Buying a camera for my wife... help me choose!

[sleuth]

I am considering the following cameras for my wife:
Nikon D3100 or D3000
Canon Powershot G12
Canon EOS Rebel T3 or XS

I'm basically trying to get my wife her first "professional-grade" camera. I realize these aren't top of the line but they seem like good models to learn on and practice and maybe do some small photography gigs.

My wife is not real tech savvy, and is going to have a lot to learn about photo editing and post-processing, but I want to pick out a camera that is fast, can take lots of pictures quickly without waiting between each picture for the image to focus (her most frequent complaint), etc., can take good clear action photos (blurriness is the 2nd most frequent), and easy to use.

Would love to hear everyone's experience with these brands or these specific cameras, and whether you think it would be good for someone like I've described my wife.

Thanks for your tips! I am not a camera expert by any means, so your knowledge will be helpful.

Oh, and hello everyone! Long time no see.

 

[sockgirl77]

No spice rack this year?

 

[sleuth]

No spice rack this year?

We've upgraded.

 

[aps45819]

No spice rack this year?

I know where he can get a good deal on a TV and stereo

 

[jetmonkey]

...

 

[Katt]

I am considering the following cameras for my wife:
Nikon D3100 or D3000
Canon Powershot G12
Canon EOS Rebel T3 or XS

I'm basically trying to get my wife her first "professional-grade" camera. I realize these aren't top of the line but they seem like good models to learn on and practice and maybe do some small photography gigs.

My wife is not real tech savvy, and is going to have a lot to learn about photo editing and post-processing, but I want to pick out a camera that is fast, can take lots of pictures quickly without waiting between each picture for the image to focus (her most frequent complaint), etc., can take good clear action photos (blurriness is the 2nd most frequent), and easy to use.

Would love to hear everyone's experience with these brands or these specific cameras, and whether you think it would be good for someone like I've described my wife.

Thanks for your tips! I am not a camera expert by any means, so your knowledge will be helpful.

Oh, and hello everyone! Long time no see.

Hi, I'm right there with you... I wanted to learn the dslr route too and I've only had a point and shoot, but am tired of the lag and so so pictures. I got the Canon Rebel T3 that has been on sale all over. Canon's are great cameras and this entry level camera also has an automatic setting, so it's a better point and shoot, or you can learn as you go and try out the manual settings. I've not opened it as it's a Christmas present from my husband but since he's not tech savvy, I picked it out for him. I'm excited to learn on it too. I'm holding off on the bigger lens as I want to learn the basics before committing anymore $$. Anyway, good luck choosing. Try googling the reviews and comparisons between the top 2 choices. that's what I did.

 

[jbr13]

Do your looking at the cameras. Both the Nikon 3100 and the Canon t3 are good cameras! It will take years to grow out of them.


Here is a thread I did a while back that has some good tips....I hope.

http://forums.somd.com/photography/143965-what-lens-camera-buy-how.html

 

[itsbob]

Never, in any movie, were the words. "Camera? Son, I don't own a camera. I own a Canon!" spoken.

 

[czygvtwkr]

You have to ask yourself if she will mind carrying around a DSLR, just the inconvience of it puts alot of people off. The Canon G12 is a great point and shoot that is much smaller and has a 28-140 mm lens, a DSLR kit lens is usually 28-85mm to get much more range than that you need another lens.

 

[jbr13]

You have to ask yourself if she will mind carrying around a DSLR, just the inconvience of it puts alot of people off. The Canon G12 is a great point and shoot that is much smaller and has a 28-140 mm lens, a DSLR kit lens is usually 28-85mm to get much more range than that you need another lens.

Czyg, Has a point. The DSLR's are a little much for a woman to carry in their purse. The usual kit lens for Nikon and Canon is a 18-55, but there are sometime kits with 55-200, or 18-105.

For people just getting into photography, you can get Point and shoot cameras that have manual modes. It saves you money and the person can really figure out if they want to learn manual modes. Then you can upgrade once the person knows what they are doing, and what options they need. Some people will say they lag to focus, get blurry photos, and won't shoot fast enough. Most P&S cameras that have manual modes also have option that can be changed in menus to fix these issues. You can adjust the focus to continous focus, and change the frames per second in most of the good P&S cams. As for blurry photos there are several things that affect that, you can read about that in the link I posted earlier.

The biggest thing that will help anyone with either camera is reading the manual, doing some research, and learning to use their cameras options!

 

[Taz]

I bought the Nikon D3100 last week for myself and am very happy with it. You will need to buy a memory card for it. Wal-Mart had the camera on sale for $99.

 

[GopherM]

I bought the Nikon D3100 last week for myself and am very happy with it. You will need to buy a memory card for it. Wal-Mart had the camera on sale for $99.

