I would strongly argue that the best thing for an amateur would be to buy a blackout curtain, a cheap SLR and learn the satisfaction of developing your own film! I use digital 99% of the time just like everybody else but when you have film and cannot preview an image or rely on a chip to compensate you learn so much more about lighting, getting the settings right and making sure every image you take is the right one, not the right one from 50 other exposures.