A very wealthy person I know decided he wanted to learn to play the violin so he began shopping...at high end auctions. He paid $16 million for this Stradivarius, the Lady Blunt, at a recent auction- he missed out on the Vieuxtemps Guarneri. No one knows what it finally went for but it had a base price of $18 million. A week later he asked me to come over to his mansion and listen. My ears still hurt. Funny little story if I didnt see similar stories, albeit at a much smaller scale, on Craigslist all the time. They go like this, I wanted to really get into photography so I bought this $8,000 Nikon body and $20,000 in lenses, studio setup, etc. but it hasnt worked out. $15,000 or best offer. OUCH! And the listing is still up four months later! It could have been that nearly $7,000 Canon body but the story would be similar. So if youre asking any of us that have been doing photography for years what dSLR (or mirrorless camera) to buy and youve never owned one before most of us would tell you to start simple. And we really dont care what brand you buy but youd better not spend your whole budget on it! Spend the time learning with something basic! And if youre looking to move up, rent that body first if its going to be a fairly big step. But please dont think youll produce images like the top pros on this site because youve spent a LOT of money. There are some great images here from some pretty basic cameras, especially portrait and landscape shots. Think about this- look at the best digital shots taken, say, five to ten years ago. You could pick up their camera today for a SONG! Not the lenses, the bodies. First lesson, bodies drop in value like a ROCK, good used lenses may actually go up in value. Years ago I was taking some photo classes from a superb portrait photographer- he owned the oldest portrait in North America at the time- hed done portraits of many presidents, actors, etc. One student asked Oscar White, our instructor, his opinion of his portraits day one, before the first class had ever begun. I had noticed that he had some pretty expensive Nikon gear (Nikon was THE game back then, there was no debating it in SLR cameras). Oscar asked him to wait until he had at least been in a couple of the classes. No, he insisted. I had already noticed that a couple of the portraits werent focused well and nothing special in the lighting. So Oscar gave him an honest answer. He sat through that class but never returned. Sad, he really could have learned a LOT! Back to the violin. Ive been shooting the Benton County Fair since 1991. About ten years ago Brad Paisley was there. We were waiting for him to come off the tour bus for the Meet & Greet photos- not unusual the main performer comes last to those but the band will be around doing sound checks or whatever the whole time. I noticed that his violist, Justin Williamson, had a violin that looked like it was going to explode, the top was really pushed up- he expanded the sound box for a more country sound he told me. He then told me he found it in a second hand shop for something like $100-150, I forget the exact amount but I remember it was far less than $16 million- and it sounded very good! Good enough to make a nice living on. Okay, so Im a long story teller, but I think it will help you pick the best camera to start with...and enjoy learning. We all are still learning, by the way! There is no perfect camera as there is no perfect violin, but there sure is a difference in price!
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 01:04:26 +0000
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