$99 for a $450 camera. If it wasn't limited to one per customer you should have bought a truckload! I think there was some profit to be made.

Panasonic has some excellent "hybrid" point and shoot cameras with the DMC FZ 45 and the FZ 150. They offer super zoom from wide angle to the equivalent of around 620 mm with image stab. I had the FZ 100 and it would capture 11 fps with continuous focus and good low light performance. Canon, Nikon, and Fuji all offer similar cameras. They are a little bulky but provide a lot of the characteristics without having to change lenses.

 

[czygvtwkr]

Also if she just plans on using automatic mode and doesnt understand why the pictures are blurry no amount of money spent on a camera can fix that. Most of photography is the user and not the camera.

 

[Hessian]

Can't find a good fit.

I (ME MYSELF)...wanted a camera for ME, MY use, and my wife found a camera that she ordered on line with all the possible bells & whistles. I tinkered for no more than 10 minutes and merely gave up.
Without any surprise, it failed to work correctly and now we mailed it back.

Confusing drop down menus, tiny buttons, and minimal battery power:
I HATE THIS!

So, what model a digital camera with
1) an easy-download procedure
2) High speed, action-fotos
3) Good telephoto 10x or more
4) A battery charge that actually lasts throughout a day of shooting.

AND a manual that is in English, NOT a booklet, with easy to understand diagrams.
I honestly don't care if it costs 300.00---but it must meet those criteria.
So....what fits this description?

 

[czygvtwkr]

Hessian

The major problem people have with photography is people refuse to learn any of the technical aspects of it and think a more expensive camera will fix all their problems.

1) Pull SD card from camera, put in card reader, treat as any other drive

2) That is open to intepretation, is high speed to you a humming birds wings or is it just your kids playing in the yard? This has to do with shutter speed, the faster the shutter speed the more it is able to freeze action without blur, do you know how to raise the shutter speed, it can be done on even the simplest of compacts if you know what to do.

3) no discussion needed here just buy the one with the lens you want

4) if the camera has a litihum ion battery the first charge or two usually are a break in time and they will usually be very short, if the camera had alkaline batteries in it there is your problem you need to get rechargable AA's or the Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries either will get you 100's of shots before they die.

Confusing menu system, my guess you either had a Fuji or Sony?

 

[Taz]

$99 for a $450 camera. If it wasn't limited to one per customer you should have bought a truckload! I think there was some profit to be made.

Panasonic has some excellent "hybrid" point and shoot cameras with the DMC FZ 45 and the FZ 150. They offer super zoom from wide angle to the equivalent of around 620 mm with image stab. I had the FZ 100 and it would capture 11 fps with continuous focus and good low light performance. Canon, Nikon, and Fuji all offer similar cameras. They are a little bulky but provide a lot of the characteristics without having to change lenses.

My bad! It was S3100. Still very happy with it.

 

[bcp]

We just bought the Nikon D3100 for my daughter.
Got the camera, a 5 hour rechargable battery, the charger, the 55mm lense, a tripod a 32 gig memory and the case for 719.00

 

[Crewdawg141]

I am considering the following cameras for my wife:
Nikon D3100 or D3000
Canon Powershot G12
Canon EOS Rebel T3 or XS

I'm basically trying to get my wife her first "professional-grade" camera. I realize these aren't top of the line but they seem like good models to learn on and practice and maybe do some small photography gigs.

My wife is not real tech savvy, and is going to have a lot to learn about photo editing and post-processing, but I want to pick out a camera that is fast, can take lots of pictures quickly without waiting between each picture for the image to focus (her most frequent complaint), etc., can take good clear action photos (blurriness is the 2nd most frequent), and easy to use.

Would love to hear everyone's experience with these brands or these specific cameras, and whether you think it would be good for someone like I've described my wife.

Thanks for your tips! I am not a camera expert by any means, so your knowledge will be helpful.

Oh, and hello everyone! Long time no see.

Just a thought, I bought a nice outfit from BB for my g/f. Its a Canon T3i with a bag, mem card, uv filter and an additional lens; with tax it came out to $1006 for the package. I looked at other deals and with all of what came with it this deal was hard to pass up.

 

[jbr13]

As czygvtwkr stated, a lot of the problems people have with cameras is understanding how to use the camera. There are some really good books to help. You can find Field Guide for a lot of cameras out there. They are simular to you users manual but do a much better job explaining how to use your camera.

One big thing people don't realize is, a lot of the blurry photos are from not having enough light. The camera keeps the shutter open for a longer period of time, and your hands slightly moving the camera shows up as blur. Cameras don't collect near the light your eyes do. Your eyes may make you think the lighting inside your house is about 1/2 or 3/4 as bright as outside. If you take a camera from outside on a sunny day to inside your house, it is only seeing maybe 1/8 or 1/16th of the light it would have seen outside.