Hey there, just a quick introduction as I hope to do a slightly more formal one once my photography journey actually kicks-off with a DSLR purchase!
My name is Eli, I live in New Zealand, and I am thinking of buying my first DSLR soon.
As for my experience with DSLRs, I have used friends' cameras, but have never owned one myself. As for my experience with photography, I am not a complete novice: for several months I have been reading about photography and in particular the use of shutter speed, ISO and aperture. I have taken some nice images using my point and shoot and have been checking this forum a lot (amongst others)
. I think I do reasonably well with a camera in my hands. I seem to frame shots relatively well naturally- after reading about the rule of thirds a few months ago, I went back and realised I was using it often just because it looked better to my eye without knowing of a specific 'rule'.
At the end of the day I am still a beginner, I would just consider myself a "knowledgeable" beginner.
I am considering buying the K-30 from Pentax Singapore Webstore as they seem to have a pretty good price (850 SGD) with a free delivery (don't worry, NZ customs will get their share on it so I won't actually get it for that price
). I chose the K-30 as it is a camera I think I could grow into, I have read about it a lot, have checked and compared for months different camera brands and models and my research has lead me here!
I was after the 18-135 WR as my first lens as I thought it would be a good walk-around lens, it will give me a good (enough) reach for the type of shots I am after, at least initially and the weather resistance (it rains a lot and it is very humid here, also the weather in Auckland changes as frequently as a woman changes her mind!). At the moment, I take mostly macro shots of insects, sports shots of my Border Collie, some landscape shots (heck, it's New Zealand, I might as well!), and I thought that this lens could serve me nicely and cater for that photographic niche.
Unfortunately, Pentax Singapore ran out of stock of the 18-135 UNBOXED version, which is considerably cheaper than anywhere else I have seen. I emailed them about when they expect new stock (whether a matter of days/weeks/months) and they don't really know.
And after this long (boring- sorry
) intro, my question to you guys:
I was wondering whether it is a good idea to start off with a prime lens? I understand it will be more limiting for a beginner, but then again I have used my phone to produce really great images with a fixed focal length (much wider) as well. I just do not want to purchase a lens that will be made redundant with a later purchase of the 18-135 (i.e. the 18-55 WR or another zoom for that matter). I can justify purchasing a prime as it will surpass the 18-135 zoom in low light ability and optical quality and I will probably end up purchasing one at some point ANYWAY. I do not have enough savings atm to buy two lenses so I will only have a single lens for a bit before I save up and hopefully Pentax Singapore restocks!
I had a look at the primes they have, and they have 3 in stock:
SMC P DA 40mm F2.8mm XS - 305 SGD
SMC P DA 50mm F1.8 - 320 SGD
SMC P DA 35mm F2.4 AL - 332 SGD
Does it seem logical to purchase the K-30 with a prime to start with and get used to the camera and later add the 18-135 zoom.
If the answer is yes, which of these would you recommend and why?
Thanks a lot if you stayed and read this far! Sorry for the long post, and thank you in advance for any replies
.