I am looking to buy a new camera, at this moment i really don’t know anything about photography. I am wanting to get a decent book and maybe join a class to learn basic techniques of taking a decent picture – so would you guru’s recommend a decent bridge camera or spend some more cash and buy a DSLR?
My thinking at the moment is that a bridge camera will be easier to use in my current hopeless guise and they give some manual techniques i can use once i learn a little, or just buy a DSLR and learn like a man!? Im a little confused about what to buy – help! 😀

Budget?

Nothing really set in stone budget wise – seen a few decent bridge camera’s for around the £400 mark??

A decent semi-compact will have various (bu prob not all) manual options (as will a bridge) which will enable you to learn, they just won’t be as easily accessable. Will be a lot cheaper too. Still miss my old Powershot.

Maybe a SH Canon G series? Read some reviews.

A DSLR woud be overkill IMO, you may be overwhelmed and not get the value. You’d also be ATGNI – a bit like a novice biker buying an all bells and whistles £4K trail-bike with full facer and body armour then walking half of Glentress 😉

Depending on what you want it for (e.g – will you be taking it cycling with you), I would go straight for a DSLR.

They are no more difficult to use, although to someone who has not fiddled about with a camera before they may appear more complicated. They can also be run in full auto mode and you will quickly get used to the various functions and what effect changing them has.
In many cases DSLRs are actually easier to use as many of the functions are available with just a button press, whereas a bridge camera may require delving into menus.

The other alternative would be one of the new breed of compact cameras with interchangeable lenses, like the Panasonic G1, Sony NEX-3/5, Olympus PEN which use a decent sized sensor, have interchangeable lenses but do away with the mirror system within DSLRs to make them much smaller.

It would be worth getting along to a camera shop that stocks a variety of camera types and having a play with them. You will soon gain a feel of what you like & don’t like and at the end of the day being comfortable with the camera is probably the most important aspect.

No way would I spend £400 on anything other than a DSLR (apart from maybe a cheaper DSLR and a compact).

As stumpy says get something with good image quality and control for that money. You could get away with spending a lot less IMO as a novice.

Thats what im a bit worried about Al.

I will have a look at various review sites to see which bridge camera is the one to buy. I have noticed you can get pretty cheap DSLR’s but not sure if they are worth it for your very reason mate..

Cheers guys 🙂

£400 was pulled out the air TBH as i was just looking at the jessops link from this page 😆 but something that will take a decent picture thats not too difficult to use would be ideal..

Useage – family, bike, landscapes…the usual stuff so not really much of a guide 😆

Bridge Camera
Pros – Pocketable
Cons image quality at higher ISO, and shutter lag if you’re shooting action.

DSLR
Pros – Once you learn how it works, the higher models will use similar menus/controls.
Cons – Bulk and weight.

With having a quick look around, i like the look of this one http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/77265/show.html as it seems to do everything i would want. Yet i get drawn towards the cheaper DSLR’s like this http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/77764/show.html?cm_vc=PPZ1

The HS10 gets a good review here too http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/equipment/reviews/compactcameras/128366/1/fuji-hs10-review.html

Help 😆

I’ve a fuji finepix s9500 (same as the s9000 in the UK) bridge camera.

The only downside over a DSLR I’ve found is the lense, its good, but not great. Both in terms of quality and speed. And its not changeable. But then again with a DSLR you’d spend more on a better lense than I did on the whole camera! Basicaly look at the f-number on the front of the lense, small numbers = better lense, ignore huge zoom numbers,

In terms of control it has a full auto mode, a shutter and appeture priority and fully manual mode which will do all the stuff you need it to. And the functions are easy to get at. Big dial on rop selects mode, 3 little buttons for the continuous shooting mode selection (first 4 @1.4fps, last 4 at 1.4fps, continuous @1.1 fps), flash controll, and toggle between shutter/appeture toggle for manual mode.

Go to http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sidebyside.asp and you can compare their features

If you shop around carefully there are some cracking deals to be had on Canon G12 at the moment – Amazon and CameraWarehouse have it listed at £370 but I’ve seen it below £350. Got a great write-up in Amateur Photography (link) and that was on the basis of a “typical” list price at the time of £500.

