Gettign started in REAL photography... What kind of camera? digital or darkroom? costs?

Me and my dad want to get into photography and want to know what would be the best way to go about it. My dad was an amatuer photographer in college and loved processing pictures himself in a darkroom. My question is is it worth investing in a darkroom? if so which 35mm camera would be good? If you think we should stick with digital what is a good digital camera?

I bought a FE Nikon in 1979. I love and loved that camera. 35 mm SLR. I had my own darkroom. I spent hours there.

Slowly, as life got in the way, I began to go Digital. I have a Nikon D80, and Photoshop CS2 by Adobe. I love the digital darkroom, and though the initial start up is a touch higher, you can see if you got a good shot as you go along. Touch ups are great and simple, and there is just about nothing you cannot do with Photoshop.

A manual 35 mm SLR is great. You can get a used Nikon FM or FM2 or FM3 (or brand new FM10) if you want Nikon systems and Canon still makes film cameras (that are not expensive) and you'll be able to use the lenses if you decide to move on to digital camera.

Not too many are aware that you can use a digital enlarger--meaning you capture the photos with a digital camera and expose the paper (in the dark room obviously)--controlled by a computer and develop it like real photo. This is quite expensive though. If you want to do darkroom, you have to do film.

Personally I think a darkroom is not worth it, most companies use digital cameras which the high tech ones can produce better photos than any film camera.

Don't confuse digital cameras with those little tiny cheap pocket digital cameras that you get for like 100 bucks...those will not do any good at all.

I HIGHLY recommend the Nikon D300, My father bought one and he owns a Commercial Production Corporation that does photography work. It has a lot of options and very long and stable zoom and the focus and clarity is nothing short of a miracle.

The most impressive thing of the Nikon D300 is that it stays extremely stable...I was taking pictures off my boat at 30 MPH and there was no blurring at all and I got some really nice pictures of some water skiing wipe outs.

If you have the money get the Nikon D300...it will cost you a few thousand dollars...I believe my dad said it was like $2000 or something like that, plus the cost of a high focus lens. But if you want to be a photographer you will need to invest in a very good camera, because a photographer can only be as good as his camera.

Since 1974 35mm and darkroom photography was all I knew. In 2003 I purchased some Canon digital equipment and sold everything else. Suddenly I had no need for a darkroom, a sink, an enlarger and all of those expensive chemicals to process the film and develop the paper. I bought a nice computer and scanner and color printer. Now I can EASILY record the images with my Canon camera, plug the memory card into the printer and look at my work with 10 minutes. I also have Photoshop software so that I can EASILY manipulate the images to my own liking. I can be 100 times more creative using the computer than I ever could in the darkroom at a FRACTION of the price.

I own the Canon 5D and five new digital lenses which was very expensive BUT Canon also makes a very nice line of EOS Rebel cameras. The new EOS Rebel XTi is a 10 MP camera for around $600 and comes with an 18-55mm zoom autofocus lens. The EOS Rebel XSi is a 12 MP camera and cost around $799. and comes with the same lens.

I just bought the EOS Rebel XSi last week and really LOVE it. Now I have a great professional camera and a wonderful "back-up" camera as well. I strongly recommend that you purchase an SLR digital camera of at least 10 megapixels. There are MANYYYY to chose from.

I would not recommend 35 mm film cameras to any new beginner. I predict that within 10 years the major film manufacturers will no longer make 35mm camera film. Most of the major camera manufacturers have dramatically DECREASED the 35mm models still being made. It seems to be a "sideline business" for most of them. Poloroid film is already ancient history. Photographic Technology is advancing every day. Owning a film camera today is like driving a Ford Model T down the highway. It was great in it's day, but that technology is now "ancient history". Good Luck

If you are attracted to darkroom work, then get a film SLR. Otherwise, photography has moved into the digital age. Reasons for going digital are many. Film, paper, and chemicals are going to become more expensive and more difficult to find because they no longer benefit from large demand. If you buy a digital camera, you will never have to pay for film or film processing. You won't have to worry about contributing to a highly polluting industry. Even if you prefer large format, you can get digital backs for large format cameras, although they are costly. You can do more image processing in Photoshop or other software than you could ever do in a darkroom. The best digital SLRs are used by professionals.

If you decide to get a digital camera, check out http://www.dpreview.com/ for ratings of cameras. If you intend to make this a serious pursuit, start out with an entry level SLR. The basic principles of shutter speed, aperture, ISO, depth of field, etc. are identical as film cameras. Most will come with the basic software to process your images. All you need is a PC or Mac.

