It’s interesting to see how many people substantiate their knowledge/advice with photographs. This thread should be awash with examples of photographic expertise…

Having a good camera doesn’t enable you to take good photos. But a good photographer can take good photos with an average camera. Trite maybe but true.

All of the cameras suggested will take a good photo and be virtually indistinguishable when viewed as JPG on the forum.

So I personally don’t think that this thread needs photos as they would be meaningless in informing a decision. They would tell you who was a good photographer, but then there is a whole other thread for that……..

So I personally don’t think that this thread needs photos as they would be meaningless in informing a decision. They would tell you who was a good photographer, but then there is a whole other thread for that……..

Quite.

But still, if you wanted examples they are readily available on here. You just need to look at the ‘Photographs You’ve Taken in the last month’ thread.

But since you ask:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/puVbCQ]Smoke[/url] by geeturner1972, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qJZr1e]Ethan in Lights[/url] by geeturner1972, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pCJkpR]Walking the Dog[/url] by geeturner1972, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qQ24pW]Through a Glass Darkly 2[/url] by geeturner1972, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qaupLx]Reflex\[/url] by geeturner1972, on Flickr

Does she have an interest in photography? I’ve not read all the thread, but it’s not clear from your initial post. There’s a lot of different cameras recommended, you can probably see straight away that there’s no definite answer. The natural instinct is to go towards a dSLR, because that’s what the pros use, but unless she has an interest in learning how to use it, it’ll probably not benefit her much. And in modern photography that extends to sitting at a computer and messing about in Photoshop… There’ll be some purists disagree with that, but for me at least, digital photography came much more to life when I learned the digital ways surrounding it… Is that something you see her doing?

If she just likes taking a few snaps, doesn’t want to think about it…there are some very capable cameras that will slip into her pocket, and that she might be more likely to carry around. It’s not all that black and white, but I’d suggest the first thing to think about is what she’d enjoy using most. Get an idea of the occasions in which she’d use it, etc… It’s like bikes. Road bikes. Mountain Bikes. Single Speed. Electric… Different tools for different jobs.

posting web sized snaps isn’t going to help make a purchase decision, DPreview.com is a good place to look at an overview of a camera, narrow it down to a handful of possibles and go and have a play in a camera shop,

Did some one say photos

[url=https://flic.kr/p/7EYzSB]beach-1[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/aK6qua]Family on the beach[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/4avWzd]Into The Sea[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

Budget so far £350 for a refurbished D70s and 18-70 lens. Both could be bought for beans on ebay today

Add in a RAW converter some sort of editing software may be £50 for lightroom with my teacher discount

[url=https://flic.kr/p/5VgSju]Ampthill at night web[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

Add in say £120 for a tripod and head

[url=https://flic.kr/p/dXs41B]Devon (2 of 2)[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

and £20 for a neutral density filter

But I did go mad a spend £270 on a mint D90 last year. But these are all D70s and I’m sure would print A3 just fine

Nice stream Ampthill. I really like ‘Into the Sea’ in particular.

Yeah, nice pics but could have been taken on any dslr or csc!

Molgrips of course and I’m in no way anti mirrorless

I’m just making a case for on a budget which again mirrorless can do. But to do what I want its cheaper with a DSLR at the moment

posting web sized snaps isn’t going to help make a purchase decision

Using computers, it’s quite easy to crop/zoom into a digital image to highlight an area of interest, like pixelation, noise or distortion. I wasn’t talking about ‘snaps’, though it’s interesting that that is what everyone who commented thought I meant.

posting web sized snaps isn’t going to help make a purchase decision, DPreview.com is a good place to look at an overview of a camera, narrow it down to a handful of possibles and go and have a play in a camera shop,

There are no mirrorless cameras (save the tiny Pentax) or DSLRs that don’t have image quality that is so good that its now pretty much irrelevant in camera choice. Unless you are doing something very specialist or hav clients making huge prints. In either case this thread isn’t for you

There are no mirrorless cameras (save the tiny Pentax) or DSLRs that don’t have image quality that is so good that its now pretty much irrelevant in camera choice

So would a Nikon 5200 be more or less the same as a Nikon D800?

A Nikon 5200 lags a D800 of course.

D800

“Excellent 40 x 60-inch prints from ISO 100 to 400; ISO 3,200 shots look good at 24 x 36; and ISO 25,600 images make a great 8 x 10!”

