Replying to Camera advice for a novice?
I've grown tired of having only my phone's camera to rely on and also of it's limitations in various conditions, so I would like to look into options for cameras. I was wanting to purchase a camera after Christmas when Boxing Day/Week sales occur (in case you're unfamiliar, Canadian retailers host huge sales right after Christmas). I have a basic understanding of some photography concepts, but it may be better to assume that my knowledge is small. Anyways, here are my requirements and specs; I'll try to be as comprehensive as possible:
- I'm considering a budget of about maybe $500 maximum. I'm totally open to second-hand cameras if it saves me $ while still having acceptable performance. Literally anything will be miles better than my phone's 5MP cam.
- I plan to use it not just for shooting skiing, but also for other things like auto photography and just base picture taking too I guess.
- I'd really like a DSLR so that there is settings that I can learn to utilize as I get better. If there is a non-DSLR camera that fits my needs I'm fine with hearing options from that area.
- For the most part (like 70%) I'll be the one using the camera, except for when I ask my brother to use it to shoot me. He probably has no idea about advanced camera settings, so I'd probably pre-set them before he starts shooting.
- A burst mode is essential to me so I can can capture the right picture while either my brother or I are performing. I don't know what is considered a good FPS speed, but my phone cam took 6 shots in a time frame of what I can only guess as 1.5s to 2s; it's slow.
- I'm not totally sure if I want a video mode, but it might be beneficial to have one should I choose to start filming later.
- Being able to shoot in low light/night time is another important feature I'd always wished I possessed. Phone cams suck at this.
- I don't think portability is a big issue for me, I'd make room to carry my camera.
- I'd like some zoom, but I don't need a ridiculous amount of it.
- My HP laptop is my main PC for now, it has an AMD A6 4 core CPU at a rather slow 1.6GHz. It has the graphics card built onto the chipset and to the best of my memory has 1GB VRAM. Speaking of RAM, I have 8GB RAM upgraded from the stock 4GB. Hard drive is 750GB, and is about 160-200GB full; There is still plenty of room.
I don't own any professional photo and/or video editing software so that is a downside.
__________
Hopefully I'm not asking for too much features outside my budget. All suggestions welcome.
Click to expand post