A good camera for an amateur?

What's a good camera for an amateur photographer?

• I've never taken profesional photos before, and im only 14, but im really into photography, and i want to get a good camera with zoom and all that stuff lol right now ive got an Olympus something or other, when i bought it last year they told me it was being discontinued, and its not really the kind of camera i would think of using for taking scenic and artsy kind of photos anyway. so what kind of camera would you recommend for me? btw, i was thinking of taking a class or reading a book on photography, any suggestions?

• Answer:

  That's a really hard question to answer. With so many cameras out there it's hard to pick one. (I did several months of research before I bought mine.) One of the most useful tools I used was this: http://www.myproductadvisor.com/mpa/camera_/inputSummary.do It's not spam, I promise. You select how important a feature is to you such as zoom, weight, size of the LCD screen and so on. It takes what you considered most important and narrows down the options according to what you picked. I would suggest doing more research on what it pulls up however, sometimes sites may be slightly biased. My personal preference is Canon, although i've had good luck with kodak too. As for photo editing you could try Gimp, I heard a lot of people like using that. (i have photoshop so I ever used it) If gimp isn't good enough go with Corel paint shop, it's cheaper than adobe (photoshop) products.