Newbie! Looking for an upgrade? (HELP NEEDED)

[And]

I am a by no way a pro at photography but really enjoy it, I have had alot of compact digital cameras over the time and I have the "kodak M340" at the moment, its ok but I want to go futher with my photography, I am looking to upgrade to a better camrea, maybe a DSLR camera, how ever since it would be my first I would need it to be easy and simple to use and also not cost the earth, can any one recomed a camera for me? or even, what did you first have? and how did you get on with it? if you want to post some of your pictures with your first DSLR camrea to show there shots please feel free,

Many Thanks

And

 

[And]

just bought myself a CANON 450D.

 

[Andy.]

Good first camera. Now go out and take some snaps.

 

[UncleGrumpy]

My first DSLR was a Canon 300D, still got it as a backup.

Some shots taken with it using very expensive glass.

The camera is not the most important part of the equation, what you stick on the front of it will have the biggest impact, but if you're just starting out I wouldn't worry too much about that yet - it's later that you'll be wanting a second mortgage

 

[Andy.]

100-400?
You are right on the mortgage. I am picking up a 1DMkIV tomorrow and have a feeling that I won't want to give it back when I am done with it. There is no way I am dropping that much cash on a body though! At least glass keeps it value well.

 

[And]

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought a 450D and loaded the softwear on my computer and when I plug the usb from the camera to the computer it keeps coming up with "Camera window is not compatible with detected camrea" and I have uninstalling and re-installing, I have looked around the computer to see what I can do to load the pictures to the computer from the camrea but with no luck!!!

please can any one help???

 

[Andy.]

Can you browse through the files with a windows explorer folder? Then you can just copy them over.

I vaguely remeber having a similar problem with my old 40D but can't remeber how I fixed it. Can you try using Zoombrowser to copy the photos instead of camera window?

If all else fails, go to the canon site and download the latest versions of all the software.

 

[dunganick]

What Andy has said ^

My recommendation would be to use a card reader. I find it faster and just much easier to treat the card as a removable device.

The Canon software is also pretty pants from memory. Lightroom or Aperture get my recommendation.

 

[And]

I can open the cemera file via windows and save the files to my computer that way, what softwear do you use to view them or play around with them thats free?

 

[Andy.]

View them with Windows picture viewer. Edit with GIMP if you want something free.

 

[And]

once you've taken a photo, what do you do with it after? just leave it or use a softwear to play with it?

 

[Revels]

The answer is the post above.