Originally posted by jtkratzer My daughter constantly wants to play with a camera. She runs around with an old P&S, but there's no learning on how photography works with it. Right now, she's walking around with a ZX-5 in manual mode and an M lens on it working on centering the exposure meter with the shutter speed and aperture ring. I'm not spending the money on film development at this point for her. Any suggestions on a Pentax DSLR I can get her started with to see the results and start learning how aperture and shutter speed work for exposure, depth of field, etc? I want something I can stick in manual mode and either use a manual lens or put it in manual focus mode with a kit lens.
I went to several events and there was a little girl she always attends as well (Her mom is a close friend of the host). I often comes in with 2 cameras, I'll give her one. She loves to take photos of babies, kids, flowers, and pets. To my surprise is that first two events she was in, she couldn't figure out the manual focus and shutter speed, so there were a lot of blurry images. Later on the 3rd event, she figured out if she con't use the focus ring, she will move herself back and forth for sharp focus. It's fun since she is much shorter, so her vintage point is totally different than mine. She would take a shot with a guy with a beer in hand, and her camera perspective comes from below the beer bottle. I can't think I would ever do that kind of a shot. (It would be weird for me anyway).
The lesson I learnt from her is. She will figure out the manual focus by moving herself around and turning the focus ring. The most interesting "tutoring" I gave her is.. See the "aperture"? smallest number is blur background, largest number is sharpest background.. she just picks up right there.
She even figured out how to do selfie with a mirror from the wall.