It's going to get harder and harder to get traditional photo film as the years go by, because digital keeps getting better. For about $150 you can buy a point-and-shoot digital camera with 7 megapixels of resolution. The more megapixels, the sharper the resolution. for about $600 and up you can get a digital SLR, which will offer more megapixels and more manual control so your camera will not focus on something you don't want it to.
I like digital and I love darkrooms, but the ability to edit pictures on the computer is almost as satisfying as processing your own film and making the enlargements yourself.
The difference is, digital is more forgiving. If you make a mistake with chemical film ..an exposure error, a processing error, an enlargement error... fixing the mistake is expensive. You get unlimited second chances with digital.
Photo editing is probably best done with Photoshop, which costs about $600. Or you could download The Gimp, which is free and almost as good. Fast Stone Image Viewer is another editing program, easy to use for beginners and cost free. Setting up the darkroom requires processing chemicals, an enlarger, photopaper and a light safe to put it in, trays, tongs and patience. You can use a free edit program and a $130 Epson photoprinter and produce some pretty nice art.,..

An SLR all the way. You don't really learn about true photography through Digital. In order to get yourself submerged into the art you need an SLR which can run you some money but last so much longer than a digital because you don't need to keep up with the times. By using an SLR you teach yourself exposure times, shutter times, film developing, different types of all of it, how to properly develop your own pictures and how long to expose them. It's an aggravating but rewarding process. I personally believe that Pentax is the best SLR camera in the field, but many may have a dispute about that.

Do you have a room? if so it's cheep. Get a red light 25 and get the chemicals 75 to 100. NExt never ever poor the solution down the drain, unless you want to destroy your neighborhood drinking water, and kill everything in the lake. So you'll need to get a special devise that pulls out the silver in the solution.

CAMERAS

SLR NIKON around 200.00
Digital NIKON with COLOR cost about 2000.00


PRos on SLR Nikon old school style
IT's cheep
It's easy to use
It takes great pictures
Buy them off of e-bay

Pros of SLR NIKON digital
IT's fast
Computer photoshop SO GOOD> Make your photos AMAZING with a computer
you can process the film for cheep at a store
you can sell your images online to istock

BEST OF LUCK PHOTO guys. Bye the way. If you have a college campus with the stuff. Just use there. You won't ever half to worry about your house stinking up because of the chemicals. Unless, you don't mind that smell. Also make sure if you have a pregnant girlfriend she stays away from the chemicals. the chemicals are toxic and can deform a unborn child.

Digital is good for instant gratification. Film is good for understand what makes photography an art. I use digital myself, but not until I printed my own film in high school did I realize the true art of photography. It's very inspiring to see a black and white image materialize on a blank sheet of paper. Though, It's a lot of work; but the quality immediately becomes apparent. I would suggest using digital, but when just starting out, it pays off to learn with film.

I've done a lot of photography and darkroom work over the years. I went digital six or seven years ago and have never looked back. The advantages of digital far outweigh any disadvantages. Also, the digital darkroom (i.e. the computer) is superior in every way to a darkroom with trays of developer, smelly fix solution, etc. Remember, nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

For you, get a used Pentax K1000 or something similar. It is a good well made film camera, you learn to use he controls manually.
As to a darkroom, now is a good time to set one up. A lot of people are getting out of it and you can pick up enlargers etc. cheap.
Check out www.freestylephoto.biz for chemicals, etc.
If you go digital, any Pentax, Nikon or Canon camera would be fine.

The way to go is a digital SLR

I've tried this one and I'm really impressed, great quality and very low noise - I hope I will buy it soon

Olympus E510 SLR - see here for details:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&...

I've tried Nikon and Canon as well but as far as image quality is concerned I prefer Olympus, although the other are quite good as well.

For the moment, I have this camera (which is not an SLR) and I'm quite happy with it:

Olympus SP500 UZ - see here for details:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&...
good picture quality, easy to use but plenty of options for advanced users as well - it's really a semi-pro camera with which you can grow - there's nothing I don't like about it

please download my sample picture from here:

http://rapidshare.de/files/39946354/P305...

HWV, if you are serious about photography please go SLR as I said above. Otherwise you will find yourself willing to upgrade very soon.

I know I will sound like the anti christ for saying this...but I don't think the camera even matters that much...I think it's the subject matter and your perception of what your eyes are drawn to that makes a good picture. If you don't believe me try this...give a novice adult photographer a really expensive camera, and give say a 9 year old a throw away camera...send them out and about in the same "area". The kid with the cheap disposable camera will come back with the better...or at least more interesting pictures...because they are not trying, they're just seeing.
Now enough bullshit. Digital cameras rule the school haha.

