Read this If amateur wannabe pro photographer. Review on Nikon FM10

I always had this strange feeling whenever I used to see old photographs.i just loved them. I even seperated me and my friend's photographs from family albums. I wanted to do photograpy.. I still remember I always dreamt of clicking lots of pictures. But when I came to college(NID, ahemdabad) I knew it was time to take photography seriously. I cant convince my parents, I mean I can but cant ask, I dont like asking for lots of cash. my sister in the same college and wanted a digital cam as she's in Film and video... she asked me to to buy a SLR. only she cud ask dad.. Mom is always ready to give anything. So I bought the digi cam for her.. SONY Cyber Shot DSC-W5. Ive written a review on it. And then I asked my dad for an SLR. he didnt refuse just told me to wait for a month. the day I got cash I went in the evening. Went to a shop with my senior in college. Bought the Cam in Grey (means I got it cheap but without bill) he just handed it to me in a thin polythene bag.. looked as if I was carrying some cheap toy from mela. who knew I had a cam worth Rs. 9500 in the thin poly bag. he did give me a cover for cam. it was brand new with lens 35-70 mm.

then after I started doing photography I bought some accessories :

a UV Filter to protect lens(lens coating gets destroyed by continuos exposure to direct sunlight)

Later I bought Macro lens set.. some times useful to shoot ver small objects like insects etc etc...

Reasons for buying FM10:

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>Its cheap .

>Good for starting level and actually learning from basics of photography there's no automated function than LightMeter.

>U have to do everthing manually.

>Because its all manual so there less or no risk in buying in grey.. u can take someone who knows photography he can check it for u.

>Also its a basic Manual SLR but can achieve excellent results...

>Its very durable

U should try and experiment with photography with FM10 and then after an year or two when u think u know much go for DIGI SLR. They'll become cheap by that time. U can get a NIKON D50 for around 30-35 K now.. I think its grey market price.

I ve clicked like 15 + rolls around 500 photographs in past few months.... for me its lots... coz ive spends thousands on develpoing and printing.

I was given first few tips by my senior about photography then I just shot and shot and shot.. first few rolls got pretty screwed coz of lack of understanding of light .. now its improved a lot and still improving.jus let ur self free.

one can always experiment at home college anywhere..

Be reluctant to buy lots of fancy accessories.

Try Black and white rolls too. now we get cheap local black and white rolls for 35 bucks. just shoot. B/W printing is expensive so go for color printing of B/W rolls. Then choose from the photographs developed and get the good ones printed in B/W paper (B/W paper is expensive).

Another Option. Our College has a scanner called Negativce scanner. its a normal HP scanner with an additional function to scan negatives. u can scan negatives directly into the scanner and it shows u positive or actual photograph how it wud look. excellent piece of hardware coz I get the negatives developed for 20 bucks and scan them. almost 4 - 20 photos I feel arent worth developing so I save from 20-80 bucks. per roll. its really cool. Normal scanner cant scan negatives. but u need to give 45 min to 1 hr per roll. but money saved is worth the price.

some cons:

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in manual cameras u need lots of investment in rolls and developing.

FM 10 doesnt have a inbuilt flash. u have to buy and put big ugly flashes.

u cant set time more than 1 sec to click photograps. u have to keep holding the shutter release button.

this is it. I have written a lot I believe I wanna write more but think have to stop.

do reply with ur comments