Thinking for a long time about getting involved with photography as a hobby.
It seems to me that it is another pastime that is dependent on wallet contents (bit like mantaining the demand for ever better bike components)

What I would like to ask is,

Is it worth buying a DSLR camera first (circa £600)and just diving in, or joining a photograhic club and finding out what camera of this price range could do?

Dive in.

Plenty of books, mags and websites with advice.

Dive in

more fun that way

Dive in but I wouldn't suggest you need to spend £600 to start with. You can get perfectly reasonable cameras for half that, add a couple of accessories (filters, tripod, flash etc) and away you go.

Of course, if you want to spend £600 then go for it, it'll be a nice treat!

If you want to do it as a hobby, get something that is good enough to upgrade. If you go and spend £400 on some bridge camera, you are stuck with one lens forever, unless you take the plunge and buy a system camera later, costing you yet more wonga.

Look at micro four thirds cameras, small, hiqh quality and upgradable. Do you really want to be carting 2kg of kit about with you when you are riding?

One, seemingly silly thing – get down the shops and get your hands on the various models you may be considering.. for example, Canon bodies are smaller than Nikon – handling is an important thing in a tool you could end up using a lot…
Have fun!

Don't get hung up on gear. You can make great images with an old film camera for under £10 from eBay. And in some avenues of photography a DSLR is far from the best tool anyway. If you want to dive in without a total wallet collapse, there are some good quality older SLRs such as the Pentax *ist DL2, K100D Super or K10D (£100-250) which will allow you good manual or auto control and allow you to use cheap secondhand lenses from the past 40 or so years (I've had a 50mm f1.4, a 200mm f/3.5 and a 135mm f/2.8 for under £20 between the lot them and they're all plenty sharp enough for decent-size enlargements).

If you want to make money shooting sports, fashion or wildlife then you'll need to spend piles of cash, yes, but otherwise you'd be surprised what you can get away with. For a long time all we had was aperture and shutter speed control – and not always both.

"joining a photograhic club and finding out what camera of this price range could do?"

99% of what a more expensive one could do.

Olympus or Sony, circa £350. You don't need £600.

What do you want to achieve? Is it likely to be an enduring need in you? Decide that first and then ask yourself what equipment you need.

Will you end up spending the best days of your life looking through a lens instead of enjoying the moment?

Some good points here, maybe I should stop going into Jessops and thinking a half decent camera is around 600 notes.
I may be better going 2nd hand and taking it from there..
Thanks to all.

Film kit is wonderfully cheap, unfortunately processing isn't, and if you're learning then you'll produce a load of misses as you find your way. It gets expensive!
However, earlier semi pro DSLRs are built like tanks and will allow you to find out what level and types of lenses that you like to play with.
A Canon D60/10D/20D with a nice basic zoom could set you back maybe £200-250 and will easily produce a fine, well detailed A3 print from a good shot, plenty good enough for learning and having fun with, and cheap enough to let you feel comfortable taking it out in a pack.
If you want to take all the fun out of photography then a club is often the best place to go.
Oh and if you like a photo then it's a good one, don't shoot to please other folks, you'll please no one! 🙂

Taken on my 2mp phone camera…

I'm sure that £300 would get you started – just make sure that you get a DSLR and can buy more lenses if you want to.

neverfastenuff – Member

Some good points here, maybe I should stop going into Jessops and thinking a half decent camera is around 600 notes.
I may be better going 2nd hand and taking it from there..
Thanks to all.

If I manage to sell my bike and buy a new camera I'll have an excellent beginner SLR (canon 300D) going cheap…

I had some tuition a while back from a pro photographer and he told me a the time that all camera bodies are rubbish, and not to waste a lot of cash on them. He advised to spend money on a couple of good quality lenses. The only difference with an expensive body is that its usually made of more durable materials, and the body is sealed against water better. But again, get a cheap D-SLR and an 18-55 lens and a relatively fast prime lens about 55 or 60mm lens / f1.8 and then get out and do some clicking 🙂

The best way to get some good experience of different techniques is to think of 10 subjects, so portrait, industrial, landscape, biking, etc, then put those 10 ideas on little bits of paper and mix them up in a bowl. Then do the same with techniques, so black and white, close up, wide angle, night time, etc. so choose something from bowl 1 and then the technique from bowl 2, and this gives you random ways of photographing things you would never have thought of. Give it a try 🙂

If you're buying an SLR camera body 2nd hand, make sure you find out the number of shutter actuations; it's like the mileage on a car. Lower end SLR shutters have a life span of 50,000; semi-pro/pro SLR shutters are around 150,000. There are examples of shutters lasting longer, but the price should reflect how high the count is.

oh you don't NEED DSLR, panasonic & olympus make some cracking micro four thirds kit

Don't force yourself to take up photography as a hobby. Just get a basic camera (you've probably already got one), take photos of random things- you'd be surprised what you can do with even a fairly basic compact camera. Make a note of all the things you wish your camera could do. Then when it's long enough and you know you really really want an DSLR go and get one :).

scottyjohn – Member
I had some tuition a while back from a pro photographer and he told me a the time that all camera bodies are rubbish, and not to waste a lot of cash on them. He advised to spend money on a couple of good quality lenses.

