Lesson 2- Skate Photo Lessons- The Camera
Cameras
Everybody wants to know what camera to buy?
Answer: A manual camera, film or digi, whatever.
Here is a photo of my first camera, a Minolta SRT201. My daughter is using it now. I bought it 28 years ago and it still works killer. Don't get hung up on gear, it's just a box with a piece of glass on it. It's just a machine, it's not the Car, it's the driver, crappy driver in a hot car still loses the race.
You still want to know what camera to buy? A Canon or Nikon. Film or digital? Either, in the long run digi is cheaper than film. Film is more OG and you learn a lot about photography by shooting it.
The pro shooters use the Canon Mark II and III, or use a Canon Rebel to save money. Atiba just bought a Nikon D3, so I guess that's the best since he's using it.
I helped start another mag 25 years ago with a Pentax K1000 and that Minolta I was bragging about. They are ancient compared to today's standards.
I could shoot a photo with my newer Canon EOS1n film camera and a photo with that old Minolta and you probably would not be able to tell which camera shot what photo? In the end, nobody cares what camera took a photo as long as it's a good photo. You can have the best $7000 camera, but if you lack skills, it's all wasted.
To be continued...
2 months ago Jane said:
you are so right!
2 months ago Aaron said:
Words of wisdom.
SRT201 was the first camera i even owned also.
2 months ago Ivo Janssen said:
I just bought a Nikon D40 DSLR a couple for months ago. For ~$650 it's an amazing camera and really lightweight. Makes great photos and is easy to carry around and bust out.
I'm so happy with it.
2 months ago Grant Brittain said:
Sounds good, it's got a lot of numbers and letters in its name.
Thanks Ivo!
2 months ago John Lytle said:
My Nikon FE2 went south on me... so bummed. The EOS5D is nice. I'm liking it, despite being a tank. I wish some more skaters would get in my way though.
2 months ago Matt said:
Thanks for the tips! Keep em coming.
2 months ago Khalid said:
My first camera was a Canon A1 with a broken light meter. After that it was the Rebel. I loved that camera. I haven't shot in a long long time. I used to keep up with all of it. Consumed my life. The camera in my closet now is a 620 (shutter syncs at 250th/second) and a 630 (5frame/mtr drive...although that's waaay too slow nowadays). I still have the radio slave 4i's. Some Metz handle mounts. 15mm fishey, long lens and regular. This stuff still works good and gets good photos. It's all fun now though. I used to send my slides to you Grant. You had real good tips. Your the best. I can't belive digital is screwing film but whatever..i'll always be shooting 35mm. It's more of a hobby now than something i wanted...you grow up and end up with crazy bills and a 9-5 job. It sucks but i still skate it up almost everyday! ha.
My problem was setting the flash speed on the off camera flashes. For a while i didn't know anything about that. So sometimes my photos came out awesome and sometimes they looked like crap. Any useful information on the flash spee settings Grant? Thanks.
2 months ago PooP WaR said:
Thanks Grant. This helped amazingly. I'm looking forward to your next entry
2 months ago Christa said:
My first camera was a Petri FT (circa 1960) that my dad gave me. It came with a huge metal light meter that clipped onto the body. I have not thought about it in many, many years... Thanks for bringing back some good memories.
1 month ago max bacci said:
i started with a minolta too i still have it somewhere...went trought eos 1n and hasselblad of course and now i'm with a eos 30d but i think i need some flashes for digital cameras...which you suggest to buy???? 430ex or 550ex thanks Grant....
1 week ago radar said:
..I use to eos 1n rs 10 fps !maaan!woow! now I've got 20D with some stuff. fotoradar.deviantart.com Grant you are my favorite skateboard photographer.5.