Buying a camera

[mom@shiloh]

I'm looking for a good camera for my 15 yo ds.  He took a photography class and learned a lot, so he's past the beginner stage cameras, but whoa!!  good cameras are expensive!!  Does anyone have recommendations for good places to check for deals?  Groupon?  Woot?  TIA.

 

[Mama Geek]

B&H photo has used stuff and are a reputable company.

 

A side note, years ago I purchased a new 35 mm camera from wolf camera.  Sometime in the next year I decided I couldn't live with it eating batteries.  I took it back in and they gave me a new camera without any hassle.  Customer service does go a long way too.

[PeterPan]

I'll give you a little bump for this.  I haven't kept up with all the changes (no money for the luxury), but it seems like right now we're at this place where people are shooting iphoneography, dSLR, and mirrorless, all very good, all with pros doing them.  The bummer is that when you pick a system you're beginning to invest in lenses, and the lenses are where the money is, not the money.

 

How does he like to edit?  Was he editing from RAW or jpg?  If you get an older iphone or ipod and throw some of the little cheap lenses onto it, he can do an extreme amount and really kick butt and stretch himself.  The newest iOS is even supposed to let us shoot RAW.  My phone doesn't have enough memory to do even TIFF for very long, so I don't see how practical that is.  Anyways, I LOVE my iphone as the camera I always have with me.  Smugmug has a terrific app that will overlay shooting guides (golden spiral, golden triangle, 3rds, etc.) live as you shoot.  What an excellent learning tool for a student!

 

Ditto the B&H recommend.  They're the first place I always look.  If you look on ebay, you can get a Nikon d7000 for around $450 with buy it now.  Might get lower at auction even.  That's a lotta camera for the money (and it's what I have!).  Put a 35mm on there.    Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G Lens     You can even put really expensive glass on there, like a     Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED Lens     or a more affordable     Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 IF EX DG HSM Autofocus Lens for Nikon AF     That's what I'm wishing for, a 24-70.  

 

What I haven't kept up on is what happens when you have your lenses and want to go mirrorless.  If you can do it with adapters, that may be acceptable.  If the lenses won't even work when you move over to mirrorless, it doesn't make much sense to start and invest in mirrored.