Depends what you're shooting to an extent, but to claim, "all camera bodies are rubbish" is just pure cr@p to be frank. I used to shoot weddings on Nikon D70s cameras and they were OK for the time – revolutionary even, in their way. Then I bought a couple of D200s and was blown away by the performance. I now shot on D300s and the low light, high ISO performance beats the hell out of my D200s – they're just much better in almost every way.

Agree that spending money on good lenses is important though.

Yeah I'd have to agree. It may have been more or less true in the film era, but digital image technology is still in its infancy and evolving pretty rapidly.

Even ignoring differences like number of focus points and better metering (which a pro may regard as "cheating") a fancier, more expensive body may still mean a higher max ISO, better noise performance, a "full frame" sensor, a larger and clearer viewfinder, a bigger dynamic range, a greater bit-depth.

Of course none of this will make you take great pictures. Someone armed with a keen creative vision and a box brownie can still easily outclass the best tech.

But neither is it right to say they are negligible differences.

Maybe check out the pentax K-x, really good deal on these now especially the twin lens kit, great little camera too

As mentioned above by Bez you could also use a whole range of older s/hand lenses and see how it goes

Have you used a camera in anger before? Do you have any knowledge of any operating systems?

I always choose Canon simply because I have used them since my college days and know the functions well.

Of course none of this will make you take great pictures. Someone armed with a keen creative vision and a box brownie can still easily outclass the best tech.

Wholeheartedly agree.

Of course none of this will make you take great pictures.

I don't think anyone actually believes that do they?

Re brands – a lot of people think Nikon or Canon are 'the' cameras to get, so they are in demand and hence not on sale as often. Other brands are just as good and are on special far more often.

I was told to shop based on the deals that are available and the features you want, rather than obsessing about a slight degradation in quality under certain extreme circumstances. For example, I got my Oly because it was on massive special offer (as was the zoom lens I also got), it was small, light, and it had a flip out and swivel screen, which I wanted.

After years out of the camera game, I 'dived-in' and bought a Nikon D5000 kit for £449.
Cracking camera. It's really easy to use, has so many features & is helping me to get some great shots.

My partner spent bout that much on a table so my reckoning was I could get myself a camera. Went with a Canon 500D as I thought they had more interchangeable lenses than the Nikon, but Nikon still great camera. For me it would be between Nikon or Canon.

Dont get hung up on gear or features a camera may have, cameras only have two features, an aperture and a shutter, 99% of photography is what you put in the box and when you push the button, remember that and you wont go far wrong.

Get something with good resolution and a decent lens or two, Id start with a 28-70 zoom (equivalent) or a couple of primes.

Why aren't you doing it now op?

You don't need pricey kit. That's like saying you can't moutianbike seriously without a £2K bike

Why not start right now and join One Photo Every Day?

You'll develop an eye for angles and will receive daily feedback on your pics!

And as others have said you can practice angles and compositions with just the minimal kit to see if you like it as a hobby.

Here are the best of July 2010:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/onephotoeveryday/discuss/72157624499183015/

If you want a great cheap camera, i got a Samsung camera (WD500) for £120 from argos about 2months ago. Its been a great camera (this is coming from someone who also has a fancy all singing and dancing camera)

Plenty of examples of it from my recent trip to wales here- http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa187/msjharper1/Wales%20%20June%202010/

cameras only have two features, an aperture and a shutter

"And ISO"

"Okay, cameras only have three[/I] features.."

"And a dynamic range"

"Okay cameras on…"

"And a response curve"

etc etc

🙂

Blah blah blah

I'll go against the general consensus and say get a 2nd hand G Series Canon. Works as a point and shoot but also has manual features to experiment with.

If after a year or so you want to go further with photography you can spend x amount on a decent DSLR, if you've lost interest you've got a great camera to use on holidays etc.

I picked up a G7 for £130 last year. Been great for various holidays since.

cynic-al – Member
Why aren't you doing it now op?

You don't need pricey kit. That's like saying you can't moutianbike seriously without a £2K bike

Not necessarily stating that I need the best camera out there – just a good starting point – its a bit like going to the LBS and buying a mid range bike to start off MTB with…