Wife getting into photography. She spent the wee hours in Port Huron at Lake Michigan this morning. (I was still sleeping when she arrived home!)

Anyway, she borrowed an old Nikkon D50 from a friend and is getting her feet wet (not this morning, thank God).

Any suggestions for her new camera I would buy. She is frugal and I'll have to push her a bit, but I have NO clue where to begin or what features, lens or other options to research.

Any suggestions appreciated. I know she wants HD for sure and I would like her to use for my musical promo (live shots, videos).

Best,
zuki

For purely musical purpose I recommend Sony HDR-MV1. It is specialized on high-quality audio recording and also Has line-in. I bought it after I sold my ZOOM Q3HD. The video quality of the Sony is much better. But as I said, not a camera for other domains.

Hey, thanks RT. I also had the Q3 and traded it back to Zoom for the Q4. It serves my purpose on the audio side (I go direct to the RCA in). I have recorded live to capture the audience but there is just too much weird noises associated with that.

I looked at the Sony manual. I bet it's a lot better video (which I would welcome) and hopefully much better audio, using the included mics. The software is about the same as Movie Maker (Windows) for what I need.

On thing about the Q4 and Movie Maker. Windows is limited to bit rate and a few steps are necessary to convert to MP4, but easy enough.

As far as my original question: My wife is not interested at all in the music stuff - she wants a great camera for her pics and stuff.......

Thanks again

My wife has a Canon Rebel T5i DSLR camera. Great camera for stills and the HD video is good too and the live audio recording is good quality with no distortion even at higher volume levels. Because she is involved with a macro photography group she also got a macro lens.

Jim, I make a good part of my living doing photography. Anything Cannon is GREAT. The Rebel series is good for a high end amateur or low end pro. The issue is the size of the chip. A short stop at a camera store with a knowledgeable salesman will help. Basically, without the full size chip, there are some issues about controlling the depth of field. The size of the chip is detail;ed on the box.

A Body in the range needed for pro work begins at the $700.00 price point. Lenses are another matter.

My last new camera purchase was a 4"x5" with a digital back.

If you'd like to discuss, just let me know.


All the best,


Russ

If a more handy non-DSLR camera is an option, one of the best compact cameras is the Canon G16. (Or wait, the successor G17 is about to be released.) I have the predecessor G15. For a compact camera it has a very fast lens, aperture 1.8 to 2.8.

Jim,

I'm a serious hobbyist started with the Canon T2i, now have a Canon 70d. As Russ says lenses are another thing. You may want to check out the web site ;

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com Lots of lively discussion there on cameras and brands. Sometimes the debate gets hotter than whose arranger is better at SZ. LOL

Here's a couple of links to my web site where I post some of my better work.

http://steveonphotos.zenfolio.com/p335071355

http://www.steveonphotos.com

Jim, On the home page steveonphotos, the shot of the purple flower and the eagle believe it or not were done with a $199 close out model Canon SX50. The advantage of the camera is it's 24-1200 mm zoom range. Quality is Ok your wife would be much better of with a DSLR.

Nice. I had thought about one of these superZoom cameras, but with the bridge cameras like the G15, which only have 4 or 5x optical zoom, but a very good aperture and fast lenses, the overall image quality is rated considerably better. Of course, with sunshine both types produce very good results.
You find some examples of my Canon G15 pictures here, the upper 6 pics were made with the G15, I like the ones of the lake, I haven't edited anything about them with a software:
http://www.rorosenbaum.de/eigene-fotos-ii/

Rosetree, Nice shots of the lake. The SX50 is OK, I don't care for the veiwfinder on it at all. I'm more at home with my Canon 70d but as the saying goes sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you. at one time I looked at the G series of Canon, they do a nice job.