What camera would you use to teach someone photography?

"you'll be able to concentrate on the proper structural flirt (I mean focus)"
Yeah, she's beautiful, and that doesn't help. We met on my stay in Berlin, she works at the Holstel I stayed at. Wonderful girl, in college but won't be able to take the photo class she wants in the upcoming semester.
I stood right in front of her with my M3 and didn't get a picture of her. That's how mesmerized I was by her beauty. And she's just such a sweet person too.

"i might even start with the simplest p&S to teach basic framing and composition - then move on to things like DOF, exposure, ISO using a DSLR."
I was actually thinking of starting off with learning the EV scale. The way I learned it and can teach it, it'll take about 5 minutes and I'll have her understanding how to use the controls to set a proper exposure. Then on to focus, DOF, and framing.

"Tell her to drag the unloaded camera along for a couple of days, shooting everything she sees at any time she can."
That gives me an idea to try out. Thanks
 
I think looking at the scene through the lens and checking DOF there is nicer than chimping.

When I teach my kids, I'll do it with an SLR and short tele, and with a RF and wide for prefocusing. Both cameras from the first day. Film for sure! B&W! They'll shoot and I'll develop and wet print for some time!

Cheers,

Juan
 
A few possibilities:

- Are you focusing on composition, etc? Pick up a decent digital point and shoot. Worry about the rest once your friend wants more control.
- Are you focusing on metering, manual use? Pick up a digital SLR. The model depends mostly on what support network the two of you have (experience, lenses you can borrow, etc)
- Are you focused on film SLR/rangefinder? I'd suggest an Olympus OM2/n type camera for the size, handling and results.

In the end though, its going to be more about what motivates your friend to take pictures more than anything. Maybe a camera is most likely to be used if it is compact. Or maybe a particular format - my wife, a digital point and shoot user, recently took to the Rolleicord as she liked the square format and picture quality. Or maybe a particular model camera has some romantic associations.
 
Pirate said:
"you'll be able to concentrate on the proper structural flirt (I mean focus)"
Yeah, she's beautiful, and that doesn't help.
I stood right in front of her with my M3 and didn't get a picture of her. That's how mesmerized I was by her beauty.
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Aha!!! Now that's tragic... :bang:

Forget all that technical product bs.... Just stand close behind her and wrap your brawny man arms around her soft shoulders and hand her your M3, gently coaxing her fingers into the correct Leica fondling position. Now pull her hair back off her slender neck and whisper sweet incantations of artistic longing into her youthful, delicately perfumed and peach fuzzy cheek. :p

If you make her experience a true, short yet lasting one, she'll take off like a Nasa space launch in a life long effort to rekindle that lunar spark of artistic creativity.

It is an ancient truth that sex and creativity are forever linked. :angel:

We can never expect to grow creativity through exhaustive pedagogy.
We can only share experiences with one another that moisten the seed. :rolleyes:
 
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35 mm film requires too much exactitude to make a beginner's results look competitive with even the most modest DSLR. 120 looks *fantastic* from the start.

Yaschica TL and Tri-X. Straightforward to use, forgiving, easy to scan, and you get usable (if small) pictures by merely contact printing, so no enlarger is needed.

No meter is required, either. Just print this (or a similar guide) and laminate it: http://www.johnbrownlow.com/phb/techniques/exposure.html
 
Well I'm not looking to buy anything new (or used). I have plenty of cameras, it's just a matter of which ones I should bring for her to use. She's very bright so picking this stuff up should be no problem for her. She's witty too, so I'll have to be careful on trying to make jokes.... She wants to learn film photography and developing but we won't have a place to develop while I'm out her way visiting so the film will get dropped at the lab.
Although, if she were to see some neat old camera at a shop that she wanted, I'm sure she could smile her way into me buying it for her :D

Yes, I'm a sap.
 
Use your D700. The instant feedback will be a great aid to learning. There's no real need, other than zeal, to use any type of film camera. Personally, my learning really ramped up when I got a DSLR within a couple of years and 200,000 shots, I went back to film and now am wasting less of it.
I see the appeal of using a film / all-manual camera because you can't rely on the full automation that a DSLR can provide, but have her on manual and with the benefits of seeing the results. Then move into Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority. And welcome her into the craziness of photography : )
 
Sketchbook-before-canvas... I'd get a used D40 or Canon equiv with the kit lens.

If you want to teach composition and exposure, a digital SLR gives immediate feedback. When her eye and image taking skills improve, she can move on to post-processing improvements and film.
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
I think looking at the scene through the lens and checking DOF there is nicer than chimping.

When I teach my kids, I'll do it with an SLR and short tele, and with a RF and wide for prefocusing. Both cameras from the first day. Film for sure! B&W! They'll shoot and I'll develop and wet print for some time!

Cheers,

Juan
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there is something to be said for this Juan, I agree. B&W doesn't have to be expensive, anticipation and pre-visualisation are useful disciplines too.
 
I would undoubtedly vote for a camera in which you can compose the image looking at it from a distance. In he old days that would have been a TLR or a view camera, today, it can be a digicam, but it should be able to handle lenses with meaningful possibility of manipulating the dof. One of these latest Olympus or Panasonic 4/3 cameras with a fast MF lens should do the job. Also a tripod would be very welcome.
 
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A digital slr certainly is convient and has merit for the feed back. However one must consider that the dslr is simply a computer that takes pictures. I think I would go for a classic such as an SRT101 or an M3. Once the student learns to be a photographer, then maybe go for for the dslr.
 
Pirate said:
How to set exposure/operate the camera, and then composure and stuff.
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What I used to do to "Teach" exposure, was to have them meter the 1st image, then adjust the f/stop (widest 1st) and shutter speeds to achieve the same exposure, and at the same time you teach how f/stop affects DOF standing in the same spot. By having a close subject in focus in this series. this gives you negatives that teach a few things with each image.

SLR is a good choice with a DOF lever.

Have fun....
 
I'd say the Pentax K1000 is about perfect, but from your list, I'd suggest the Nikon F3. I'd also suggest a prime (50mm).

Jeremy
 
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