Photography - Newbie SLR Recommendations needed

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Newbie SLR Recommendations needed - Please help!

I'm new to SLR cameras and photography but would like to get involved and
soon develop my own pictures and so fourth later on. I am also going to be
taking a class soon as well to help but right now I need some help picking
out the right SLR camera to buy.

I don't want to buy bottom of the line camera but also don't want to buy the
top of the line since they can be expensive. I'm looking at spending no more
than 500.00 on the body.

What I want to be able to do is take pictures at baseball games where I'll
need to be able to take multiple pictures quickly to get the right shot of a
ball being hit off a bat or in mid air being released from a pitcher. I will
also be taking everyday pictures of outdoors wildlife and indoor pics of
people.

Your help and recommendations are extremely appreciated.

Jim

Getting the ball right off the bat takes skill, and that takes a lot of
time to acquire. No camera will help you with that. In fact, a
motor-drive will make it harder, because you'll miss 99% of the time
when the ball is being struck. The best bet is to try to get the right
moment on a single shot.

I do not want to go digital. I have a digital camera and I prefer 35mm
cameras much more. There is more of an appeal to them than digital beside my
father brought me up with 35mm cameras so it's in my blood. Just need to
learn more about them. But isn't that always the case.. you take for
granted things you could have learned from your parents when they were
alive.

Again, suggestions for cameras would be highly appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

Jim

wrote in message
...
I'm new to SLR cameras and photography but would like to get involved and
soon develop my own pictures and so fourth later on. I am also going to be
taking a class soon as well to help but right now I need some help picking
out the right SLR camera to buy.

I don't want to buy bottom of the line camera but also don't want to buy
the top of the line since they can be expensive. I'm looking at spending
no more than 500.00 on the body.

What I want to be able to do is take pictures at baseball games where I'll
need to be able to take multiple pictures quickly to get the right shot of
a ball being hit off a bat or in mid air being released from a pitcher. I
will also be taking everyday pictures of outdoors wildlife and indoor pics
of people.

Your help and recommendations are extremely appreciated.

Jim

I like Canon, so I can suggest Canon models that fit your description.
The Elan 7eII is a current model, a midrange model, and should be within
your price range. It's also fairly small and light, and it is very quiet
in operation. However, you might also consider a used EOS 3, a
considerably more capable and sophisticated camera, although also
larger, heavier, and much louder. It's a very capable camera, if you
can't do it with an EOS 3, then you probably should be looking at
something other than 35mm :)

I'm a fan of Nikon manual focus cameras...at this time I'm using a Nikon FE,
FA and a F3.

Having said that, I'd be extremely hard pressed to argue with Lisa. I think
that Canon is a wonderful system and the Elan 7e is an extremely capable
camera that would readily fill the needs from beginner to very advanced
amature. I cannot imagine outgrowing it.

I concur w/ Lisa. I shoot baseball (major & minor leagues) w/ a Canon
system (A2e - EOS-3 in Europe) and its been wonderful for me.
Lightweight, rugged, quiet, fast and very versatile.

Unfortunately the A2es have been discontinued but the Elan 7eII's have
taken their place. I have yet to shoot w/ an Elan 7eII but i have heard
nothing but praise about them! I sold a couple of them in my days in
camera retail and my customers loved them!

Also, the lenses that work on the A2e's & Elan 7eII's WILL work on Canon
digital (D60's & D10's) if and when you're ready to go that route.

Now you mentioned that you're willing to spend upwards of $500 for the
body. My question to you is... How much are you willing to spend on your
lens(es)?

No matter what system you finally decide on it doesnt make sense to
spend $450 on a body only to put a $150 lens on it. Consider your optics
as much, if not MORE, than your camera body.

Good luck and let us know what worked out for you.

Happy New Year!

Terry

wrote in message
...
I do not want to go digital. I have a digital camera and I prefer 35mm
cameras much more. There is more of an appeal to them than digital beside
my father brought me up with 35mm cameras so it's in my blood. Just need to
learn more about them. But isn't that always the case.. you take for
granted things you could have learned from your parents when they were
alive.

