Camera for young students

[rbsinto]

Whatever type of cameras you decide to get, I suggest that you contact KEH and explain the circumstances. First, if you were to buy a quantity of cameras, they might be convinced to give you a bulk price, or even better, donate the cameras to your students.
Worth a try.

 

[chris00nj]

You can teach a lot with a point and shoot. It's what you talk to the kids about that matters. Once they see photography as a means to explore the world around them, as a means of self-expression and as a way to validate their reality, they can do great stuff with any camera. Teaching them about exposure, depth of field, etc without first emphasizing content is usually a losing proposition resulting in mediocre pictures of little interest. In my opinion, of course, but based on more years of experience than I care to acknowledge....

With a digital point and shoot you can teach 99% of what matters in photography, and every photographer that's been relevant in photography history, could have made the same famed images with a digital point and shoot.

Beauty is not in the tool... Not even in the final print... Only in the content, lyricism and composition. And you don't lose a bit of those three with any kind of camera...

Okay, so if you only want to teach composition, why not just have them use their cell phone cameras. I assume every kid has cellphone these days. If not, how about a disposable camera? You can buy and process a disposable for $10. Or have them hold their fingers up in a little rectangle and have them make a clicking sound.

 

[Tom Diaz]

Okay, so if you only want to teach composition, why not just have them use their cell phone cameras. I assume every kid has cellphone these days. If not, how about a disposable camera? You can buy and process a disposable for $10. Or have them hold their fingers up in a little rectangle and have them make a clicking sound.

I thank people for the many useful suggestions and interesting comments.

I incline toward the "cheap but good digital" alternative. Although I would like to be able to "force it," as my kids would say, and teach the rudiments of exposure, I also incline to the idea that teaching composition and selection are more important things with beginners. Anyway, teaching exposure is not really viable at these prices because although the film cameras (like my Fed 5c) are out there, the film itself would be too expensive.

I had thought about the cell phone idea. There are three problems, though. One is that kids in some schools, including mine, are not allowed to have their phones during school hours. Another is that the quality of the images, last time I looked, was not great. A third problem is the need for standardization. One wants each student to be equipped with a tool that has equal power. So buying a few inexpensive digital cameras seems like the thing to do.

 

[shootodog]

pentax k1000 seems to be what photography teachers in universities here seem to suggest.

 

[Neare]

As others have said, a cheap P&S can teach one nothing more than composition really.
'Learning' how to use a camera, you'd really need some form of manual control.

End of the day, composition is learned as a photographer goes along regardless and develops a style. I think what you should be teaching them is how aperture, shutter speed and actually focusing a camera do this and that etc. I don't think the powershot will do an adequate job at that.

I'd go the film path, cheap to start out at least. If they end up enjoying it then hopefully it will be their parents investing the rest. Not to mention it also teaches patience... and the actual origin of photography.

 

[jsrockit]

I'm sure many of us started here... especially older folks, with a kodak instamatic with no manual controls.

 

[Pablito]

Okay, so if you only want to teach composition, why not just have them use their cell phone cameras. I assume every kid has cellphone these days. If not, how about a disposable camera? You can buy and process a disposable for $10. Or have them hold their fingers up in a little rectangle and have them make a clicking sound.

But I am not advocating teaching composition. All of that: composition, exposure, depth of field, etc will not mean anything unless they find a way to invest personally in photography. And that does not come through any camera, it comes by showing them images they can relate to and talking to them about how to tell THEIR stories visually. Once they see they can tell their stories more effectively if they understand the photographic process - only then does it make any sense to bring up composition, exposure, etc.