Digital is WAY more cost effective and versatile. While film and darkroom still have a few benefits that digital can't quite beat, film is definitely the way of the past. The Nikon D40 is probably a good starting point for learning functions and technique, but for true pro work you'll probably want the D200, 300, or 700.

I use a Nikon D300 series and swear by it. It has the flexibility of a 35 mm camera (lenses filters etc.) but is digital for great clarity and no graininess and instant developing. Go for a CMOS processor. A good photo editor will help if you need to adjust a photo.

No! do not invest in a dark room of old times, in this year of 2008 digital has surpassed film in almost all areas of the art, except low light, and is equal to film in low photography, invest in a digital dark room such as Adobe photoshop.

Get a Canon XTI. Buy it on Ebay. You can get a whole kit with mem cards, tripod, lenses and all for under $1000. It's the best camera for the money in that price range... and I've used them all. If you don't believe me, go to the bottom of this page and read this article: http://www.abetterbouncecard.com/
It talks about the XTI.. and this is from a guy that uses cameras that cost around the $4000 range.

a NIKON camera

digital cameras... it saves so much time!

if your gonna work with a 35mm get a leica m7.or any leica..you wont regret it...

You ask easy questions don't you? lol ;-)

Some of this just comes down to your personal preferences. I use film and digital. Which I use just depend on what I am shooting. I consider digital best for production and fast output, but I love film for ART.

I do use medium format film however, and I suggest if you want to use film, to not use 35mm as the better digital cameras have basically equaled 35mm.

Personally, I would not invest in a full darkroom. I have my film processed by http://www.chromatics.com and bring the scans into Photoshop for minor tweaking. So I am effectively using a film / digital hybrid. This is very common today with people working with film.

The high end digital cameras can give great results, but if you are totally new to it, there is a HUGE, STEEP learning curve you will have to endure. The camera, photo editing software, storage issues, archiving, computer interface, monitor and printer profiling and calibrations. It can go on and on, and you never really know it totally, it just advances too fast. But it CAN be done, just be prepared to not be able to walk into it overnight.

Good pro digital cameras are the Canon 1D Mark 3 and 1Ds Mark 3 and the Canon 5d. Nikon has the D3 out now, which is terrific.

This is just really much to broad a topic to try to answer here. Are you planning to go into a business? If so, I would say you need to use digital to be competitive in today's world, but if you are wanting to pursue photography for the art it is, then I would say stay with film... medium or large format however.

steve

Shooting film is a good way to learn the basics for many who have the patience, or who want to learn techniques unique to using film for certain effects. Even though digital technology has virtually taken over the amateur arena, shooting film is still very practical. There are many commercial and professional film labs available to process basically every type of film made. In my opinion, processing your own film can be more problematic for people just getting started, unless you have the desire to learn, is at best an activity reserved for those who have the patience and exacting standards to do a quality job of it. Even mainstream photography schools are starting to phase out the old darkroom lab courses and are moving exclusively to digital. So, I would not recommend you go that route unless you really want to learn to do it as it's not as easy as it can seem.

For an investment of $200-$400, you can piece together a good darkroom, and even less if all you desire is to develop negatives or slides, more if you want to make prints from them. For film, I use a canon EOS ELAN series SLR from the late 90's, early 00's. These days they can be had for under $150 used on ebay or adorama with a lens. If you wish to shoot film, I would recommend a similar, older model semi-pro SLR.

Film is not as forgiving as digital, and I suppose to that end, it is considered that film is more pure a form of capture to digital. But digital technology surpasses itself every couple of years and the gap between film and digital is all but non-existant these days. In terms of resolution and low noise, the more you spend, the better the quality-under-an-eyeloop you'll get. But there are pro-sumer level DSLR's available that do offer what is most practical for the average amateur consumer. Cameras from the two leading manufacturers, the nikon D40x and canon 400D/EOS rebel XTi are two that are most cost effective in terms of available features and resolution and I would recommend one of the two for beginners. Both are 10 meg DLSR's between $500-$600 with a lens. Both are "last year" models that have replacements this year, so they are both competitively sold all over.

The idea is, learn what you can on cheaper cameras now to discover which features you'll "need" in an upgrade later. Cameras aren't cheap, and neither are their accessories, so I recommend figuring out on your own what is most important from your camera, and learn why you need to pay particular attention to which lens you choose. At first, it's difficult to know what is best for you vs. what salesman tell you is best. I had never considered myself an advanced amateur enough to have magically "knew" what was best until I learned on my own. You learn through experience. Buy a camera, and use it often. Keep your owner's manual, and read it. Most questions you'll have will be answered there.

I hope this helps, and good luck.