Wife wants camera

[fishtrap3]

She was going to just go buy one, but I told her to wait tell I ask the pros her on Fishing Minnesota. We need something that will take cheerleading pics in the fall, peewee baseball, and basketball pics, as well as birthday and everthing in between. Would like to stay as cheap as possable but I know you get what you pay for. Any help for us beginners would be great.... As I know nothing about them and don't want to get taken by someone just trying to make a sale....

Thanks

[Steve Foss]

Hey fishtrap:

Do you want to pony up for a DSLR or just a digital point-and-shoot? The DSLR allows you to buy specific lenses that will let you do more, and in some cases do it better than a point-and-shoot.

You mentioned sports, and if you want action shots, you'll need the DSLR and a couple lenses, or at least one of the higher-end point-and-shoots.

I can't help you on point-and-shoots when it comes to which brands are better than others, but if you decide on a DSLR, I and others here can give you some advice on how to get started with a body, a couple of lenses, memory card and a few other necessities. You're probably looking at about $900 there, even with the least expensive lenses, and it's the lenses that make the biggest difference and biggest dent in your pocketbook in the DSLR realm. $500 gets you an excellent DSLR body from Canon or Nikon — it's the glass that adds up quick, and there's where you REALLY get what you pay for.

There are advanced point-and-shoots, however, that may do exactly what you need, and for less jing.

[MN Shutterbug]

Steve is the guru on Canon equipment. I shoot with an advanced compact point and shoot and love it. I have no idea how it would perform on indoor sports but outdoors, no problem. A good P & S can be had for around $300 with nothing more needed. If you want info on my camera, let me know.

[fishtrap3]

This is fishtrap3's wife, wondering if you could give me more information on the dslr's. I dont't want to buy something that I won't be alble to use. Yes the main thing that I want the camera for is sports..cheerleading, baseball and basketball..but I would also like to use it for family things. If you could please tell me about the differant lenses I would need to start out with that would be great...thanks so much

[Dbl]

fishtrap3's wife What do you want to accomplish with your sports shots? You mentioned cheerleading and basketball as two of your sports you want to photograph. The outdoors sports you can use many different lenses and capture some photos of your son, daughter successfully.

Indoor requires a whole different level of equipment to get even reasonably good action photos. Cheerleading I believe doesn't allow flash at most competitions. Basketball you can flash but unless you know what you are doing, flash will give you some harsh results.

I will refer you to another thread where some of this has come up already. http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB79&Number=1102933&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=all After looking through that why don't you see if you have more questions and a few of the kind folks here should be able to answer them.