Dealing with the last question first: factory refurbished or used from a dealer is safer and more expensive than used on e-bay.

Beyond that, it is hard to give meaningful specific answers to such a general question. There really is no single optimal starter camera. It all depends on your priorities, intended uses, experience and willingness to learn. If you tell us more about what you know, what you want and what you mean by a "real camera", we might be able to be more specific.

If you are going to be backpacking on this trip too, and photography is just an adjunct to the trip, then you probably want something fairly small, without a lot of spare parts. That argues more for a fixed lens camera than one that supports interchangeable lenses, but you could get an interchangeable lens camera but just use on lens.

If you get a fixed lens camera, you will probably find one with a zoom lens more flexible to use.

Here's a list of some of the issues to consider:

Budget?
Fixed lens or interchangeable lenses?
Zoom lens or fixed focal length?
Focal length / focal length range?
Viewfinder or just LCD screen?
Sensor size?
How important is video capability?
How much will you take control of the imaging process (vs. letting the camera decide)?
Tradeoff between image quality vs. size & weight.

Tell us some more and I'll try to be more specific.

One piece of advice right now: whatever you get, buy it well before your departure date. Learn to use it before you leave.

Sorry, guess I should have known that was too generic and subjective. Thanks for the thoughts.

Some additional info... You guessed right that smaller/compact is probably way more suited for my current needs. As it will mostly be used for travel/hiking/camping at this point.

Per budget, I was really hoping for something below $400 but could push to $500 if that really increased my options. I still tend to travel in developing countries and do the hostel thing, and I think I'd be pretty nervous even at that price point.

Fixed lens is also prefered for simplicity and travel. But I don't mind a few extra pounds if that helps the image quality
I've never taken pictures with a viewfinder so I honestly don't know if I'd need that or not.
Video would not be a priority at all. And most likely the more idiot proof the better in terms of the camera doing all the work. In the future I'd love to learn to be more hands-on, but that can be put on hold until I decide I really want to get into this.

Hope that helps a little, appreciate the feedback!

Lightroom 6 released!

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/666...panorama-tools

<Gulp> If that budget includes batteries, chargers, power adapters and storage media, you don't have much of a camera left at all. What you are talking about is the very bottom end - the market segment that is losing sales rapidly because it isn't really much better then a camera in a cell-phone. I don't have lot of familiarity with models in that price range, so I will keep my comments brief. Given what else you said, a few models to consider might be:

• Canon PowerShot SX60 HS
• Canon PowerShot SX700 HS
• Nikon Coolpix P530
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40

Scroll through this thread to see the wonderful work Cardsharkk04 did travelling though east, southeast and south Asia from early 2012 to mid-2014, with somewhat more expensive gear.

For the money, you can't do better than a refurb Nikon D3300 and a 35mm 1.8 DX lens. Its a DSLR, but the image quality will destroy any point and shoot in that price range. It comes with the 18-55mm which is an OK lens during the day, but sucks in low light. Save money on refurbished, its as good as brand new. This ebay seller is Buydig.com, a very reputable Nikon authorized reseller


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-D3300-...item4d2e37585f

Get this lens, one of the best all around lens for DX users, outstanding sharpness and excellent in low light situations. Stick this on your camera for your travels and you're golden.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-AF-S-D...item487cc49b1e

It's a little bit above your budget, or you could sell the 18-55 VR lens and you're right there at your target.

Thanks for the above. Read up on refurbs and it sounds like they are a great deal and Nikon's were the way to go. I talked myself into being a little less cheap and splurged on the D5300 and an additional lens from buydig that I saw on slickdeals

Scrolling through the amazing pictures in this thread definitely talked me into it.

fwiw its worth I've traveled a lot through developing countries with a couple grand worth of gear doing the hostel/guesthouse thing, and I almost always feel pretty comfortable about it. I always keep my stuff in a generic looking backpack and use a generic camera strap, never had any issues in a few years worth of traveling. Anecdotal evidence ftw!

GL on your trip!

I spent a couple months in Central America, so here's a bit of a photodump of some of my favorites.


chi chi market, guatemala


lake atitlan, guatemala


leon, nicaragua


granada, nicaragua


san juan del sur, nicaragua


chi chi market, guatemala


flores, guatemala


another market, guatemala




lake atitlan, guatemala


lake atitlan, guatemala


leon, nicaragua


granada, nicaragua


caye caulker, belize


miraflor, nicaragua


san marco, guatemala





posted too many as usual

I enjoyed traveling in Central America, but I must admit it doesn't have the same wow factor and crazy good photography opportunities as certain countries in Asia. Practicing my Spanish was fun though!

