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1369
09-05-2008, 08:50 PM
Anyone here shoot DSLR?

After coveting my running buddy's D60 last night, I've had enough and am looking to purchase a Pentax K20D so I can get into the DSLR club.

I need to know from the local braintrust a few things:

Where would be the best place to purchase my new rig?

I've already got some old glass (25+ years old from my old Ricoh days and none of it AF), 50, 35-105, 70-210. What else would you suggest to have in the bag?

What about photo editing software? I run an iMac with 3.06 GHz Intel Core Duo and 4GB RAM. I'm thinking about Aperture since it is an Apple product, but know of a few folks who run PS on their Macs.

Any insight will be appreciated.

2Blonde
09-05-2008, 09:47 PM
Anyone here shoot DSLR?

After coveting my running buddy's D60 last night, I've had enough and am looking to purchase a Pentax K20D so I can get into the DSLR club.

I need to know from the local braintrust a few things:

Where would be the best place to purchase my new rig?

I've already got some old glass (25+ years old from my old Ricoh days and none of it AF), 50, 35-105, 70-210. What else would you suggest to have in the bag?

What about photo editing software? I run an iMac with 3.06 GHz Intel Core Duo and 4GB RAM. I'm thinking about Aperture since it is an Apple product, but know of a few folks who run PS on their Macs.

Any insight will be appreciated.

My daughter has the Nikon D60 and absolutely loves it. We looked at it at Best Buy but in the end we ordered it from AAFES. It ended up being about $50 cheaper and there was no tax. Also we got a gift card that was good at any PX for another $50 -75.
I think all told, she spent around $500
As for photo editing, she uses Corel Paint Shop Pro X1 which ran her around $90 online. She's better at it than I am but I am trying.

PM5K
09-05-2008, 11:53 PM
My daughter has the Nikon D60 and absolutely loves it. We looked at it at Best Buy but in the end we ordered it from AAFES. It ended up being about $50 cheaper and there was no tax. Also we got a gift card that was good at any PX for another $50 -75.
I think all told, she spent around $500
As for photo editing, she uses Corel Paint Shop Pro X1 which ran her around $90 online. She's better at it than I am but I am trying.

I guess that's not what she was reaching for....

Slomo
09-06-2008, 01:46 AM
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

Best rule of thumb for initial purchase: Spend half your budget for the body and the other half on the lens. You'll end up spending a lot more on lenses in the future, but they also have longer shelf life so buying a good lens is a better investment.

Only shoot pictures using the RAW format (for Nikon that's .NEF files) and do the initial "raw" processing using Phase One's "Capture Pro" software. For everything else use Photoshop. Do not shoot pictures in the JPEG format, with the low prices for solid state memory devices there's no excuse for throwing quality away right at the beginning.

gay abc
09-06-2008, 10:49 AM
upgraded to a d60 a few months ago and love it so far

still learning how to use it

took this pic last month

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t107/ssuitt1961/Passion_Flower_Pictures_003.jpg

Aggie Hoopsfan
09-06-2008, 11:13 AM
I'm guessing your glass is compatible with the Pentax? If so, I'd say you've got a good range of lenses to start with.

The biggest thing is read your manual front to back a couple of times to understand what all it can do, and then take a lot of pics with different settings to figure out what works best.

1369
09-06-2008, 01:08 PM
I'm guessing your glass is compatible with the Pentax? If so, I'd say you've got a good range of lenses to start with.

The biggest thing is read your manual front to back a couple of times to understand what all it can do, and then take a lot of pics with different settings to figure out what works best.

Pentax is backwards compatible with all their "K" mount glass. That's one reason I'm sticking with them.

And Slomo, I've always heard B&H Photo was the way to go.

Thanks for all the advice.

Smackie Chan
09-06-2008, 05:32 PM
Wow Gay Abc in da house? :smokin

1369 you should sign up at the Deviants art website, it's the mySpace for photo lovers, they have picture contest and you get votes etc... make a portfolio so we can check out your work.

Hey Slomo did you ever sign up?



http://photoshopcontest.com/

ShoogarBear
09-06-2008, 07:59 PM
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t107/ssuitt1961/Passion_Flower_Pictures_003.jpg

That's awesome.

I am Tom
09-07-2008, 06:45 AM
That's awesome.

I kinda like the phallus part of the picture I am sure Gay Abc did not know was there. :lmao