• 12-07-2004, 05:47 PM
    Moopr
    Need Help Finding a Camera
    Hello. For the past year and a half I have been taking a photography class at my school. I enjoy photography as a hobby and I wish to continue it in college, but probably won't have the money to spend on buying/developing film. As a result I have been looking around at digital cameras. What I am looking for in a camera is mainly a nice range of film "qualities" (ISO 100 - 1600), compatability with older lenses, and a good image quality. While reading some of the reviews on this board I noticed that a lot of the DLRS come with many features I'm not really interested in such as autofocous, flash compensator, and the various picture modes.

    Obviously price is a factor and I was wondering if there are any digital cameras that are compatible with many lenses yet do not come with all the extra features I mentioned above. After reading the reviews I have started to favor the Pentax *ist DS but if you feel there is a camera better suited to me needs please point me in that direction.

    I also have one question about DSLRs. I went to Fry's to just get a feel for some of the camera's and noticed that the lens on the cameras are very different than the ones on the 35mm SLRs at school. Could someone please explain the difference to me?

    Thank you.
  • 01-12-2005, 02:17 PM
    tijean
    Re: Need Help Finding a Camera
    I've been doing enough beating of the *istDS drum today, so I'll just leave you with a few of my impressions of the camera as someone who is most comfortable on the type of fully manual camera that you can beat someone over the head with and do a good deal of damage.

    The DS is very easy to use in manual mode, as well as shutter and aperture priority. Pentax has done a good job of not letting the extra features get in the way for those of us who feel that we are smart than the camera (yeah, right).

    It is the most backwards compatabile DSLR available. You can use manual focus Pentax lenses on it that date back to 1975, and ones older than that with a $20 adaptor.

    As for the difference between the DSLR kit lenses and the lenses on the film cameras at your school, I have no idea what you mean. They're probably smaller and auto focus, but I'm not sure what vintage the school cameras are, so I can't really say.
  • 01-12-2005, 08:19 PM
    DownByFive
    Re: Need Help Finding a Camera
    The features that you listed are features that are basically on every DSLR...Except FEC, which isn't available on the Digital Rebel. Seeing as how all DSLRs are sweet, you might as well get the one best suited to your budget. The DR and *istDS are the cheapest, but I haven't used the *istDS. But I don't think you can go wrong either way. My personal recommendation is the Nikon D70, but that's a bit biased...