USVI-On-Line

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Hi, I can help.

I would go with Nikon, for one reason. The lighting capablilities. You will need good lighting to do interiors. Nikon D80 has a pop up flash, you will need it to do off camera flash photography. Invest in 2 flashes preferably the Sb800 or Sb600. The pop up flash acts as a commander. You will be able to shoot wireless with the other 2 flashes in TTL mode. Which means the flashes will be talking to the camera for proper exposure. I do this all the time. Last week I used 9 flashes on a job. It is very easy to do and I can walk you through this. Lighting is the most important thing in photography. Especially if shooting interiors for real estate. Cannon does not offer this in there line up, you would have to buy slaves which is extra. A great site to go to is Strobist.com It will show you everything to get started and also Nikon USA has a video on how to do this as well. Don't be intimidated. It really is easy. Also you can buy diffusers for your flash at Garyfong.com It will also make a big difference in spreading the light. I hope this helps. If you have any questions, let me know.

Sandy

Also, go to a camera store and look at the camera you want to purchase. Get a price, and then go to B&H on their web site. They have the lowest prices and no sales tax for out of state. Make a list of everything you want and compare prices. Don't get a cheap lens. You will need a fast lens, meaning a F-Stop of 2.8 it allows more light to come through the lens. You will pay more money but the results are better.

Good luck

One of my pet peeves. Spending time in a camera shop using up the time of an employee and then going on line to buy.

/just saying

Yes, I understand that, but she needs to put a camera in her hands to make sure that is what whe feels comfortable with. The difference is I know what I want to buy, I don't need to go to a camera store, but she does and she already had a bad experience once before.
If she is worried about being ripped off then she should go to B&H. They have a great track record. I just got ripped off buying something over the internet through Amazon and having a great deal of trouble getting my money back. Going through my bank right now for fraud. The item I bought did not get delivered.
I used to work for a camera store, I know the deal. They try and sell you everything under the sun that you don't need. It is called spiffs. That is why I told her to make a list. Sorry if I offended you, just trying to help her out.

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Hi Chris,

Although not a professional, my husband is a photograpy geek.

One of his favorite retail camera stores is Bromfield Camera on Bromfield Street in downtown (Downtown crossing area). The guys are really knowledgable and not really hard sells; prices are competitive.

Ritz Camera in Natick Collection also has some great salespersons, but more hard sell. If you can get there off-hours, you can get great attention and good information.

He also uses www.adorama.com for on-line purchase.

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There are two ways to handle off camera lighting using the Nikon system. One is TTL which corrects the distance to subject ratios. Fully automatic, but you can adjust the output by 1/3 steps of brightness either way. Also, you can go full manual. Where you have total control of the power, from full power to 1/128 power. Also each flash can have it's own power output all controlled on the camera. Also, SB800 can go optical slave also in manual setting, but hte Sb600 does not have that capability.

Pretty cool what you can do. I do corporate headshots using 3 flashes, using umbrellas, and a nice background. You can not tell that I did not bring in traditional studio lights. Here is a sample.


I would look at several different Nikon's make sure it has flash commander built in and a pop up flash. That is what fires the off camera flashes. Nikon makes a 12-24 flash, I do not own that lens.

Oops, I meant lens at the bottom, 12-24 lens.
I wish I could show what I did with 9 flashes last week in Mississippi, but it was a gov't job and I can't release the photos just yet. Just think a huge aircraft being lit by multible strobes with blue gel.

Here is another quick studio shot I did using flashes. 3 flashes, two in umbrellas and a background flash.
this is my niece and my great nephew, Brennan. All on automatic exposures.

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yikes....i better start reading the manual of my camera.......