23rd, 2009, 11:07 am
16 cycles, I might get flamed for this, but unless you are getting paid for your work, photoshop is too expensive and unnessescary. Use gimp and you have 50% the capabilities of photoshop...the most important ones....for free.
As for the camera, brand does not matter. What you need to decide on are:
1) Lens selection/ avalibility - The main reason most guys go with canon. ( I bought Nikon though) Though the kit lens will get you started, the zoom is not very far, and the low light capabilities are'nt that hot also. If you want to suffer and learn with the kit lens like me, go for it. Othewise, make sure you get the lenses you will want upfront, like a 35mm prime for low light, and a zoom up to 200-300mm with your initial purchase.
2) How much creative control your camera gives you: Things like DOF preview, mirror lock up, external buttons for various settings meant nothing to me until I delved further into the camera, understand the mechanics of operation and how it relates to what type of phto is taken. Unfortunately, you only find this out after some experience, hence buying bottom of the barrel SLR is not a bad idea. I was pleasantly surprised that my Nikon D40 has a 1/500 flash sync while most canons in that price bracket only had 1/250.
3) Full frame or smaller sensor. This is related to the lens selection. Full frame sensor bodies let you use some of the best lenses out there, but will not work very well with lenses made for reduced frame bodies. they are also magnitudes of times more expensive than the reduced size sensors bodies. Most likely, you won't go full frame with your first camera, and go for canon APS size or Nikon DX size. I wish I had the money to go full frame, as I wold only need to buy the big boy lenses and not worry about what I will do with my DX lenses when I upgrade to full frame, but buying el cheapo has given me the opportunity to experiment and let me know what is important and what I would actually want to use in my next camera.
Hope this helps.
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