Stevie, i have just been through the same process. I wanted a camera to replace my Panasonic FZ18. Thought i wanted a DSLR and have spent a fair bit of time over the last two months looking at various cameras from about £400 – £800 as my missus was buying it for my Christmas present.
Full size DSLR’s were too bulky for me when hill walking / scrambling around Skye, Wales, Lake District etc. I then started looking at the samsung NX10, Olympus PEN, Panasonic G2/G10, Sony NEX. I messed about with these in the shop quite a few times and couldn’t decide which one to get, one of the sales guys then asked me to have a look at the Panasonic FZ100. For me it was ideal, OK it doesn’t have as good performance in low light conditions as the other camers, but for 95% of the time, the zoom and performance are more than good enough for me. I eventaully went for this and the convenience over having to have two or 3 lenses in a bag as well as my walking gear.
I bought it from ukcamerastore.co.uk

I went through similar thoughts a while back and ended up with a panasonic FZ38, it has quite a lot of manual control options and also works pretty well in IA mode. They can be had for less than £250 as well with careful google-fu. Just need to learn how it works now though…

I’ve just been looking on eBay and although non of the auctions are finished, there are plenty of Nikon D80s with the 18-135mm lens on for about £200-£300. If they are in good nick, it’s a great price. I paid almost £700 a few yrs ago & that was after it had been out for a while and had already come down in price.

I’d be looking for something like that, or else the Sony you link to would be a good buy. Just think about what you might want to get in the future for it. Canon & Nikon generally have the best support for aftermarket lenses, flashes etc. although Pentax & Sony are also fairly well supported. The Sony DSLRs use the old Minolta mount system so lenses are fairly available.

Stevie – am selling my Canon G9 if interested

If you are *really* serious about getting into photography, there is no question that a DSLR is the way to go. Bear in mind however that this is a long-term financial commitment (what with the accessories, filters, lenses etc. you have to buy), and that you are buying into a system so must choose right.

Don’t worry about learning manual exposure techniques – that’s the easy part. The hard part is the artistic side, i.e. actually being in the right place at the right time to get good pictures, rather than the technical side.

@stumpy01 above: I would strongly discourage getting a D80, as those cameras are long obsolete. Digital technology moves forwards at a relentless pace and you’d be much better off getting a current-model DSLR, even if it fits relatively more into the entry-level bracket.

Dont get any DSLR with a fixed lens.
Nikon do a very good DSLR starter for around £ 350.00p

Other than that take a look at the high end compact cameras
such as the Canon G11 or the up dated Canon G12

Take a look on e.bay site for digi-good they sell Cameras very
cheap including the Canon G11 and G12

In Currys today the Nikon D3100 is £469, and there’s a £40 cashback on top of that so that’s the only thing I’d look at in that price range.

IMHO you can learn a lot and get some really good results with a bridge camera. They are different to DSLR’s, and offer a different feature set and some significant advantages. You might prefer one? In my experience, there are a very significant number of DSLR users who buy them because they think it’s the thing to have and rarely take any pictures/ have no idea about the basics of photographic technique.

Look at the ‘best picture you took in the last month’ thread on this forum, and many of the best pictures don’t come from traditional DSLR’s, and there have been some great shots from cheapo compacts.

It’s a lot cooler having great shot’s from a compact/bridge camera than dross from a DSLR.

Most of the shots people take on this forum are probably taken on compacts as ‘most’ people don’t take out a DSLR riding, good compacts and bridge cameras perform well in decent light.

I bought a panasonic tz-7 which was one of the top compact cameras at the beginning of the year but I got fed up with the quality of the indoor shots. I have two kids 3 and 1 and most of the photos of them are are taken indoors. The final straw was a centre parcs where the chalets are pretty poorly light and I could not get a decent photo of my daughters 3rd birthday. I wish there was a modern equivalent of the Fuji 30d

I bought a D3100 yesterday and was blown away by the quality of the low light images without a flash. I figured that in the situations I will be using the tz-7 biking, walking with kids etc it will perform really well and I’ll use the mostly DSLR indoors so I’m not so concerned about bulk.

