Looking to get into photography profession

Hyderabadi

Well said, and very appropriate.

Please do keep in mind Merchant's post here: Recommend an amateur a good film camera

Shooting in .RAW/.CRW/CR2, etc., is cool, but one has to know what to do with those files later. .RAW files are quite large compared to .jpeg files....

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karmaman

Well at least we agree! and we're also forgetting to mention the use of software to enhance photography...no more getting my hands wet! lol..although nothing beats seeing a photo appear slowly in front of you!! so yea RAW files can be played with ad infinitum...I'm not a user of photoshop really..I dont like to alter a shot too far from how I see it..it's ''Lightroom'' for me, a program I recommomend wholeheartedly from beginner to pro! it's great for adding filters etc..there's some great ones out there!
and thx for the discussion lotus! I think on the whole we agree..
Best thing at the end of the day is to enjoy doing it! and if you can make a living from it..even better!

Haylo

The Canon Powershot G11 that I'm seriously considering buying before my next big trip apparently has a far better sensor than previous models, and the MP has been reduced from 14.7 MP back down to 10 MP. It has the ability to shoot in RAW mode, though I'm likely to be using it in dual JPEG and RAW mode, as I've not yet used anything other than JPEG and confess that I won't know what I'm doing with RAW processing for a while yet. It also has a thread so I can use either a polarising or UV filter.

I'd be interested to know your views on this camera. I'm sure that it will be an improvement on my current (nine year old!) 5MP Nikon Coolpix 5000, with which I'm already getting pretty good images, and I'm equally sure that a DSLR in the same price would give better results.

Problem is, carrying additional lenses precludes my travelling light, and having a wide ranging zoom lens makes the camera simply too heavy for me. I'm fairly small and even a DSLR with a standard lens is pretty heavy and bulky for me. Because of this, I've missed some amazing shots when I used to have an SLR, hence my buying my Nikon.

Stop that, I'm feeling old! I still have all my old developing kit and enlarger, though it's obsolete. I miss the relief every time I successfully managed to reel my exposed film onto the spool in total darkness.

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paintedlotus

I think you'll be VERY happy with that camera! It's a great compromise between a DSLR and point & shoot. And you're right, a similarly priced DSLR will most likely produce similar results (the only difference being the ability to change lenses, but as you said that's not really an issue for you anyway).

If you don't know already, the RAW format is a file that's completely uncompressed, un-edited data. Pretty much all cameras, when shooting in JPEG, add some proprietary sharpening, white balance, etc. to each picture. RAW lets you do that on your own later *if you want to*. The other advantage is that any editing you do to a RAW file is non-damaging to the original, no matter how many times you mess with it. It's a lossless format.

The bundled software that comes with the G11 is actually really good and very easy to navigate when you're learning how to deal with RAW images. Takes a lot of the guesswork out of it for you. Personally if I didn't already have a DSLR I would get the G11 in a heartbeat.

One thing you need to know is that with a better camera (and RAW) comes larger files, and with that comes the need for more storage capacity... which is why I upgraded the hard drive in my laptop and have two external hard drives as well. lol

Haylo

Well, if I bite the bullet, which I'm pretty sure that I will, if it's released before I make my next big trip, I'll do a writeup on IndiaMike about it - if it is all that it's cracked up to be, it will be an ideal travel camera for some.

Now that is very good news, I confess that I hadn't yet started looking into software.

Believe it or not, my old (2001 model) Nikon Coolpix can produce RAW images, though I've never used that mode. Those images are around 10 MB each, is that typical? I really do wish I'd been using RAW mode all this time, I hadn't realised how much better it would have been.

I may have to upgrade my memory if it's much more than that!

Golden Chapati

Those high end point and shoot canons are only good for bright and sunny conditions. They, as dpreview put it, are sheep in wolves clothing. Considering the cost is similar to break in DSLR's, you would be better off going with one of them. Something like an Olympus 420 or even a panasonic GF1 will provide you with so much more.

Haylo

Believe it or not, photograph quality is not the only criteria for some people. I had already said in this thread "I'm equally sure that a DSLR in the same price would give better results", but for me a DSLR would not be better. I have valid reasons for not wishing to carry a DSLR.

In the end I compromised even further and purchased a TINY Panasonic TZ7, which has a useable 25-300 zoom and is superb for my needs. It is giving me the sort of results you'd have had from a DSLR not so many years ago.

This has, however, gone rather off topic as I am not interested in becoming a professional photographer.

nycank

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