As for the severely "budget restrained", there's always the used camera market.
Yes! Finally! Somebody else sees it!
We live in an information era so any savvy beginner is probably going to go used. There's no way camera manufacturers can compete with the
millions of used camera bodies available for basic photography. The only real reason to go super new is for video.
"Savvy beginner"
Those are two words you don't often see used together.
Why not? There's nothing that binds the "savvy" and the "beginner" to the same subject. One can be "savvy" at researching things on the internet, having great eBay-fu, etc, but still be a "beginner" at photography.
When the expression savvy is used it refers to something in particular .
No, when either the noun or adjective "savvy" is used, it most certainly does not refer to something in particular. It is, by definition, "general".
From the OED. (yes, whatever dictionary you have... mine's bigger).
savvy, n. and a. slang.
(ˈsævɪ)
Also 8 scavey, 9 savey (Sc. savie), savvey.
A n. Practical sense, intelligence; ‘nous’, gumption.
B adj. Of persons, etc.: having practical sense, quick-witted; knowledgeable, wily, experienced.
25 cites all the way back to 1785 and not one supports your rather creative interpretation.
So if we are talking about money then one would be savvy with money but yes it can be a complete idiot regarding something else.
A "complete idiot" would, by definition not be "savvy" (quick witted, wily, etc).
Also, "idiot" is an ableist slur that needs to die in a fire. Again back to the OED,
1.a A person without learning; an ignorant, uneducated man; a simple man; a clown. Obs. (most recent cite 1722, hence the "Obs." or "obsolete" designation).
1.b spec. A layman. Obs. (most recent cite 1660).
1.c One not professionally learned or skilled; also, a private (as opposed to a public) man. Obs. (most recent cite 1663).
Here's what it's meant for the last 300 years:
2.a A person so deficient in mental or intellectual faculty as to be incapable of ordinary acts of reasoning or rational conduct. Applied to one permanently so afflicted, as distinguished from one who is temporarily insane, or ‘out of his wits’, and who either has lucid intervals, or may be expected to recover his reason.
So by using "idiot" as you have, you're basically slamming the mentally challenged, lumping them in with those who remain willfully ignorant of a subject.
In this case if talking about photography , the term cannot be used correctly because one cannot be knowlegeable/wise about photography and be a beginner at the same time.
Of course one can.
I've dealt with people knowledgeable about portrait photography or event photography who were beginners at macro photography or high speed photography.
The same is for , say, expert. I can't be an expert and a beginner in a particular field at the same time.
That's only true if you make such narrow definitions of "a particular field" that you sound totally ridiculous.
As is your original argument. The context, that sportyaccordy was talking about an "internet savvy" or "shopping savvy" "photographic beginner" is so obvious that interpreting it any other way is an exercise in pedantry intended not to engage in discussion or educate, but simply to bully. Don't be that person: it will poison your art.