Again, suggestions for cameras would be highly appreciated!
My personal advice would be to get a good 2nd hand body - that will be cheap
and you can have more money left over to spend on glass. I personally think
that all 35mm SLR cameras take the same quality photos - the difference is
in the lenses that you put on them. The only real difference the body makes
is to control how simple your life is. Eg a camera with auto focus and full
auto metering is much more convenient than a camera that requires you to
manually focus, and manually set your exposure to "match the needle" like
the older cameras. However, the photo that both take, assuming same lens,
correct focussing and correct metering, will be identical. If you start out
with a good, working, cheap 2nd hand body you can spend more money on glass
to improve your photos. I think there is a lot to be said for starting out
with a full manual camera to teach you skills, rather than relying purely on
a full auto camera. For sports shots like what you suggested, you'll want a
300mm (at least) fast lens (F4 will do, you'll be better with F2.8) - these
don't come cheap no matter what system you buy into.
With any question like this, you will always get the Canon camp and Nikon
camp saying why their's are better. My personal preference is the Pentax
system - 2nd hand bodies are cheap, 2nd hand glass is cheap and readily
available. Unlike Canon and Nikon, Pentax bodies are compatible with both
old and new lenses (with the exception of the MZ60/ZX60, but there are
workarounds). So far I've focussed on 2nd hand, but there are excellent new
bodies and new lenses available too. Pentax had a reputation in the 60's of
making the best glass around, and while they may no longer have the
reputation, it is still true that their glass is some of the best. And if
you should ever decide to go digital (or the way things are shaping up, find
you are _forced_ to go digital), the *istD and *istDS are both excellent
cameras that are fully compatible with existing film lenses.
BTW, to take photos of someone hitting a ball, you don't get it by pointing
the camera, holding the shutter down, and throwing away the rest of the
shots. This method is a sure recipe for using lots of film and not getting
the right photo. I can promise you that if you practice with a couple of
rolls of film, learn the delay of your camera, and anticipate the shots, you
will end up with many more usable shots from a roll of film than you would
get by running the camera on burst mode.
Finally, good luck with your plans of developing your own pictures. I now
develop all my own film - B&W, Colour Neg & Colour Slide. I find the home
developing one of the most rewarding parts of photography. When I open the
dev tank at the end of the process, pull out a roll of film and look at my
images for the first time, the feeling is nothing short of magical. This
for me, is why I won't switch to digital for the majority of my work. I
don't care about any of the technical reasons why digital is better, and I
don't really care about the expense of film compared to digital - digital
cannot give me the rush of excitement as I pull a roll of film out of the
spool, so I will not enjoy photography as much with digital.

Thanks everyone!

Jim

wrote in message
...
I'm new to SLR cameras and photography but would like to get involved and
soon develop my own pictures and so fourth later on. I am also going to
be taking a class soon as well to help but right now I need some help
picking out the right SLR camera to buy.

I don't want to buy bottom of the line camera but also don't want to buy
the top of the line since they can be expensive. I'm looking at spending
no more than 500.00 on the body.

What I want to be able to do is take pictures at baseball games where
I'll need to be able to take multiple pictures quickly to get the right
shot of a ball being hit off a bat or in mid air being released from a
pitcher. I will also be taking everyday pictures of outdoors wildlife and
indoor pics of people.

Your help and recommendations are extremely appreciated.

Jim

wrote:

I'm new to SLR cameras and photography but would like to get involved and
soon develop my own pictures and so fourth later on. I am also going to be
taking a class soon as well to help but right now I need some help picking
out the right SLR camera to buy.

I recommend to firt finish your class and afterwards think about the correct
camera to buy.

I don't want to buy bottom of the line camera but also don't want to buy the
top of the line since they can be expensive. I'm looking at spending no more
than 500.00 on the body.

You'll find several good SLR cameras within that range

What I want to be able to do is take pictures at baseball games where I'll
need to be able to take multiple pictures quickly to get the right shot of a
ball being hit off a bat or in mid air being released from a pitcher. I will
also be taking everyday pictures of outdoors wildlife and indoor pics of
people.

This sound like having a fast camera allowing fast shootings. So you need a
speedy model together with a lens usable for fast speeds.

Your help and recommendations are extremely appreciated.

To keep some "compaibility" for the digital future, as long as this future
can be proposed now, I remomend a Nikon or Canon model. Both offer a wide
range of models and also are prepared for the future with their lens mounts.
You should thing about good lens to keep fast shutter times in all light
situations (this will be the more expensive part of your shopping)

Wolfgang