After a couple of threads on here thinking of giving photography a go. Kids/sports/scenary type stuff. What shoud I be looking for secondhand, budget £150-200 all in.

For that money it will be an older second hand camera. Something like this….

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nikon-D200-10-2-MP-Digital-SLR-Camera-Nikon-18-55-f-3-5-5-6-kit-lens-/181291577075?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item2a35d1eef3

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-550d-DSLR-EFS-18-55mm-lens-Canon-battery-Grip-BG-E8-/201012050502?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item2ecd407a46

I’d up the budget to £250. You’ll get something much better, like a Nikon D5000 (link). Other manufacturers are available.

Get a SH Lumix GF1 for that money.

I’d agree with seavers. Not too familiar with Nikon, but as far as Canon go, something like 400d-550d and anything in between. Whatever suits your budget. You could go all the way back to a 350d, which you’ll pick up cheap as chips, but it will feel a bit dated compared to some of the more modern ones. I wouldn’t go further back than that,

Alternatively you could go for a xxd series, like the 30d or 40d. These were pro-sumer models in their day, came with magnesium bodies, built tougher, larger and weigh a ton in comparison to xxxd series, but in my opinion have friendlier controls to more experienced photographers (possibly not so much to a novice).

Lenses are the important bit. I like primes myself with a fixed focal length as opposed to zooms, but it’s like asking what’s better, hardtail, or full suss…or fatbike! The standard kit lenses aren’t the best though in my opinion, so it would be worth doing a bit shop around.

mpbphotographic.co.uk will give you an idea of prices, if nothing else.

Pentax K-x

with extensive research / googling, I’m sure you will agree this is a contender/consideration at this price point

I had a Nikon D40 for about 4 years. Fantastic as a first dslr and comfortably within your budget used.

I had a very close scrape with this recently, a very good photography shop who have a facility of selling old cameras for customers for a small commission. His advice was a K10D for £165. Annoyingly by the time we had gone for a cuppa and decided, he had sold it to a dealer in cameras.

I then went waaaaay off in another direction and bought a Fuji HS10 Bridge with a 30x optical zoom, AND a 10mm minimum focal distance!

My reasoning is the HS10 is like a whole bag of lenses and still a big step up from my previous Bridge, so i have plenty to be getting on with.

Thanks folks, been offered a Lumix G10 by a fellow stwer any good compared to the Nikon/Canon offerings above? Also any decent books on the subject reccomended?

G10 will work – however the autofocus is not as fast as the others although its impressive compared with a compact . And
if you want to use other lenses they are expensive.

Big difference with the G10 is that it does video – this is a great feature for kids/sports not sure if any DSLR in your price range will do video.

In practical terms the G10 is a great value option

If you are looking at semi pro cameras I.e Nikon D300 etc, then don’t be afraid of big numbers on the shutter count. I bought one with 25 k shutter count for a good price. You could tell it had been well looked after, and as the shutter has a life of 150k then in real terms it’s barely been,
Check out your local CEX shop. I recently got a Nikon 16-85 vr lens for £162 which was a very good price. They warranty for 12 months too which is a bonus. The thing had barely been used

Pentax K-x

*does funny pentax handshake*

Have you considered film? I reckon I take a greater number of good photos with film than with a DSLR, jst by virtue of sitting there eith the camera, flash tripod etc and having to compose, focus, set the appeture, shuter speed, flash power etc then press the shutter release. I can be that methodical with a modern Dslr but its too tempting just to point it at something and click, so I learn nothing.

Pentax me super off ebay with a 50mm f2.0 and 28mm f2.8 could be under £30. Added bonus you dont need to spend as much as a new Dslr on a printer before you can put your work on the wall.

If video is actually important, then you might want to actually consider the HS10 – it shoots 1900*1080 for 30 mins per video.

I think the HS10 is actually a bit better than the HS20, but I don’t know about the HS30/40/50.

We paid £160 for ours, with a fixed 24-720mm [eqv@35mm] lens.

It also shoots RAW for a slight boost in picture quality, and can record video from 30-1000FPS [though the faster the framerate the lower the pixel count in the videos].

It’s a bit slow, and needs a little understanding, but jeebus it’s versatile, and cheaper than a pile of good quality lenses for a DSLR.

Here’s a review or two.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/11/review_camera_fujifilm_finepix_hs10/

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/fujifilm_finepix_hs10_review/

The Lumix is pretty good, and most the micro 4/3 lenses are actually good performers. If the Lumix standard is a bit poor then pick up the Olympus equivalent for buttons!

But the real winner on these m4/3 cameras are the primes, particularly the pancake lenses – which are really very good. I got a 14mm f2.5 Lumix for next to nowt (new, split from a package), and it really is a top wee lens.

Prices further up the range are favourable compared to Nikon/Canon. The 45mm f1.8 Oly is a lovely portrait lens for example.

There is a decent upgrade path for the body now if you get into it too – the top end products from both Lumix and Olympus are really good. I was sold on them by the OMD E-M5 which has since been trumped by the E-M1, it is a superb companion system to my main bigass Nikon D800E setup which is actually getting a fair bit less use these days!

There are a couple of Sony A55’s on the Bay for around £250 – I’ve been using one for a couple of years now with some great results.

Slightly smaller than your average DSLR because it uses a translucent, rather than a flip up mirror. You will have a wealth of old Minolta glass to choose from too, as Sony adopted the Alpha mount. The f1.7 50mm is lovely and can be had for not much money at all. A benefit of the translucent mirror is fast AF – you do have to make do with an EVF though, but having never used an OVF, I’m fine with that. It has a really nice articulated screen too

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=201014596764

All the kit you need it seems.

Scandal42 – looks good, had made an offer!

scandal42 – you could have said it was you. £200 for the lot?

I was not trying to hide that 😆

I totally forgot that I am away for a week now so probably shouldn’t have listed the item.

Matt – happy to take it at £200 via paypal on here.

Let me know.

I would do it for £220 so that my fees and postage is covered etc.

I just wouldn’t be able to get it couriered this week.

Ok email me when you are ready – email in profile.

Do you have it set to private or something as I cannot click on your profile.

No should be there, but here it is:

michaelsmith dot 1
at btinternet
dot com