I'll soon be getting a nikon n65, a professional 35mm. I soon hope to get some money doing free lance photography, i'll try to get a skanner and show you all my work! Giving that it wont be stolen!
Making Conversation, Greg

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These boots are made for walkin', and that's just what the'll do, one of these days these boots are goin' ta walk all over you! -Operation Ivy (Origionally by Nancy S. if your really old)

Hey...I remember the original! I'm so old

Can't wait to see the professional photos.

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Val
www.reptilerescuerichmond.org

haha, dont let it get to ya

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These boots are made for walkin', and that's just what the'll do, one of these days these boots are goin' ta walk all over you! -Operation Ivy (Origionally by Nancy S. if your really old)

Hey Greg, you'd be better off with a digital camera. Film will get you near bankrupcy.
You can get a Canon 300D for a good price while shops are still clearing their stocks.

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Wish list: Blue Tongue Skinks and Uruplatus =)

You can learn a lot of from a basic 35 mm camera that will make it easier to understand how to manipulate digital cameras in order to acheive your desired effect. I had to use one, a Minolta x370, for a photography class in college. Luckily, my school and state provided me with financial aid for my classes so thanks to those funds the film and processing materials were affordable . However, after passing photography 1 and 2 with A's I haven't had the cash or time to spend using my old camera.

It was really frustrating when I first started using digital because I didn't have the control, the ability to capture a precise moment in time as I did with my manual camera. I had to learn how to trick the camera in order to get the kind of pictures I wanted; and I still haven't mastered it. When shooting with a manual cam., the moment your finger comes in contact with the button is the exact same moment that is captured on film. In contrast, at least with every digital camera I have used, You must have psychic powers to predict what shot you will get at least three seconds after hitting the button. This delay is the #1 most annoying thing about digital cameras.

The ability to control what your camera focuses on and exactly how fast or slow the shutter speed goes is the great thing about traditional manual cameras. Unless your willing to pay BIGGG bucks ,digital cameras don't give you the control that you get with a manual cam. If I had like $ 2,500 to spend on a camera, I would definitely go with the mega expensive digital cam that allows fully manual control of focus, shutter speed, apature, and of course, I'd get nice macro and fish eyed lenses. My crappy digital camera was stolen two weeks ago so I guess thats why I've been going on and on about cameras. I guess I am presently still mourning my loss.

Thanks, dude those nice digis are so expensive! I already have a cannon powershot a40, It's like a 300 dollar cam. It cant get anywhere close to the professional shots that I'm aiming for. Plus most magazines ect. prefer slides rather than digital prints. There is digital/film cameras but they run around 4000$!
Greg

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These boots are made for walkin', and that's just what the'll do, one of these days these boots are goin' ta walk all over you! -Operation Ivy (Origionally by Nancy S. if your really old)

I know what you mean! It seems like there's just enough of a delay before the digital camera actually snaps the picture, that the moment is gone...and I missed it ....*sigh* It can be very frustrating...which is why I snapped and snapped and snapped while Ky-Lin was eating last time...that's how I got pictures I was happy with...I took 199 of them to get those few I posted in the python pretzel threads!!!

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~Juliane~

Greg, some clarifications:
- The n65 is not a professional camera. It's the entry level camera (or second if they still sell the n55) for film SLRs. Per se, this doesn't mean that you can't take professional level photos with it, you can! But not with the bundled lens.
Entry level cameras always feature crappy lens, most of the times dark 28-80mm zoom lens. If you want good photos, you must buy good lens and for that, you must pay real money.
- The magazines, image banks, etc prefering slides it's an early 90's statement. Most are updated or updating themselves and with 95% of pros shooting digital, most of them will prefer digital now.
- If you think digital cameras are expensive, wait till you see the price of a decent film scanner! =)

Photography is a very expensive hobby. If you want to make money from it, you have to spend money on it first. It depends a lot on what you want to shoot. For fashion you'll need a nice studio, equipment prices easily go over $50,000. For nature you'll need luminous supertelephoto lens, some cost $10,000.
But that's nothing compared to film costs. When you see professional fashion photographer shooting 300 pictures for a good one, you can easily calculate how many will an amateur need and how much will that cost.
For wildlife photography this is even worse because you are in an uncontrolable environment and your models don't smile at the camera when you snap your fingers =)
On top of this, you have all the costs associated with learning photography.

If you want an advice from someone that has been there, borrow a similar camera to the n65 from a friend and try it for a month. Write down everything you spent on film. You'll get a rough idea on how much you will spend a year.

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Wish list: Blue Tongue Skinks and Uruplatus =)

wow man, what should I do!?

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These boots are made for walkin', and that's just what the'll do, one of these days these boots are goin' ta walk all over you! -Operation Ivy (Origionally by Nancy S. if your really old)

Like I said, borrow a similar camera to the n65 from a friend and try it for a month. Write down everything you spent on film. You'll get a rough idea on how much you will spend a year and an idea of the quality you can achieve with that set.

Here in Portugal, a nice 36 exp film + development + prints costs around $20.
10 film rolls later, or if you prefer a good shooting day later, the bill is $200. Slides are even more expensive. And I'm not going to talk about black & white, that's another world of problems.

Digital however allows you to shoot 1000 per day without additional costs.

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Wish list: Blue Tongue Skinks and Uruplatus =)