I’m a bit of an early adopter and I have been really tempted by the Panasonic GFs but as they are bit of a compromise on the image quality i decided to go for full size DSLR. If I didn’t already have the tz-7 i may have gone for one of the mirror less large sensor cameras.

A friend has fz38 and really raves about both in terms of image quality and the range of the lens.

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated 🙂

I have decided to buy a bridge camera, after sleeping on it and reading alot about them i think they will tick all our box’s…now to decide on which one 😆

Money is an issue. Even if you limit yourself to £400 on a DSLR you’ll want more lenses simply because they are there. So it won’t end up being £400 🙂

If I were buying now I’d DEFINITELY get an Olympus Pen or equivalent. The only down side to my DSLR is size, and mine is the smallest around, pretty much.

Big limitations on my bridge camera were significant chromatic aberration that I had to edit out on a few occasions, and the inability to fit a decent zoom lens. I lost count of the number of great wildlife encounters I could not capture on film because of the lack of zoom.

Having said that, I went through and chose my favourite pictures to print out for an auction lately, and all the ones I chose were taken on the compact.

Unless you are loaded or know you are going to be REALLY into it I reckon you could well be happier with a much cheaper. Alejandro has it-technically cheaper cameras can be good enough in many situations.

I upgraded mine a couple of years ago to A GX200 – I’m not takig better pictures and would prefer to have the £200 tbh

Been here only last week. I opted for the HS10. For it’s 30 x zoom, also it has a manual mode, which I think will help later on when it’s time to move up to a DSLR. It also take full hd video and 7 fps at full mp. Dixon are currently the cheapest on this camera http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/fujifilm-finepix-hs10-digital-camera-04802662-pdt.html
I am loving the ease of use so far.

You don’t have to be obsessive about photography to enjoy a DSLR. You just have to understand the subject a bit and like really getting to know a bit of equippment. Don’t get one just to poke around a bit and get bored. It does take effort but in a quiet kind of way that’ll rumble on for.. well.. most of your life I expect, as you keep learning. Kind of like gardening I suppose.

@stumpy01 above: I would strongly discourage getting a D80, as those cameras are long obsolete.

Yeah. OK. Obsolete….. 😀

Ahh ****…this has goot me thinking I could sell my GX200 and get something I’d use more (smaller, bigger zoom)

Holy cow! That HS10 can shoot video at 1000fps!

I so desperately want a high speed video camera…!

DSLR. Whack it on auto and you’ve got a posh point and shoot. as you get more brave, you’ve got more camera without having to buy new kit.

Beware, cameras are worse than bikes. you will NEED new lenses, bags, filters, tripods flashguns, laptops, software everything, and more!

Only disadvantage of DSLR besides cost is size, I reckon.

Someone on the classifieds was selling a panasonic GF1 body for about £230, then about £130 s/h for the 14-45 lens and you’re sorted!

Great camera IMO

DrP

Ooo!

You can get a new GF1 with 14-45 for £375 from Currys Link…

I’ve got an e-p1 for biking duties (which is very similar). They’re not a dslr replacement by any means but they are very capable and portable.

They’re not a dslr replacement by any means

No?

No?

They have weaknesses.

The auto focus isn’t as fast which makes moving targets more of a challenge (contrast detect vs phase detect).

The sensors are smaller which makes the depth of field deeper, which in many ways is an advantage but if you want to isolate a subject and put everything else out of focus you have less felxibility.

They use a new lens standard so old cheap auto-focus lenses simply aren’t available.

They lack an optical view-finder and are physically small making handling and framing more awkward (more of a sports photography type issue).

Having said all that, if you want to take pictures of landscapes they’re in most practical senses a match for a dslr. Fit in your pocket too…

The auto focus isn’t as fast which makes moving targets more of a challenge (contrast detect vs phase detect).

Fair point – although I had a look at a Sony NEX5 in a shop, and that seemed to AF really fast. I think they do use some kind of trickery different to the Oly/Panasonic ones tho.

Fair point – although I had a look at a Sony NEX5 in a shop, and that seemed to AF really fast. I think they do use some kind of trickery different to the Oly/Panasonic ones tho.

Yeah, the differences are shrinking for sure. I assume the dslr as we know it is in its final stage.