Also any good suggestions on camera straps? My current one got corroded from too much salt water I presume and now is just hanging on by a few threads.

those are some really nice photos, especially the caye caulker, belize shot. Really good street work too. What's your favorite lens?

as far as camera straps, the optech sling is good, but I sold it and just use my boring Nikon strap.

cardshark, those photos are amazing. The Jesus statue and market from above are my favorites.

I'm curious how did you swing a couple months? My whole goal in life right now is to get more time off for photography. But I pretty much would have to quit my job. They bitch when people ask to take a week off. They basically want you to use all your vacation days on long weekends. It's ludicrous.

Well I guess I'd have to say it's my 17-40L. I've had it for like 5 years now, traveled all over with it, beat the **** out of it, and it still works great. Hell, it even popped out of my bag when I hit a bump on my motorbike, right onto the asphalt. Somehow it was unscathed...

Although I only really use 2 lenses. I like my 70-200L IS quite a bit too.

I'm still doing the poker thing. I keep telling myself I'm going quit and find something else (photography??) as I'm almost 30 and don't want to do it for the rest of my life. But then again $50/hr is $50/hr, and that sweet sweet flexibility...

I'm pretty sure I couldn't handle a 9-5 office job though. I feel ya, that sounds pretty rough. Traveling and photography don't work too well with 2 or 3 week vacations. But you should at least be able to use your vacation days on however you see fit! That sounds like some real BS to me.

Fantastic shots as always cardsharkk. Like suzzer, the market from above is one of my favourites (I like the fact that there's one little girl looking up at the camera, and everyone else is just going about their business); also really like the stormy sunset in flores, guatemala.

I know I haven't posted anything in ages, but on Sunday I'm off to Orkney/Caithness for a week's walking/photography so looking forward to that. Just spent a small fortune on Merino base layers though :/

I think a 2-3 week vacation is fine for photography - I spent 3 weeks travelling around the north of Italy a couple of years ago and got a lot of shots I was very happy with. I did quite a lot of planning though, and new that on certain days I was going to be in a certain place at a certain time to shoot a particular sunrise/sunset for example. I get the impression that most of my travel shots are more planned than yours cardsharkk (I'll basically go to any lengths to avoid having people in my photographs).

@suzzer - are they more accommodating if you try to give more notice for a longer vacation, like say booking the time off a year in advance?

I use a BlackRapid RS-7 (now called the BlackRapid "Curve") and I think it's great - I find it very comfortable across my shoulder/chest, and the position the camera hangs in is very convenient. Before I bought it I was a little worried about the camera bashing into things a lot, because of where it hangs, but I haven't really had that problem - I usually have one hand on the camera anyway when I'm walking around a city, so that stops the camera swinging as much as it otherwise might.

There are a couple of downsides:

- because the strap screws into the tripod mount, you can't have a baseplate on the camera and use the strap at the same time without separately purchasing a different BlackRapid fastener for the strap; I've been meaning to do this ever since I got the strap, but have never got round to it and every time I have the camera on the strap and want to use the tripod it bugs me.

- because of the strap's asymmetrically curved design, you can't ever switch it to your other shoulder as the strap doesn't lie properly across your shoulder/chest; this hasn't been a problem for me yet, as I find the strap very comfortable, but if you're someone who is constantly switching things from one shoulder to the other this probably isn't the strap for you.

- for the larger gentleman (which, unfortunately in this case, includes me) the fact that the strap passes across your chest can serve to emphasise the size of your man-boobs.

Yea, you're right, 2-3 weeks is definitely enough time to do some traveling and get some real nice photos. But if that was all of my vacation days and I had to wait until next year to get more days off work... well I don't know if I could.

Ha yea, for the landscape and architecture stuff you certainly need to do a bit more advanced planning. And then, when you've got everything set up there is nothing more tilting than having someone get in front of your shot! Although for the travel photography I normally like doing, it's kind of the opposite, I'm usually waiting for the right person to wander into the shot! (granted I'm mostly referring to developing countries where they don't normally wear western clothes and the local people really add a lot to the visual interest of the photo and it's not some douche wearing cargo shorts and skechers blocking the view of temple xyz while the perfect sunset is happening.

