How to Buy a Camera, Start a Portfolio

My name is Angela Babst and I am planning on attending an Art Institute for photography. I have always loved to take pictures of my family and friends ever since I learned how to work a camera. Now I am looking to taking my long loved hobby into a career. Your work has inspired me in so many ways.

I look at the world in such a different way ever since I saw how you capture perfect moments, now I am always stopping to try to capture those little moments in my life. I love your work and would love any advice that you would be willing to give.

Thanks for the compliments on my photos. I can live a week or more on a good compliment, and yours may be good for two weeks or more, at least.

One thing that I need advice on is what a good camera is. I only have $500.00 or less to spend on one and am really not sure what brand to buy. Do you have any ideas?

As to advice on a good camera, I've always been a Nikon fan, but have no particular love for the low end of the current Nikon line of 35s. The $500 and under new Nikons all have plastic gears and won't last very long.

I am still using a pair of old Nikkormats, one of which I bought back in the late '60s and have run thousands of rolls of film through. When one of my old Nikkormats died, I found a replacement in a used camera shop for $100.

And I'm still using the same Nikkor lenses I bought back when I was in Japan and the far east and middle east during my Navy service, 1967-71. I have a couple of lenses I've picked up since then, also used Nikkors.

But if you have a good 35 SLR you're comfortable with, and good lenses, I'm not suggesting you change to Nikons. Any of the major brands, Canon, Minolta, Pentax, Olympus, Leica, et c., are fine choices also. I just started with Nikons in the '60s and have never felt the need to change.

I wouldn't recommend a digital camera for serious photography, unless you have a budget of $5,000 or more, which you don't.

For $500 you should be able to find either a new 35 SLR with a wide-range zoom, say 28-90mm, or one of the older used SLRs with two or three extra lenses, say 24 or 28mm, 35-105 zoom and 200mm.

My two favorite lenses, which get 95% of my use, are a 35mm f1.4 and a 35-105 f3.5/4.5 zoom. Occasionally I will use my 24 f2.8 for an extra wide angle shot, 55 3.5 macro for a closeup or 200-400 f8/11 zoom for a rare long shot. I also have a 85 f1.8, and a 50 f1.8 which I will use in occasional low-light situations. But my favorite low-light lens is my 35 f1.4. It's ultra sharp, but also expensive and hard to find as a used lens. To my knowledge, Nikon doesn't make this lens anymore.

All my lenses are the old manual focus kind, and my cameras are manual everything, winding, exposure, et c. Auto focus is nice, but costs more, and auto exposure, in my experience, is usually automatically wrong.

And automatic cameras are run by batteries. If the battery dies, you've got a dead camera on your hands. If my battery goes out, only the meter dies and I can usually make a pretty good guess on exposure, if forced to do so.

Here's a used camera source on the web I have used with good results, keh.com

If you live in or near a city, check out the used cameras in stores, particularly the authorized Nikon dealers if you're looking for a Nikon, or Canon dealers for Canons, et c. Ask if the body has plastic or metal gears, regardless of the make or model, and don't buy plastic gears.

If you're buying Nikon, any Nikkormat or Nikon F series is OK, I think the N series and every other Nikon expect the F series, have plastic gears.

Another question is how to start a portfolio? I need one to get into the school I am planning on attending and I have no idea how to get started. I am looking forward to hearing from you and appreciate you taking the time to help me.

I have never built a print portfolio, my only available collection of my work is the few photos I have put up on my website. That's probably the easiest and cheapest way to put together a portfolio. And you can build your own website for free with your photos at several places on the web without knowledge of HTML, though you will need to have digital images.

You can get those by having your film processed not only as prints but also with a disk or CD. Disks are cheaper, but CDs are better quality, which you can usually get with your prints for about $5-8 extra per roll.

Or you can use one of the web sites that develop film and post your images as web graphics-- both for free -- such as snapfish.com

One place you can build a web portfolio for free is familyshoebox.com

As to what to put in your portfolio, print or web, use only your very best work. Better to have a dozen really good shots than 25 or 50 mediocre ones.

Remember, this is the work you're the very proudest of, and a few really good shots is far, far better than a whole bunch of ordinary ones.