New to photography - need help

[PcBeExpensive]

Hey, I'm completely new to photography and I want to take car photos. I currently have a Nikkon 1 J5, I want to stick with that for now but in a few months I might have a budget of maybe $300 ish AUD, not sure if I should buy a new camera or just a lense for the Nikkon (currently have the stock lens, ED IF Aspherical PD-ZOOM [infinity sign]-0.2m/0.7ft is what it says on the lense. What camera should I buy if I do end up buying a camera, would like to get the camera of eBay but I did look and I can find a Canon M50 with a nice lens for about $400 AUD, is that worth picking up? If so what should I look for to make sure it's ok.

 

Also can someone maybe recommend a few yt videos/tutorials/websites or anything to look up to get better at taking the photos, I will also get Lightroom on my phone to learn the editing too!

 

Thanks!

[HanZie82]

If you only have a phone maybe spend it on a notebook so you can properly edit the photo's.
Your posture and time will thank you for this upgrade.
Dont do work on phone that should be done on a proper computer. (but then im oldskool so lots of salt )

[Senzelian]

Nothing wrong with the Nikon and the kit lens for now. It's more important that you learn how to properly use a camera and learn to take good photos.

When I started I used to watch a lot of YT videos, especially Tony & Chelsea Northrup: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyAndChelsea

 

They offer a huge selection of guides for all sorts of cameras and types of photography.

For example there's an almost 1 hour long overview of your camera:

 

 

 

They also regularly critique photos and just a few weeks ago they did a video on cars:

 

And they also have tips and tricks specifically for car photography, like in this video:

 

 

 

Of course they are not always right or perfect, but for me their content was really helpful!

[PcBeExpensive]

5 hours ago, HanZie82 said:

If you only have a phone maybe spend it on a notebook so you can properly edit the photo's.
Your posture and time will thank you for this upgrade.
Dont do work on phone that should be done on a proper computer. (but then im oldskool so lots of salt )

I do have a pc but since I'm just starting out I don't want to too much money on editing apps etc. I want to put my money into a decent lense and a polirising filter i think its called? I do have an Ipad I may be able to use if that would be any better?

[PcBeExpensive]

5 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Nothing wrong with the Nikon and the kit lens for now. It's more important that you learn how to properly use a camera and learn to take good photos.

When I started I used to watch a lot of YT videos, especially Tony & Chelsea Northrup: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyAndChelsea

 

They offer a huge selection of guides for all sorts of cameras and types of photography.

For example there's an almost 1 hour long overview of your camera:

 

 

 

They also regularly critique photos and just a few weeks ago they did a video on cars:

 

And they also have tips and tricks specifically for car photography, like in this video:

 

 

 

Of course they are not always right or perfect, but for me their content was really helpful!

Thanks for the long answer, I will go check out their channel! Any idea what lense I should be trying to get? I don't think I will need a huge zoom lense, because I won't need to zoom in but I am completely lost when it comes to lenses,  I have no clue what the different options are other than zoom!

[Senzelian]

18 minutes ago, PcBeExpensive said:

Thanks for the long answer, I will go check out their channel! Any idea what lense I should be trying to get? I don't think I will need a huge zoom lense, because I won't need to zoom in but I am completely lost when it comes to lenses,  I have no clue what the different options are other than zoom!

Not sure which exact lens you have, but I assume it's the 10-30mm kit lens that came with the camera.

I recommend that you first see what you can do with that lens and find the limits of it. Then you know which one to get next. But if you have the 10-30, then that's a pretty good starting point in regards to its focal range, since your camera has a crop factor of 2.7 it seems. 

 

Crop factor means, that due to the sensor size, your focal range is 2.7 times larger in comparison to a full-frame sensor.

So 10mm on your camera would be equivalent to 27mm on a full-frame camera. 

 

But overall I'd say you should focus less on your gear and instead focus on improving your skills first.

[Blue4130]

3 hours ago, PcBeExpensive said:

I do have a pc but since I'm just starting out I don't want to too much money on editing apps etc. I want to put my money into a decent lense and a polirising filter i think its called? I do have an Ipad I may be able to use if that would be any better?

Use Gimp. It's free.

 

As for lenses, you should not worry about those, use what you have. Gear means VERY little unless you are going after specialized subjects like pro sports, astrophotography etc. Learn the basics with whatever you have already.

[PcBeExpensive]

16 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Not sure which exact lens you have, but I assume it's the 10-30mm kit lens that came with the camera.

I recommend that you first see what you can do with that lens and find the limits of it. Then you know which one to get next. But if you have the 10-30, then that's a pretty good starting point in regards to its focal range, since your camera has a crop factor of 2.7 it seems. 

 

Crop factor means, that due to the sensor size, your focal range is 2.7 times larger in comparison to a full-frame sensor.