This does sound like a strap I might like. I normally wear mine across my left shoulder so I can shoot from my right hip, except it normally digs into my side if I'm not holding it. Although I do like having the baseplate on my camera at all times in case I want to put it on my tripod... but I've found these random tripod moments to be happening less and less often. And fortunately I haven't got moobs just yet...

Thanks for the rec

How to get rid of camera shake? What are some good lens-based options (IS and VR) and how much do they cost? Will they let me shoot down to 1/30th of a second or even more time?

At some point I'm going to tell my work I want a 6-12 month sabbatical and they can take it or leave it. I plan to go to Kamchatka, road trip around the US/Canada/Mexico, and maybe some other places like Patagonia. Life is too short. I probably won't be able to retire until I'm 65ish. I want to do these things now while I can still climb up mountains.

IS and VR are essentially the same thing afaik VR is just the Nikon branded version of IS.

Other variables you might want to consider are tripods, and lens focal length.


You can also try different grip and stance techniques. sometimes leaning on something or bracing your arms on a railing helps a lot.

Image stabilization comes in two forms: lens-based, called Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and sensor-based, called In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS). 'IS' is Canon's designation for OIS. 'VR' is Nikon's designation for OIS. Most camera and lens makers supply some lenses with OIS. Olympus camera bodies use IBIS. Sony has introduced IBIS in one of it latest bodies, and Pentax has it in a few bodies, though IBIS won't stabilize a SLR's viewfinder.

A purchaser cannot add OIS to a lens or IBIS to a body. You have to buy a model with the feature included. It is hard to put a price on the cost of having OIS or IBIS included, as manufacturers generally do not provide otherwise identical products with a choice of stabilization being included. or not. Besides adding an unknown amount of cost to a product, a stabilization system also adds size, weight and mechanical complexity.

The effect of camera shake varies with the system's Field of View (FOV). A system with a narrow field of view will show camera shake more readily because a given linear amount of displacement corresponds to a larger portion of the FOV. FOV is a product of focal length and sensor size. Cameras with smaller sensors or lenses with longer focal lengths will more readily show the effects of camera shake. For that reason, OIS is more frequently found in lenses with longer focal lengths.

Because the FOV affects the appearance of camera shake, how fast a shutter speed one needs when not using stabilization to avoid the effect depends on the sensor size and focal length being used. A common rule of thumb is that the shutter speed in seconds should be no slower than 1 / focal length x crop factor. So if using a 50mm lens on a Canon Rebel (with 1.6 x crop factor), one should try to keep the shutter speed faster than 1 / 50 X 1.6, or 1/80. This is only a rule of thumb, and still requires proper holding technique. Some people are unable to hold the camera steady enough to avoid shake while following this guideline - they need to use a shutter speed one or two stops faster. Others can regularly shoot one or two stops slower than the guideline.

Different systems claim different amounts of effectiveness for their stabilization systems. The effectiveness is generally denoted in stops of shutter speed. Some of the latest IBIS systems claim 5 stops, while latest OIS often claim 4. Older systems might have only claimed 2 stops. Not everybody is always able to realize the effectiveness claimed by the manufacturers. IBIS seems to be more effective than OIS at wide to normal focal lengths, but may lag behind OIS for longer lengths.

So if the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II Lens has 4 stops of OIS effectiveness, then one might expect to be able to use it at 200mm effectively on a DX body (1.5 x crop factor) at a shutter speed of 4 stops slower than 1 / 1.5 x 200. IOW, one might be able to shoot at 1/20.

It is important to note that image stabilization corrects for camera movement, but does nothing about blur due to subject movement. So one might be able to avoid camera shake at 1/20 sec, but if the photo contains a moving person, the person will be blurred.

This is excellent. Go you! Life is meant to be lived.

I'm still sorting through my images from Scotland, but here are some early favourites:

Farmhouse at Sunset - Duncansby, Caithness


Warebeth Beach - Orkney


Ring of Brodgar - Orkney


Dunnet Head Lighthouse - Caithness


John o' Groats - Caithness


Sea Stacks at Dawn - Duncansby, Caithness


Cliffs of Hoy - Hoy, Orkney

Thanks dothemath!

Cardshark , amazing photos mate, tyvm !

[QUOTE=Voyeurism;47013216]I'm still sorting through my images from Scotland, but here are some early favourites:

Warebeth Beach - Orkney




very nice set of shots. I liked the black and white one the best

I took few panoramas. Recommended to enlarge and look on large screen: