need help with first camera

I have wanted to try this for quite sometime and now with all the stuff going on in my life I need a release and I have decided this is it. I need help selecting my first camera. I am working with a limited budget of no more that $250, I?m an emt and unfortunately saving lives will just keep you out of the poor house and not much more. I read some of the reviews about the Cannon Rebel G11 with a 50mm lens, it was the only one I saw with multiple reviews, and they were all good and in my price range. It does not have to be a Cannon; I just want it to be decent. Any help would be appreciated; I want to do mostly B&W.

Welcome to the boards Bill! And thanks for being an EMT, emergency workers are very important in today's world!

Now about your camera. What exactly are you looking for, something that can be set to full manual, semi-automatic, and automatic? What else will you be doing with the camera?

From what I've read the GII is a good camera, if the reviews in this site are good (which I'm sure they are knowing the people here)

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Originally Posted by bill509

I have wanted to try this for quite sometime and now with all the stuff going on in my life I need a release and I have decided this is it. I need help selecting my first camera. I am working with a limited budget of no more that $250, I?m an emt and unfortunately saving lives will just keep you out of the poor house and not much more. I read some of the reviews about the Cannon Rebel G11 with a 50mm lens, it was the only one I saw with multiple reviews, and they were all good and in my price range. It does not have to be a Cannon; I just want it to be decent. Any help would be appreciated; I want to do mostly B&W.

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Hello Bill and welcome to PR!

If at all possible, get to a camera store and handle the camera's you are considering. While you can learn to use any camera, it makes it much easier if you find one that fits you. I like Nikon's because I like the way they fit MY hand. The controls are easy to reach (for me) and the placement makes perfect sense to me.

Good luck and I hope you find a camera that works for you.

Hi Bill - I think Speed's advice of trying out different brands is good. There are a lot of good possibilities in that price range but a lot of them involve used equipment. If you want to shoot film and aren't worried about someday adding a digital SLR body to what you've got, then some older cameras can be real bargains (as long as everything's properly working).

But a Canon EOS or newer Nikon makes a lot of sense because of being able to add digital in the future and having a huge amount of lenses and accessories to choose from.

Thanks for the responses I went to Houston camera exchange today before reading the post and ask the salesman the same question. He was quite helpful he steered me away from the new stuff and over to the previously owned (fancy word for used). Well the first one he showed me was a cannon (he said it’s the one the t2 replaced), it fit my hands well but for some reason I was not impressed, all the plastic felt kind of cheap. so I ask if he had anything more durable he showed me a Cannon A1 I really like it for just the body it was 120.00 which seemed fair to me. I did not get it I am going to keep looking but I really was impressed with the service and the camera.

Just realize that years ago Canon changed over from one lens mount to another. That camera (someone correct me if I'm wrong) is before the EOS system and won't be compatible with any of the newer cameras, lenses and digital bodies.

Not that it's necessarily the end of the world; FD lenses sell for very little money on ebay for just that reason. You could build quite a nice system for less money than you might think. It's just that you'll have to start over if you move to a more modern system down the road. That's not entirely necessary either if you want to stick with film. Plenty of excellent shots have been taken with these cameras, and if at some point you want to sell what you have you probably won't lose any (or much) money. It's similar to the Olympus OM series cameras - excellent gear, just that it's not made anymore and has no path to digital.

i relize this this about the lens production but i think it will work to my advantage me being on a tight budget and all. but now my question is if you had a choice between the A-1 and F-1 which one would it be. the reason i ask is i found a real good deal on one.

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Originally Posted by bill509

i think it will work to my advantage me being on a tight budget

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Exactly - you can get more equipment for the same money. Sorry, can't help you on the cameras though, I'm a Nikon guy...