D5300

“Very good 30 x 40 inch prints at ISO 100; a nice 13 x 19 at ISO 1600; a good 5 x 7 at ISO 12,800.”

In a world of web posting, A4 and A3 I’d argue its like comparing a 150 mph car and a 200mph car for motor way cruising, its irrelevant. The big difference is sensor size for depth of field but you don’t need a review to tell you that.

If the difference matters to you, you aren’t on here asking about your first camera

That size stuff is nonsense anyway. When you print big you look at the print from further back. I’m going to print some big 5m prints for my workshop from old 10MP files and I know they’ll look fine from where you’ll see them from.

When you print big you look at the print from further back

That’s true but when I print big from my D800 I enjoy getting real close and going “mmmm .. look at all that detail” 🙂

I have stuff on my wall from an old 5mp bridge cam and an even older 2mp one. They look fine.

That size stuff is nonsense anyway. When you print big you look at the print from further back. I’m going to print some big 5m prints for my workshop from old 10MP files and I know they’ll look fine from where you’ll see them from.

That makes my point even better really. Modern cameras are good enough

I can’t help but think that the argument ‘all cameras are good enough therefore choice is irrelevant’ could be applied to every single product category on the market today; cars, bikes, tvs, cookers….you name it they are all ‘good enough’.

Of course no one actually believes that. Choice is a good thing and the differences between products might be small but they are still important to people.

To the OP,it’s probably worth going to a shop & trying a few to see which your wife is most comfortable with.you don’t have to break the bank to get a good DSLR kit,& has been mentioned numerous times,if she wants to spend lots tell her to invest in lens’s.
I’ve had a Nikon D40 for years & love it for it’s lightweight.It gets a hard life & gets used when I’m out on the mountainbike & when I’m out on the motorcycle plus lots of other stuff.It gets used in all kinds of weather.
With the Nikon I can fit a heavy lens to it & take photo’s at BSB bike racing meetings or leave the little standard lens on it,put it in my pack & take photo’s out in the Alps

Have you checked out the Panasonic LX100? Also +1 the Fuji X100T

Going through this scenario with the other half atm, she’s determine to get a 700D and not even bothering to look at anything else. Stubborn as a mule, on the plus side, her dad has already spent thousands on lenses so she wont have to and can just poach his.

Well it’s a great camera; if it is the ‘right’ type of camera for her then there’s not a lot to say against it.

To summarise this thread, ‘type’ is more important than anything else really.

Most of the pictures I aim to get I could not get with full frame Nikon or Canon. They are just too big and too intrusive. As the OP said, yoy may as well hang a sign around your neck saying ‘Photographer Here’.

My RX1r is teeny tiny. People rarely if ever notice it and it’s extremely quiet. The only person who ever hears the leaf shuter click is me. As a street and candid tool it’s not perfect (it’s difficult to zone focus with and the fly by wire focus resets to infinity each time you turn it off), but it’s good enough for me and it’s a third the price of the equivalent Leica with 35mm Cron.

or leave the little standard lens on it,put it in my pack & take photo’s out in the Alps

TBH, that photo looks like it could have been taken on a phone – then processed badly 😉

No offence intended – it’s a nice enough shot!

FWIW, I took this on an old 5mp Olympus compact

[url=https://flic.kr/p/rfire6]treebw[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

It’s far from perfect, but just adds to ‘the best camera is the one you have with you’ cliche

Choice is a good thing and the differences between products might be small but they are still important to people

The thread isn’t disagreeing with that. The point is that technical specs aren’t particularly important – it’s usability, portability, preference and so on.

It’s like cars – most people don’t choose purely on 0-60 time or mpg – they take lots of other factors into consideration because they will all get you from A-B. Likewise any decent camera will take decent pictures, you should choose on personal criteria.

PS handled an Olympus OM-D EM-10 in the airport the other day. What a lovely thing.

TBH, that photo looks like it could have been taken on a phone – then processed badly

No offence intended – it’s a nice enough shot!

None taken!
It was just a random photo from a holiday.I posted it to show how versatile a basic DSLR is,no need to spend a fortune on a high end body.
Expensive lens on the front one week,basic kit lens the next

SRS in Watford are selling
refurbished Nikon D3200 with kit lens for £259
My daughter just got one. Cracking camera for the price.