From: Jimmy.Tung@dartmouth.edu (Jimmy Tung)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: Re: *** Beginner needs advice fast
Date: 5 Oct 92 04:52:27 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
X-Posted-From: InterNews1.0a5@newshost.dartmouth.edu

Sean writes --
> [stuff deleted]
>I will mainly be taking slides, mostly of outdoor events such as
>political marches, as well as a fair amount of copy stand work.  I want to
>be able to override any of the settings such as f-stop and shutter speed
>for some point in the future when I learn to use these things correctly,
>but it would be helpful (although not essential) if the camera could make
>some of these decisions for me for now.
>     A photography major friend of mine recommended a Pentax K-1000, which
>seems to run around $150 without any lenses.  The drawback is that this
>camera is totally manual.  A salesman in a camera shop told me that I
>would kick myself later if I went with the K-1000, and recommended that I
>buy a Pentax P-Z-10 for $300 without lenses.  Was this good advice, or was
>he just trying to make a sale?
>     A camera that can give professional-looking results is essential,
>since I will be using these slides in paid presentations.  A lot of
>special camera features are not necessary; I'm not planning to do any kind
>of unusual or artistic photography.

I don't know about this... no offense, but if you expect to produce
professional-looking results for a paid presentation, I think that
professionalism (in whatever field dictates) that you know what you are
doing before committing yourself to doing it.  Then, on the other hand,
you did consult some self-styled experts. ;-)

So mild reproach aside, the rest is simply my opinion.  Cameras can be
pretty stupid, esp. when you are really depending on them.  So the
manual overrides are good things.  In the long run, I think a SLR is
your best bet if you are willing to make the effort (reading and
understanding a chapter or three in a basic photography book, shooting
a couple of rolls of film with good notes (so you know/remember what
you did and what went wrong/right))  Whatever camera you pick, I really
urge you to spend the time to do the above. Note that the slide format
is less forgiving of exposure errors and compositional mistakes.  

Brand-name doesn't sound that important to you (although you mentioned
2 pentax cameras) and I tend to agree.  From below a lower threshhold
to beyond another threshhold, I think that cameras are about equal and
can be  described as different and not good/bad.  Good used equipment
can be found to give yourself a complete set-up for less than $400. 
The shop prices are higher than mail-order (new K1000 ~ $99) or NYC
prices, but they should be able to answer questions as you think them
up.  A fully manual probably wouldn't be the way I'd go in your
situation.  Aperature-priority or shutter-priority would be better,
with the option of a fully-automatic "program" mode.  I had a Canon
AE-1 with these capabilities.  All of the other major companies make
similar cameras.  (I'm not familiar with the P-Z-10, so I don't know
what the salesman was talking about).  You should look for something
that feels good and easy to use (look at several and you'll see what I
mean). If you have trouble focussing quickly enough, or have the $$$,
autofocus cameras (eg Canon Elan w/ USM lenses), are an option.  But
really, I think that without fundmental knowledge about how the camera
works, you'll just be wasting film, time, money, and possibly your
reputation.

Lenses I'd recommend 28 mm wide-angle, 50 mm for standard shots, 70-210
zoom.  If you can live with the loss of speed, alot of people like the
28-70 mm zoom (so you only carry around 2 lenses).  For some, the 28
isn't wide enough, and like a 24 or smaller, and the 210 isn't long
enough, and like the 100-300.  Lots of other discussion is possible,
...

The easiest camera to use and cheapest is a point and shoot. If you
understand how a P&S camera "thinks", you can definitely get similar
results as a SLR, with a shorter learning curve.  Get a high-end ($200)
one with a zoom lens.  Obviously you lose the manual override
capability, and you also usually lose the ability to select camera
settings to best capture a situation (eg landscape, give illusion of
speed) although some cameras have settings for the above situations. 
The optics are not quite as good as those in good SLR's, but I don't
know that it'd noticable in this situation.  Copy stand work can be
alittle tricky with a point and shoot, b/c the average lettered slide
doesn't come out to "average" grey, so slides (at the ones I've seen)
tend to be underexposed if you're not careful.  Obvious solns with a
SLR include exposure comp and resetting the ISO.  Not all P&S's can do
this.  The other way is to find an "average" picture or grey scale card
and place this over the subject on the copy stand, set the camera's
timer (which will hopefully lock in the exposure), and then pull the
"average" card out.

Good luck

JT

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Live and don't learn -- that's us.  "Calvin & Hobbes"