Getting Started

wrote in message
...
Me and my dad are really hoping to get into photography.
My dad use to
be an amateur photographer in his college days and enjoyed
using a
darkroom. I'm trying to get my dad to purchase a REAL
camera so we can
take REAL pictures. My dad is not enthused with the new
digital
technology and claims it takes the creativity and freedom
out of
photography. I was just curious how much money it would
cost to buy a
good 35mm camera and to start a makeshift darkroom and
even if we
should invest in a digital camera and if so what would be
a good
digital camera and how much does it cost...
Thanks!

Well, I don't know if I agree that digital removes
either the freedom or creativity from photography but its
different. I happen to like film.
Used film equipment is going very cheaply now. I bit of
searching around eBay will give you some idea of prices but
I suggest researching a bit so that you know something about
what you are buying. The same counts for darkroom equipment.
Very good enlargers are going cheap and that is the single
most expensive item with the exception of semi-automatic
processing machines like the Jobo and even those are much
cheaper than they used to be. You really do not need a lot
of equipment to get started. The cost of digital depends on
whether you include the computer. If your quality standard
is not extremely high you can get quite adequate digital
cameras for a couple of hundred bucks and very good printers
for about the same. Without the computer the cost may be
about the same for digital or film except the used stuff for
film will generally be higher end than the digital stuff
available at the same price.
Working in the darkroom requires learning a craft. I
think its worth learning and fun. This is not to say that
digital does not require skills, certainly people make good
money by knowing how to run high level image editing
programs like Photoshop but the nature of the skills and
craft for "chemical" photography is different. Some
knowledge is the same, for instance some idea of how to
compose and light. The image to be photographed is
independant of the means of photographing it.
In any case I encourage you to try old fashioned
chemical photography.


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Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA