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Help! Beginer SLR Camera for 12yo?

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Hi, Folks

Nice to know we have some kids fond of photography, especially if they use equipment they have to tweak and have to use with theîr skills and brains, Remember, long time ago, we had to do the same, albeit paying dearly for our errors for underexposed or overexposed slides and pics.

I for one would like to help you out and encourage her with some unused equipment (A100 with 18-70 and a nearly mint beecan) at a very good price, preferring to sell at at a lower price for a goog cause.

Please mail me if U are interested-

Please look at these:





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Let there be light: and there was light.
 
DLHoffman said:
Barry, when have you met a 13 year old who doesn't think he knows everything? I remember feeling that way, though I did have respect for others.

Though if we forget his age and the fact that he should learn some tact, his point may have been correct. I'm sure a lot of good points are lost because of lack of tact and respect for one another; especially in forums like these where we really don't know much about each other.

I feel you were untactful about the spelling though. There are a lot of people on this forum who are not good English speakers. In most cases they are understood and not criticized.
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Barry's uggly face is showing up one more time. Not only he goes after Sony but now he goes also after 13 years old. That's kind of insane.
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In reviews we do not trust !
 
Barry Fitzgerald said:
DLHoffman said:
Poor spelling or not. I agree with him. You were both condescending to a 13 year old, who felt he was helping out and has every right to, especially since he is in the same age group as the young lady in question, and to a gentleman who made a statement that was correct, even though there were spelling errors. Instead of having the decency to either not reply at all, or answer his post with a proper reply, you made a snide remark regarding poor spelling.
Shame on you!
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Considering the smart a@@ reply I got from this 13 year old a few weeks back, he fully deserving of the stick he gets..

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=33349245

You reap what you sow..

The only lessons around here this kid needs, are some manners
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Barry if you were to get the stick, with the quality of your posts you'd be getting 24 hours a day on a one year period.
--
In reviews we do not trust !
 
--
Cheers,
gil - San Jose, CA
Cheap Lens, JPG and 100% Handholding Provocateur
Like happiness, photography is often better created than pursued.
 
Give her an SLR so when she takes her first photography class in school she won't hit you up for another camera later! They always need a camera with manual focusing, cable release, and hotshoe and filter ring on the lens in those classes trust me I've sold hundreds to kids starting their first photography classes and the instructors never let them use point-in-shoots!
 
dbose said:
My co-worker has a very artistic daughter who has admired my photos hanging in the office and has expressed interest in upgrading to a DSLR. Naturally I wanted to recommend a SONY but the cheapest used Sony is the a100 or Minolta 5d. In your oppinion are these too advanced for a 12yo. or should I reccomend the a230 or somthing else, even a p&s with more DSLR like features?
Thanks
Dave
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Hi Dave

I sent you an email.

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Thanks, Ed
Torrance, CA
 
For a beginner Sony camera I'd probably recommend the A200 unless she actually likes the grip of the A230... You stated in an earlier post that under $400 was your target which is somewhat tough to meet for Sony... I wouldn't recommend the A100 or the earlier Minolta DSLR's simply because they don't take current batteries and IMO that is important while the A200's battery is the ubiquitous if expensive infolithium...

If you are willing to take some chance there are several A200's up for sale on fleabay... and several that come close to your price on Amazon.com and such...

There are also the hidden costs of course... CF cards will need to be bought if you don't have them as well as possibly a flash which can run $100+ for a genuine Sony. She also might grow out of the kit lens although thankfully Sony has fleshed out its lower end offerings with some nice primes so you're not stuck with spending $500+ for the CZ 16-80...
 
A100 is the right camera its manual enought to teach her and it take excellent photos
 
lloyd007 said:
I wouldn't recommend the A100 or the earlier Minolta DSLR's simply because they don't take current batteries and IMO that is important while the A200's battery is the ubiquitous if expensive infolithium...
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I suppose that if you lost the battery, or somehow damaged it, that might be an issue, but my A-100 battery is the original, three years old, has nearly 50,000 shots on it and still holds a charge not unlike the day I purchased the camera. I wish all batteries worked as well as this one ;-)

Furthermore, the original Sony battery is available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-NP-FM55H-Lithium-Ion-Rechargeable-Battery/dp/B000DZKR00

Where are you getting your information?

--
AEH
http://aehass.zenfolio.com/
Question: What do you do all week?
Answer: Mon to Fri. Nothing, Sat & Sun I rest!
 
:)
--
Glenn

I'm kinda partial to video, but I'm hangin!
 
vwgn said:
This is just my opinion, but get a used a100 or a200 and put a 50mm 1.7 on it. Dont give her a zoom. this will help teach her composition and "eye" for a shot, because she has to think about it. One of the best things that ever happened for my technical skills was a semester I spent shooting nothing but 4x5 film with a horribly heavy view camera and single lens. I had to think about each shot carefully as they were a pain to set up, and I only had 10 holders, so I could take 20 shots a day/outing...

If it were my kid, they would get an old film slr with no auto controls to learn with, and develop thier own film, but thats not practical for most people today. I would still be tempted to put black tape over the LCD and only let him/her use the setting readout in the viewfinder until they learned the basics. Nothing will teach you faster than getting home to review images and realizing you botched it up. Believe it or not I do miss film....
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Oh yes, that would go over well. "Oh look, what I got you, an old clunky film camera and no zoom.". sad face "But now you'll really learn... (and take less pictures and wait longer for the ones that you do, and spend more money and...)" Oh and BTW, digital is faster to learn on.
 
I'd go for something with video and live view. And a zoom lens.

Not that I would care about these features, but any brand-relying teenager will. This way she can do all her classmates' p&s cameras are capable of. plus more.

If you fit her with an old school DSLR and a prime lens she might learn to be a good photographer, but she will be the laughing stock among her peers.

S.K.
 
Find out how much the parents are willing to invest. Because it is a child and she may decide she is not interested after all a cheap dslr from craigslist. There have been some great kits out there for very low price.

D70/40
Rebel XT/Xti

Sony has too few used cameras at least in my area that are expensive. I would recommend a Nikon or a Canon because inexpensive lenses and cameras are plentiful.
dbose said:
My co-worker has a very artistic daughter who has admired my photos hanging in the office and has expressed interest in upgrading to a DSLR. Naturally I wanted to recommend a SONY but the cheapest used Sony is the a100 or Minolta 5d. In your oppinion are these too advanced for a 12yo. or should I reccomend the a230 or somthing else, even a p&s with more DSLR like features?
Thanks
Dave
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Sir_Killalot said:
I'd go for something with video and live view. And a zoom lens.

Not that I would care about these features, but any brand-relying teenager will. This way she can do all her classmates' p&s cameras are capable of. plus more.

If you fit her with an old school DSLR and a prime lens she might learn to be a good photographer, but she will be the laughing stock among her peers.
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Depends on who her peers are. She'll certainly be producing much better photography than her peers' cell phones. She's more likely to be envyed.

And she may absolutely hate that you gave her something that does not do well at shooting the photos she admired that got her interested in a DSLR in the first place.

Ask her what's important to her. What sort of photography she wants to do and what techniques she's interested in learning.

Walt
 
She has a P&S for "peer events" what she wants is a camera that she can take complete control of. She is kind of the "quirky artistic type" anyways
dave
 
CleverPhoto said:
Barry Fitzgerald said:
domk275 said:
I got an A200 for my 13th birthday at the end of last year..snip
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Ah well how good it is that you told me just a few weeks ago how I was so wrong.
A 13 year old, I suspected as much ;-)
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Ok, I must confess. I got it wrong. I thought domk275 was 6-year old (he had trouble comprehending heavier objects do more damage when dropped).
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Yep, that's right. I was confusing velocity, which is simply speed, and which is the same, AFAIK, for any object of any mass, bar stuff like feathers with more air-resistance, with momentum, which takes mass into account, too.

Anyway, I can't think of anyone less qualified to insult my intelligence than yourself, since you've made some far more ridiculous statements than me.

--

I'd love to engage in a battle of the wits with you, but it appears you're unarmed.
 
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