Please Help! Photography Class

Cloudkicker

Hi all,
My sister is taking a photography class this year and needs to bring a 35mm SLR camera. I have no clue on any of the 35mm cameras. I was looking at the Canon EOS T2, and the Nikon N75. Also what kind of lens should she be starting off with? If anyone can help. Thank a bunch.

luckyrwe

The perfect thing to learn on is a Pentax K1000 with 50mm lens. All manual camera means you have to understand exposure along with cause and effect. Fixed lens means you have to think before you shoot.

Sure it won't be the sexiest camera in class, but you will learn on it, definitely.

By the way I started on a Nikon FM, same principle just a little more expensive back then.

photobug

The perfect thing to learn on is a Pentax K1000 with 50mm lens. All manual camera means you have to understand exposure along with cause and effect. Fixed lens means you have to think before you shoot.

Sure, it won't be the sexiest camera in class, but you will learn on it, definitely.

I started with a Pentax Spotmatic with a 50mm lens.(My grandparents offered to get me an expensive Omega watch for a high-school graduation present , but I asked instead for the $ to go toward a the used Spotmatic. It turned out to be a wonderful gift ... and <many!> years later, I still remember who got me that camera -- and I still have it, though haven't used it in a long time).

Learning on a manual camera is like learning to drive with a manual transmission (instead an automatic), or learning to fly in a taildragger (instead of a tricyle-gear airplane), or learning to scuba-dive in murky water instead of the Bahamas with 100-foot visibility, or learning multiplication tables and long division on paper before using a calculator.

You may come up to speed a little slower, but later you'll run rings around those who learned the "easy" way because an understanding of the underlying principles will really be ingrained -- not to mention, you'll appreciate the bells and whistles more, and know when and when not to use them. You'll probably end up with much more consistently-good results, too.


All that said, the immediacy of feedback when using a digital SLR is also very valuable and accelerates the learning curve. So if your sister is good at self-discipline, the modern alternative might be to use a dSLR, but always set to MANUAL MODE while she's learning.

= bug.

Red Bull

I agree with what Photobug said. I actually just got a photography class this year and guess what I will be using...a Pentax K1000. I have a Canon Rebel II, but I choose to use the manual camera. I like manual focusing on old cameras and by using an old manual camera, you think more when composing the photo. (Not to mention I have 28mm, 50mm, and 75-200mm lenses for the Pentax)

The K1000 is a great camera. The one I got was from eBay, in almost perfect condition.

Cloudkicker

Thanks guys, I'm kinda confused, what is a manual camera dont really get it? Are the Nikon N75 and Canon T2 manual cameras? My sister just told me she just needed a 35mm SLR camera. Im just kinda confused on what to get her.

luckyrwe

Manual can mean it does not need batteries. It has come to mean a camera that is only a tool and the operator needs to know how to use it, and an automatic camera makes all the exposure decisions for you.

gubbs

Cloudkicker wrote:

Thanks guys, I'm kinda confused, what is a manual camera dont really get it? Are the Nikon N75 and Canon T2 manual cameras? My sister just told me she just needed a 35mm SLR camera. Im just kinda confused on what to get her.

You need to be able to control the aperture and the shutter speed manually rather than letting the camera automatically deciding it for you. Nearly all SLR's have a manual setting.

Does it need to be a film camera??

robscomputer

I second the idea of a Pentax K1000, combined with the 49mm f/2.0 lens is all you need for great photography. The camera is so easy to use, and can be found for about $150.

Good luck!
Rob

dragon300zx

gubbs wrote:

You need to be able to control the aperture and the shutter speed manually rather than letting the camera automatically deciding it for you. Nearly all SLR's have a manual setting.

Does it need to be a film camera??

I'll answer this for him as a yes. Nearly all photography classes (specailly starters) require the student to shoot 35mm Black and White film, unless specifically billed as a digital class.

pathfinder

A used Olymus OM-1 would be a great choice too - manual focus, manual aperture and shutter speed - although it will shoot also in aperature preferred. Used lenses should be easy to find. The 50mmf1.4 is a classic.

Nikolai

I see..

dragon300zx wrote:

I'll answer this for him as a yes. Nearly all photography classes (specailly starters) require the student to shoot 35mm Black and White film, unless specifically billed as a digital class.

I totally confer with "need to learn the basics", but isn't teaching on b/w film nowadays is a bit like teaching computer science on abacus?

It simply looks like some teachers are getting too old to learn a new tricks..
We had a few like that in our university. They were teaching the same stuff for YEARS without changing a sentence..

Just my $.0000002

dragon300zx

Nikolai wrote:

I totally confer with "need to learn the basics", but isn't teaching on b/w film nowadays is a bit like teaching computer science on abacus?

It simply looks like some teachers are getting too old to learn a new tricks..
We had a few like that in our university. They were teaching the same stuff for YEARS without changing a sentence..

Just my $.0000002

Not at all actually.

Color slides, and digital, have a greater forgiveness factor. If the point of taking classes is to become the best you can be you don't want a forgiveness factor you want to know exactly what your doing so that you don't have to rely on the camera, or editing software, or a lab to fix your mistakes. If you can take great B&W's you can take amazing color photos. But not always the other way around. PLUS B&W still has a big demand (specialty but still its there). I'm still taking my b&w classes. Tonight I start one of the digital classes then on the 12th I started the advanced film class. That will be b&w and some IR film. School is about learning everything you can after all.

Jane B.

My first slr was the Vivitar 220/SL in black! I think it is much like the Pentax K1000 in that all the battery supplies power to is a match needle meter. And if I were to take a notion to pull it out and use it I wouldn't have to worry about getting a battery for it as I can use the same #675 battery that my hearing aid uses!!!!

It takes the same M42 screw mount lenses as the Pentax (I started with a 55mm lens). I have kept them and got a M42 to EOS adapter when I wanted the automation of a EOS 620 slr and 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens back in 1988. Now I have just gotten a used D60 (after using a Sony D-770 for digital since 2000) and that adapter still works fine when willing to use AV mode and manual setting of aperature (on the lens) and focus.

Which brings up another idea. If it MUST be a film camera how about getting one that can share lenses with whatever brand of DSLR you have?
Jane

luckyrwe

Get a Nikon FM with AF lenses, not AF G lenses, and you can carry them forward.

JimM

Nikon is good, because even the old manual lenses can be mounted on a new DSLR.

I learned on a all manual Canon FT, still have it and still love it (though I never shoot film anymore).

rahmonster

I have a canon eos 30 and i love it to pieces. I still use it more than my digital camera. It more than does everything I need it to do for my class, and has excellent auto functions as well. I picked mine up over a year ago for $600australian, which was great considering my local camera store were still asking 1300. I have seen them going dirt cheap on ebay usually with accessories included.

estrujen

I love manual, but I go to bed with digital
I learned (so many years ago) taking sort of good photos with a box camera, then I upgraded to a Voigtländer, and finally I had my share of Nikons, the unbelievably excellent FM, and then later FE and some of the Fs, too.

I agree with the opinion that learning computer science with an abacus is like learning photography with b&w:

If you don't know the basics, you'll never dominate the art. If I don't know how to count to ten, how will I be able to understand a Sinus function? You get me?

If I click here and there, have my photo done with all automatics on, then why should I care to take a photo class?

After long years with analog, I now shoot a lot with digital, but keep my analog cameras, nostalgic reasons? Maybe.