New camera body advice

[tskib]

Hello all. I'm not much of a photographer, but I'd like to get my girlfriend a new manual camera for her birthday. She has a Canon Rebel EOS now, and has been very happy with it, but has said she would like to upgrade to be able to take better pictures. She also has suggested she'd like a more 'manual' camera, whatever that means exactly. It will be for outdoor photography mostly, we live in the mountains in Montana with lots of great sights to see. I'd like to keep it under $500 for the body, but maybe that's not realistic. Being able to use the lenses for the EOS is a plus too. Thanks,

tskib

[masdog]

Hi, tskib, and welcome to PR.

First, does your girlfriend want an SLR that is film or digital? If digital, its going to be hard to keep it under that $500 limit, but it is possible.

As far as I know, all Canon EOS Rebel series cameras have manual settings that are known as "Creative Mode." This allows the photographer to set things like the shutter speed, apeture, and depth of field.

If she is looking for a better film body, I beleive the Canon ELAN 7 series is around $300. Digital bodies are at least 3 times that.

[Michael Fanelli]

Hello all. I'm not much of a photographer, but I'd like to get my girlfriend a new manual camera for her birthday. She has a Canon Rebel EOS now, and has been very happy with it, but has said she would like to upgrade to be able to take better pictures. She also has suggested she'd like a more 'manual' camera, whatever that means exactly. It will be for outdoor photography mostly, we live in the mountains in Montana with lots of great sights to see. I'd like to keep it under $500 for the body, but maybe that's not realistic. Being able to use the lenses for the EOS is a plus too. Thanks,

tskib

If she is leaning towards film...

Her existing camera can be set to fully manual mode. Getting better photos is about lots of practice, not new cameras!

Manual mode is great if she is trying to do the metering herself with no help from the camera Otherwise, using aperture-prefered (Av) is the same thing just faster. Exposure values can be precisely set, if required, by using the +/- ev control.

A better gift might be a book that deals with the more advanced techniques of photography. She will get more out of that than a brand new camera that will do the same thing as the one she has!

[Photo-John]

Michael's advice is excellent. I doubt the camera is holding her back. Encouraging her with a book or class that will teach her about exposure and composition would be a better investment. If you really want to buy her something for her camera, a new lens will almost always be better than a new camera body.