heyadam: Any photographers here?

heyadam 01.26.20	also I saw that adobe creative cloud seems to pretty much the only option for owning photoshop/lightroom and you can't just outright buy them anymore?
JohnnyoftheWell 01.26.20	I roll amateur stuff on a Canon setup with a few decent secondhand EF lenses, love the camera but all about those lenses (esp prime) - don't pull punches there! No use getting a decent camera if you don't give it the right kind of firepower I'm on FXP and don't bother with Adobe, but they're a rare company that I'd wholeheartedly recommend pirating the living shit out of because fuck that distribution model and their lazy development costs
heyadam 01.26.20	I pirated photoshop and premiere back in the day but wasn't sure how piratable they were nowadays since they upgraded to the subscription shit. what's FXP? And yeah, didn't necessarily want to pull any punches on lenses yet, but since I've been out of practice and probably won't see heavy use with any new gear until next year I kinda wanted to just ease myself into everything
ramon. 01.27.20	The G9 is my primary photography camera, and I use Creative Cloud daily. It's a brilliant camera. Thing feels like a small tank build wise; it is a considerable amount more rugged than all other mirrorless cameras out there right now, with better weather sealing than ostensibly every other Panasonic camera (and Panasonic have a very good rep for their sealing). Can't go wrong using it as a travel camera. The ergonomics are brilliant so if you spend the time learning all its features, you'll be able to fully operate it without needing to button through any menus. The video features were brilliant before but the camera's just gotten a firmware update that puts its video options on par with the GH5, and the autofocus has been drastically improved too so it'll work super well as a hybrid. Given its a mirrorless M4/3, its suitably small making it a great fit for street photography if you chuck the right lens on it. As for lenses, if I could recommend just a single lens to anyone buying anything M43, it'd be the Panasonic-Leica 12-60mm. Prices online will probably deter you but if you decide it looks cool, ask your local camera dealer if they can bundle it in with the G9. It's a weather sealed upgrade to the 12-60mm kit lens that comes with the G9 so most dealers will massively discount the price if you pick it up with the G9. 12-60mm on a MFT sensor is equivalent to 24-120mm so you'll be covering basically everything. It's f2.8-f4.0 (or double that for the full frame equivalent) so it'll get the job done. Given the G9 has the best stabilisation on the market, you'll be able to take shots with exposure times up to like, 5 seconds, completely hand held so outside of a few niche situations, you won't have many aperture worries at night. Definitely one of the best kit lenses for any camera out there. The standard model of the 12-60 is also great, but it isn't sealed or nearly as robust. Otherwise, Olympus and Panasonic each have their own nifty fifties that are a good time all round, just look up their 25mm lenses and take a crack at whatever matches your budget as both brands have a plethora of options. Olympus also have some brilliant pancake lenses that are reasonably priced if you predominantly plan on doing street or just don't mind a wide look. Their 17mm is very bright, wonderfully sharp, and small as a button. Pretty cheap too, hovering around the $250AUD mark. I always have a fun time bringing it with me when in cities.
ramon. 01.27.20	Yea all Adobe products are Cloud locked now unless you buy copies of prior iterations. That goes for a fair amount of softwares in the visuals industry now, I think even Capture One have shifted over to a subscription model. It's a little annoying, though it gets a lot of people in the door given stuff like Photoshop used to be extremely expensive up front. For photography, you only really need Lightroom so if any of the subscription models seem within your pricing bracket, it's a worthwhile investment if purely for the Cloud features. Gives you the freedom to edit any photos in your library across all your devices.
heyadam 01.27.20	glad to hear the G9 is working great for you! I was talking to my friend and he pointed me in that direction and I'm definitely heavily considering it. Thanks for the lens rec -- I think when it's time to upgrade past the kit lens I'll definitely consider that as well if I can't find a good bundle deal. This is going to be 100% for personal hobby use so a huge investment right now isn't what I'm really going for, but I'm def not trying to skimp on quality or anything I'll probably end up just going in on the $10USD Lightroom/Photoshop subscription, but I'll probably want premier pro at some point as well when I get back into video work.
ramon. 01.27.20	Alternatively for video, you can check out Davinci Resolve. I used Premiere for the better part of a decade and still use it on occasion, but I've pretty much completely shifted over to Davinci. There's a near fully feature complete free version that'll work for 95% of your needs, then a studio version that's on a one time purchase model. While not as versatile as a conventional DSLR or mirrorless camera, the Ricoh GR series of cameras are a brilliant choice for travel and street. The GRIII is one of the best cameras I've ever used. Super small, super sharp, great image profiles, worth taking a look at. Maybe a little too on the point and shoot end for what you are likely after if the G9 is on your radar but a brilliant piece of tech nonetheless.
heyadam 01.27.20	awesome, really great recs. thanks a ton! Davinci sounds wonderful -- I've been away from the premiere workflow long enough to where learning a new one doesn't seem like a pain. I'm really excited to jump back in. I've lived in two pretty prime locations the last several years for photography, but I've recently had to move back to my hometown and will be here for like a yearish in total, and it's the most unphotogenic place in the world and kind of sucked any of that creativity out of me. Planning a move in 2021 though, so I want to get back into practice. Honestly the editing portion of visual work is my favorite part. I could spend endless hours with editing software and I'm not even great at it lol
heyadam 01.27.20	you guys have any favorite shots you've taken you'd like to share here? I always like looking at other people's work
ramon. 01.27.20	haha hey man, gotta make the most of wherever you are. use your current locale as a challenge! been posting hobby stuff on vsco on and off for the last few months vsco.co/ramongolia
reverendgreen95 01.27.20	I use a Canon 6D and love it. Not sure what the going rate is used these days but you may be able to pick one up with a decent prime around the higher end of your price bracket. Can't speak for the quality of other brands but I've always enjoyed using Canon products, although Sony seems to be the company really pushing things forward right now. Also I use an old copy of Photoshop CS6, gets the job done. Learned on photoshop and haven't felt inclined to switch. Whatever you end up choosing, just have fun with it and don't get too lost in the gear, it's a satisfying hobby to work towards improving on :) https://www.flickr.com/photos/joe-stanton/albums/72157633257511616 some of my favorite shots are posted here, lots of concert photos and random other stuff.
heyadam 01.31.20	haha I'll list your guys' stuff even though no one else will check out this list probs. I took down all my stuff once, but I'm restarting a vsco profile so I threw up my favorite photo I've taken in general! vsco.co/aaamanse I'm definitely gonna be picking up the G9 so I'm stoked about that. And then I actually just switched from macs for the first time in my life last week lol. Nothing wild but I picked up the Dell XPS 15 and I'm pretty stoked about it
loveisamixtape 01.31.20	no point in this comment but i shoot mostly film and have used a d3500 for years in very casual amateur digital photography and i still love it
JWT155 01.31.20	My brother has a Nikon D5200 and loves it.
heyadam 02.01.20	@loveisamixtape I'd love to get into film eventually! I just immensely love the editing process so I prefer digital rn. @JWT155 nice, switching from a Canon to a Lumix so I haven't had much interaction with Nikon tbh -- maybe its not true but I feel like Canon and Nikon are p much the same