So 10mm on your camera would be equivalent to 27mm on a full-frame camera. 

 

But overall I'd say you should focus less on your gear and instead focus on improving your skills first.

The lens is the one that comes with the camera, I am planning to go out to car meets and stuff when they happen in my area to practice a bit. In this case I will stick with my camera for a while! Just a quick question, whenever I take an image the screen for some reason goes black for 1-2 seconds (even on like 1/16000 shutter speed) and if I move the photo goes blurry, do you know why this is? It's really annoying as my hands can't stay perfectly still, they move ever so slightly and it messes up the photo.

[PcBeExpensive]

12 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

Use Gimp. It's free.

 

As for lenses, you should not worry about those, use what you have. Gear means VERY little unless you are going after specialized subjects like pro sports, astrophotography etc. Learn the basics with whatever you have already.

Thanks, I will check out Gimp, is it similar to stuff like Lightroom as in can it do all the basic stuff? I will stick with my current gear for a bit and get better at that! Thanks!

[Blue4130]

34 minutes ago, PcBeExpensive said:

Thanks, I will check out Gimp, is it similar to stuff like Lightroom as in can it do all the basic stuff? I will stick with my current gear for a bit and get better at that! Thanks!

It's more like photoshop. Less user firendly, but so far ahead in abilities. There is Darktable that is functionally like lightroom. More for cataloging and simple edits.

https://www.darktable.org/

[PcBeExpensive]

6 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

It's more like photoshop. Less user firendly, but so far ahead in abilities. There is Darktable that is functionally like lightroom. More for cataloging and simple edits.

https://www.darktable.org/

Ooo thanks, will check them both out. Do you use any of these? If so, what do you prefer?

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, PcBeExpensive said:

Ooo thanks, will check them both out. Do you use any of these? If so, what do you prefer?

I use both. One is not a replacement for the other, they work in tandem. After I ingest everything, I go to darktable for "culling" and selecting the best images. I'll do basic editing (curves and levels) then take it into gimp for further fine tuning and final output.

[PcBeExpensive]

2 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

I use both. One is not a replacement for the other, they work in tandem. After I ingest everything, I go to darktable for "culling" and selecting the best images. I'll do basic editing (curves and levels) then take it into gimp for further fine tuning and final output.

Ahh alright, thanks mate! I'm going to go take some photos then watch a few tutorials on how to edit car photography. Thanks again.

[Senzelian]

19 hours ago, PcBeExpensive said:

Just a quick question, whenever I take an image the screen for some reason goes black for 1-2 seconds (even on like 1/16000 shutter speed) and if I move the photo goes blurry, do you know why this is?

Sorry, unfortunately, I do not. 

[PcBeExpensive]

14 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Sorry, unfortunately, I do not. 

Don't worry, I got it figured out. Thanks for all your help!

[PcBeExpensive]

@Senzelian My teacher let me take some photos one a Canon EOS 1200d, took some nice photos and I liked that camera, I could potentially sell my Nikon 1 J5 for maybe $250 - $300 AUD and then I found that same camera with the same lense (1200d) for $3000 AUD on ebay. Should I try to get that?

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, PcBeExpensive said:

@Senzelian My teacher let me take some photos one a Canon EOS 1200d, took some nice photos and I liked that camera, I could potentially sell my Nikon 1 J5 for maybe $250 - $300 AUD and then I found that same camera with the same lense (1200d) for $3000 AUD on ebay. Should I try to get that?

$3000? What lens?

 

Regardless, I am going to say absolutely not. That is a camera from 2014, so unless it is a highly specialized L lens like a 400 f2.8, it is not worth near $3000.

[PcBeExpensive]

6 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

$3000? What lens?

 

Regardless, I am going to say absolutely not. That is a camera from 2014, so unless it is a highly specialized L lens like a 400 f2.8, it is not worth near $3000.

AHHH NO I MISTYPES I MEANT $300!! OH MY GOD THiS IS PROBABLY THE WORST MISTAKE I HAVE EVER MADE!!!! APOLOGIES! SO for $300 is it worth it?

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, PcBeExpensive said:

AHHH NO I MISTYPES I MEANT $300!! OH MY GOD THiS IS PROBABLY THE WORST MISTAKE I HAVE EVER MADE!!!! APOLOGIES! SO for $300 is it worth it?

If it was me, No. I would use what I have. Learn about what you need by using what you have first. Then after you find it's shortcomings, that is when you buy something more fitting.

[Brian McKee]

I'd just stick with the Nikon 1 for now until you get a decent grasp of the basics and really get a feel for what you need without others telling you what you need. It's very rare that spending more money gets you the results you're expecting if you haven't even gotten a handle of what you already own.