I remember back when I was a beginner slr user. My entire first year in the photography trade was spent trying to figure out which camera would offer me the best solution for my creative ideas. The market has become so overly saturated since the turn of the new century, that by the time I got into it, my options had greatly increased beyond my comprehension level. After a few purchases, trial and error, disappointment and millions of purchasing mistakes, I finally came to the conclusion that it was near impossible to find the right equipment cheaply, that is, I believed this until I ran into beginner slr forums.

There are a few open forums currently in operation with only one main mission: to assist beginner slr users with their initial equipment purchases. How they do this is by listing off all of the available equipment and, just below these listings, they provide an accurate, bullet point presentation of what each digital camera offers users. For example, these open forums delivered precious information like which brand offers the best internal processors, zooming capability, cropping software, etc. If I had access to this information back when I was a beginner slr user, the debt I had accumulated would have been completely unnecessary, giving me the ability to save thousands of dollars on new cameras, accessories and editorial programs. I even thought it was a good idea to purchase three different Macintosh computers, I was so confused.

That said, these beginner slr open forums also provide excellent pieces of advice on how to starting up your own photographic business! This really excited me, as I had grown to hate the “starving artist” expectation. The trick is to purchase only what your profits will allow, causing it to fit within your budget, and, more importantly, only initial simple projects in the beginning, causing you to require less of the more modern applications the more expensive digital cameras offer. If I had learned this technique, which I learned by reading beginner slr user forums later on, my life would have been a whole lot easier!

These beginner slr user forums also depict which models actually have all of the more modern editorial advancements, yet have been placed either on clearance or on sale. That is also a rather precious resource, as you are able to purchase something that you normally would not of been able to purchase during your beginner slr years. I was able to find the camera I knew I needed in order to pursue the greater projects I had placed on the shelf back in the beginning for a lot cheaper than what the retail stores were offering. It was because of this little discovery that I was able to tackle projects that actually made me much more money than I had originally predicted, bringing out of debt. And thanks to the beginner slr user forums, I will be out of debt forever, even if / when I accomplish bigger and better things.