Recommendations for teachers?

[Tom Diaz]

I have taught a photography elective off-and-on over the last few years, to middle school students in the US. (That is, ages about 11 through 16.)

I did some research a few years ago and decided to use Panasonic ZS6 and ZS7 cameras, which worked out fairly well.

Now it's time to renew the stock (maybe), and I would welcome recommendations, especially from fellow teachers who actually have used some camera for teaching.

Specifications:

1. Cost << US$300 apiece.
2. Lens as fast as possible (much more important than a zoom, not that you can find many non-zoom cameras).
3. As much manual control as possible.
4. Digital, not film. My school does not have the resources to process film, and I don't want to go there anyway.
5. Fairly recent manufacture, maybe ≤ 5 years of age. Want to find some that are in good shooting condition and that might conceivably be repairable.

Thanks in advance if anyone has good suggestions.

Tom

PS I could buy ZS7s used, and those would be the devils I know. However, a faster lens would be nice even if the zoom feature went away.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

You have 16 yr old middle school students? I teach middle school too, and none of my kids are older than 14. As for cameras, I don't know. I don't teach photography; its not offered in the middle schools in my district. I'm a history and English teacher.

 

[finguanzo]

That was useful.

 

[rhl-oregon]

Tom, were I in your position, I'd be tempted to make a package offer on those 5 GXRs with the A16 zooms that I mentioned in the GXR thread. They're right in your ballpark.

Sounds like a delightful class. While uniformity of equipment/assignment has its undeniable advantages, I'd consider what might be gained by having a few different gear options that could be rotated but also allow students to work in smaller teams (the GXR team, the Panny team, the waterproof p/s team--everyone would want to be on the waterproof cam team...)

My teaching years were in writing, mostly in undergrad poetry/fiction/nonfiction, but also in running workshops for all ages (including graduate research faculty), and one thing I learned in the decades of teaching was that people love small groups, and love to switch approaches, to use A/B testing (whether it's sonnets v. pantoums, Fender v. Gibson, film v. Digital, or switching types of genre or gear). OTOH you are dealing with school administrators which may make standardization (and retail receipts/warranties) unavoidable.

No doubt I'd be insufferable in offering you more pedagogical advice if I were lucky enough to be your colleague. I hope you hear from RFFers with experience similar to yours.

 

[RichardP]

Early micro two thirds bodies are very cheap and could be paired with adapters and film era lenses of all sorts for very little and might be a good teaching tool -- I have no teaching experience so that may be rubbish advice!

 

[YYV_146]

Second on the early M4/3 bodies. I'm sure someone makes super-cheap manual lenses for m43 mount. They can probably be slightly less cheap since manual lenses can go from body to body.

 

[BillBingham2]

Another approach might be a used Nikon D40/D60 and the loads of older Nikkor and 3rd party glass.

You can use the histogram on the back as a sort of exposure learning tool.

You should have a path to the D3000 sized cameras a few years out.

B2 (;->

 

[aizan]

fuji x10 and x20
sony rx100
canon g15
panasonic lx7
olympus xz-2
pentax q + 8.5/1.9