On Fri, May 22, 2009 15:49, mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > Well I am going to make a suggestion that just might surprise a great many > of you. (well maybe not but oh well) KEH www.keh.com has some great deals > on used cameras. There are a whole selections of cameras that are > available that will out do most of the cameras you are likely looking at > and for a huge sum of about $30 to $40 a piece. You can probably buy 3 or > 4 of those for what one of what you were expecting to spend. You just > have to be willing to say a 4 letter word. "Film" You are going to get > more value for your dollar, and would likely be able to put a camera in > the hands of every kid in the class for MUCH less. Yes, but they won't all be the same, making giving precise instructions much harder. And they'll be bigger and heavier. Actually they can be, or at least close enough that the difference from camera to camera isn't an issue. Most of the Canon models I have used have been very close. I am sure Nikon and Pentax are also very close. You would want to stay at least with the same manufacturer. Now this would be a problem if you mixed Pentax with Nikon an Canon maybe, but with the fundamentals maybe not. The Canon Rebels are in the $30 to $50 range and I suspect you would have no trouble getting all you wanted. Now they would be larger and heavier but that is a plus for two reasons. First its much harder to walk off with something of some size and weight. The Rebels are just not so heavy that a child old enough to understand what you are trying to teach is going to struggle with the weight. The extra weight also usually means tougher. Mom used to run a day care and she once had a brick bbq grill she let a kid take down with a stick. It took the kid a while and mom was going to take it down any way. The kid thought he was getting away with something and he just sat there for months chipping at the morter until it was down and done nothing with a stick. When its for kids, it needs to be tough. The extra weight also adds to the ability for one to hold it steady. An old trick many used was to put a hook on a bolt that would screw into a tripod mount on the body. To that hook they would attach a string with a weight on the end. It's the poor mans gyro stabilizer. It works. And, the really big important issue -- the feedback loop gets stretched across *days*. The kids mostly won't remember what they did when the film comes back, so making the association between choices and results will require more focus and concentration. I think this issue dominates in choosing how to introduce gradeschool kids to photography. Here we just disagree. Having been there done that, kids are a lot more attentive and motivated than an old geezer like myself might expect IF its something they want to learn. Yes the loop is stretched out a bit, but with overnight processing to a CD or prints, that is not the end of the world. They don't get test results back that day either. Just as in other subjects, kids are accustomed to learning that takes place over weeks and months. It is adults that want to know it and want to know it right now. Like art, music an athletics , a subject like photography is usually something they choose not something they MUST do. Never underestimate the ability of a motivated kid. Now one thing another poster mentioned and I completely agree with is that note taking should be a part of the process as well. Fact is at that age they should be used to it with other subjects. For them its a normal part of the day. It is only for us that its unique. -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@xxxxxxxx; http://dd-b.net/ Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/ Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/ Dragaera: http://dragaera.info
