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New Re: How to take good photos for under $1000.
Here's some work by a pro tog with an elderly 350D and the 18-55mm kit lens:

http://blog.zhangjin...html#.UrbUZPRdUjE

The photographs are excellent.
New Neat.
Thanks for all your comments and the pointers.

My take on the piece was a little different. Of course he was tweaking people to get more hits to try to have more sales. That's fine.

I think he explicitly said in the comments that his audience for that piece was people who want to get noticed on Facebook. That means pictures of people, and portraits like blurred backgrounds. If all else is equal, that means reasonably large sensor size and reasonably large apertures - things you can't get on most cell phone cameras. (A more accurate explanation is here - http://www.vanityfai...ol-mirrors-lenses )

Of course, the hardware doesn't matter as much as understanding what you're doing. People have taken fabulous pictures with pinhole cameras - http://www.lowtechma...mera-obscura.html - but they're not too good for candid portraits. ;-)

( Apparently someone proved recently that Vermeer used a camera obscura for his paintings - http://www.vanityfai...ol-mirrors-lenses though the subject has been controversial for a while - http://www.essential...scura/co_one.html )

Anyway, his audience seems to be people who are willing to spend some money, but not much time, and want to take better candid portraits. "Do this, this, this and you're done. Your pictures will be much better than what you get with a P&S or most cell phone cameras." If some of those people want to learn more, great. If not, he's made $20. ;-)

My $0.02.

Cheers,
Scott.
New But they won't, though.
They'll buy a DSLR, and they will buy a copy of lightroom, and they will process numerous pictures where they missed the moment because they were fiddling with their camera instead of taking a photo with their phone.

DSLRs are not particularly easy to use compared to phones. Once you've invested the time and effort to understand them, they can point and shoot faster than any phone or P&S, but there is no short-circuiting the learning process.

Nowadays, phone cameras - especially those in phones like the iPhone 5/5S, Sony's Experias and Nokia's Lumia line, and even those in Samsung Galaxies - are sufficiently effective that with a little consideration and thought, they'll work better for the casual shooter than a DSLR.

Arguably the greatest candid photographer of the 20th century - Henri Cartier-Bresson - took all his pictures on a little Leica. The "decisive moment" was what mattered, not technical perfection. And that's what people who are shooting for Facebook want, too.
Expand Edited by pwhysall Dec. 22, 2013, 12:15:22 PM EST
New 350D and the 18-55mm kit lens
That's some of my gear
"Pictures are better then words because some words are big and hard to understand"
Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
     How to take good photos for under $1000. - (Another Scott) - (30)
         GMTA. - (Ashton)
         Re: How to take good photos for under $1000. - (pwhysall) - (4)
             TL;DR: learn how photography works. :-) - (static)
             Re: How to take good photos for under $1000. - (Ashton) - (2)
                 Re: How to take good photos for under $1000. - (pwhysall) - (1)
                     Last sentence: mandatory for every Pol on the planet! (too) -NT - (Ashton)
         One more thing - (pwhysall) - (19)
             Wait, *that's* what he's selling? Holy crap -NT - (drook)
             On Bryan's book... - (Another Scott) - (17)
                 It's got many, many more glowing ones. - (pwhysall)
                 On "imprecise" explanations - (drook) - (15)
                     Yes. And no. - (Another Scott) - (14)
                         How is that "wrong"? - (drook) - (11)
                             It invites confusion. - (Another Scott) - (10)
                                 Yes, and no, and yes again - (drook) - (7)
                                     You've brought up another important issue - (Another Scott) - (6)
                                         Re: weeding out - (drook) - (3)
                                             Fun. :-/ - (Another Scott) - (2)
                                                 Why would you expect pure rotation with an edge hit? - (drook) - (1)
                                                     Ah, ... - (Another Scott)
                                         Belated comment to (this, buried-in 'Hardware'.) - (Ashton) - (1)
                                             Thanks. I remembered the wrong book. - (Another Scott)
                                 Bingo! Max Jammer's 'Concepts of Force' gives you a qed - (Ashton) - (1)
                                     Gotta move it up my reading list! Thanks for the reminder. -NT - (Another Scott)
                         NO!! ... keep-on 'being sensitive' - (Ashton) - (1)
                             :-) "... of course, you learned this in kindergarten..."!!1 -NT - (Another Scott)
         Re: How to take good photos for under $1000. - (pwhysall) - (3)
             Neat. - (Another Scott) - (1)
                 But they won't, though. - (pwhysall)
             350D and the 18-55mm kit lens - (Bman)

You want to debate how many LRPD's fit on the head of the GRR?
176 ms