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Niece is interested in photography. What does she need?

I don't know very much about photography. I am willing to purchase some equipment for her but I don't know what camera would be the best. Is digital the best or do people still use film? I have a mid -sized budget, in that I am not too cheap but I don't need the top of the line for a begining sixteen year old either. I don't even know the difference between a Cannon or a Nikon or anything! What about lenses, tripods,other acessories that might be needed?

You really have two options...

1. Just get her a good point and shoot, which might be all she needs at this stage. Lots of people have an interest in something and then find that it is passing interest. If she already has one and is looking to go beyond that fine go for a DSLR, but for someone just starting out I would go with a point and shoot... They are cheaper and would satisfy the casual user quite nicely... just go to a best buy and look for a small Canon... Sensor size doesn't matter much on these they are all getting to the point that they very well for a standard size photo, so more isn't better its just more expensive when it comes to sensor size... Optical zoom is important, more is better... you should find one with at least 5x zoom... you can get more but it comes at the expense of more distortion at extremes of the lens. Maybe a powershot a650, a powershot a720 at the low end or for a bigger zoom a powershot s5.

2. If she already has a point and shoot and she is looking to move up to DSLRs then I would suggest you go with a Sony a200 or a300.... Yes you could also go with a Nikon or Canon model but buying lenses for the Nikon and Canon are more expensive and quality wise they are all pretty much equal at the hobbist level.

Now if go with the canon point and shoot you'll need to get a SD memory card... if you go with the Sony DSLR get a CF memory card. A tripod is always useful. An additional flash isn't required but is very nice to have... if you are getting her the DSLR then an additional lense would be nice, though frankly the lenses for the DSLR could be picked up much more cheaply by buying them used. You don't have to use Sony lenses on the Sony it will also work perfectly with Minolta AF lenses which are readily available on ebay... if you don't want to buy the used lenses on ebay, places like Adorama and BHphotovideo carry lots of used lenses.

The first question you need to answer is which route to go, point and shoot or DSLR... you dont provide enough information for anyone to know which choice is right so you'll have to figure that out.

I see someone is touting a Nikon D40 or D40x... I would strongly suggest you not get either of those or even the D60... while the camera takes great pictures, the camera also lacks an internal autofocus drive in the camera body. That means you are forced to purchase the most expensive lenses for the Nikon. You are also only going to get image stability by buying lenses with it built in. With the Sony the autofocus motor is built into the camera body as is the image stabilization.... as a side note, Nikon purchases sensors for its cameras from Sony so from my perspective that is a pretty good endorsement of the Sony sensors.

Alright... after seeing your additional detail... Go with the Sony a200 or a300... If you can afford the difference get the a300 it adds a swivel LCD screen that can be very useful... you local camera store will certainly have tripods, don't worry about the brand just make sure it feel sturdy.... the standard lens that comes with the a300 will be a 18-70... the camera and that lens should cost less than $600... if a store tries to charge more than they they are ripping you off, you can buy it direct from Sony for 599... if you shop around you might find it a little cheaper I doubt you'll find it cheaper on the internet unless they are selling grey market cameras... It would of course be nice if she had an additional lens with the camera... a reasonable priced lens for it would be a 55-200mm lens... If you buy it from sonystyle by itself it will cost about 229... you can of course buy a packaged deal from adorama that includes the camera, the 18-70mm and 55-200mm lens for 799... which means would save about 30 dollars off buying the items seperately from Sonystyle.com... If you wanted to be the perfect aunt or just spoil her you could throw in a flash to go withit.. it isn't requied and you could also just hold off on that until later, christmas present... flashes aren't cheap which is why you could hold off on that for a while.... the low end flash is a HVL-F36AM that is currently onsale at Sonystyle for 200... the top of the line is a HVL-F58AM for 500... the low end would suit her needs..... so don't let anyone oversell you on the flash...Lastely she needs a memory card for the camera.fortunately the Sony DSLRs use "compact flash" or CF memory cards instead of the more expensive duo memory that most sonys use... Don't buy the CF memory from the sony site or any other online site you can almost always get a much better deal just looking in the Sunday paper circulars and going to the Bestbuy/Circuit City/or whereve that is selling them at the lowest price. She needs a 2 GB card as a minimum... I would probably suggest two 2GB cards instead of one 4GB card if you wanted to get her more memory.. memory isn't perfect and the larger the memory chip the more you stand to lose when it dies.

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