Budget camera for beginner

[Rekusu]

What ho one and all,

I have taken photos professionally for many decades and know my way around my DSLR Nikon and (within reason) Photoshop.

The duaghter of a friend who is studying fashion, has asked me about buying a budget digital camera, an area about which, I have zero knowledge.

The way I work is to copy the RAW files to my computer then handle them in Photoshop, saving as 16 bit TIFF and as jps for to the end user.

But what does a first time user do? She is obviously familiar with taking photos on her phone and the are saved to Google and/or shared with whomever.

But with a budget camera, I assume she would have to save to her computer and open with an image editing program to adjust? Or is the image in the camera already automatically corrected by the algorithm?

Assuming she would not be printing the photos (in which case, she would need a printer) how does the average beginner share photos from a computer to their social media site?

Sorry about these questions but the essential issue is that I am not 16 and therefore do not understand the very latest technology. But I also don't consider myself an complete techno-idiot!!!

Thanks and toodle pip

[Steve R Jones]

They usually come with a simple USB cable to upload to a computer.

[jdc2000]

What price range are you thinking of?

As Steve mentioned, a USB cable is the usual transfer method for images.

Possibly useful links:

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/digital-camera-review

https://www.microfournerds.com/blog/...or-all-budgets

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cameras/com...era_for_cheap/

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/b...t-cheap-camera

https://www.techradar.com/news/best-cheap-camera

[Rekusu]

Thanks for the replies. I will check the links. Regarding price range I don't know as I have not spoken with her yet but as a 17y/o student, I would imagine that the budget will not be very good.

Of course, things are never easy. Somehow, her mother has found out, has spoken with my wife and told her the her daughter is good a mislaying things. She did kinda know about the camera but did not know that I had been contacted. So my instructions are to encourage her with her photography desire but point her in the direction of a better phone rather than a camera that she may loose.

[Rekusu]

Useful links for the conversation, many thanks. Did not think about the USB cable as I have a card reader in my computer and just remove the memory card. But of course, a cable would be needed for battery recharging so it would double for image transfer.

I know nothing about these el-cheap point&shot cameras but this one (https://www.amazon.co.uk/CAMKORY-Ant.../dp/B0DG88H16Y) gets a good review and is most likely, within the price range for a starter camera.

On a different topic, I don't understand how my Nikon D300 with a mere 12mp sensor size can give good result, when this one has a 44mp sensor. What am I not understanding?

[jdc2000]

Image quality is not just about megapixels:

https://visualeducation.com/why-imag...ut-megapixels/

[Rekusu]

Thanks, have just read the link, very interesting.

However did it become so complex? In the days of shooting film, it was easy to understand; a larger format will be a better quality output as it will not need to be enlarged so much.

But this does not(in my mind) apply to digital. Particularly when I convert my 16 bit tif files to 8 bit jpg and look a the image dimensions. Then compare it with the image dimension of a photo taken on my phone, and the phone is so much larger. I have difficulty getting my mind around that, even though I know the camera will be a better image quality.

Likewise, I save all my images at 300 dpi but a phone is generally only 72 dpi. But why that 72 increases the image dimension so much, I really don't understand.