which digital SLR camera?

oops i should have read the first post properly! i missed the need for group and scenery. Personally being a film user, i find 28 mm fine but for digitals without full frame sensors you do need something like the canon 17-85 is. I havent used this lens but i have used a couple of other IS lenses and its a great feature. Pity the is system is in the lens and not in the body like the minoltas!

i would also consider a cannon 50mm1.8 (which is £54 @ 7day shop) for portraits and low light as the 1.8 provides a great blur. also makes a reasonable macro lens with extension tubes.
http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=30&sort=7&cat=2&page=1

my personal lens is a second hand 28-70L which i got 2ndhand for £400 from a private add in a photo magazine about 4 years ago. its soooo lovely but 28-70x1.6 = 45-112 on the 350D which is not much use for landscape work!

ps what ever lens you get, get some skylight filters to protect the front element and a good lens cleaning cloth! both are vital to keep your lens in perfect condition

 

Thanks for the photos. I've only glanced at a few, will have a better look later, but from what I've seen they look pretty impressive.

So for lenses, I should probably go for a cannon 50mm 1.8 (for group photos / portraits), a 70-200 L f4 (for airshows / wildlife), & the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens (for most other things)

Correct??

 

i would say leave the 70-200 untill you need it as the rest of the kit will keep you smiling for weeks!

 

just a quick shot from the trip to NYC...all i can say is that its probably one of the friendliest camera's i have ever used and well worth every penny!



scuse' moi for the crappy quality but imageshack doesnt do files bigger then 1mb, and all the originals are between 2.6-4.8mb

just saw it's my 4000th post so here's a couple more:





and after all that architecture one bit of graffiti:



...on that note, what programs do/does everyone use to resize pic's as i have not yet found a quick/easy/painless way of doing it! until now its been photoshop --> save for web!

 

Nice shots there - were these taken with the kit lens or something else? I only ask because the first shot looks slightly too wide to have come from the 18-55mm. As for resizing images, I use Irfanview for doing batch resize/rename - makes a very nice image viewer as well.

 

I use the windows XP power toy image resize-er. All you do is right click a batch select an out put res and you’re done.linky

 

I've got some good ones from my camera as well. They've been rezized and the quality has been surrendered a bit, but you'll get the idea.

I like doing subject photography, and most of the lanscape photography is panoramas and such.

 

Just thought I'd add my two pence worth:

I got fed up of waiting for Nikon to bridge the gap between the D70 and the D2X, so I sold up all my Nikon gear, and went over to the dark side.

I was initially considering the EOS 20D, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised it's a waste of money. For a start, it's NOT a professional camera... if you want that, you need to be buying the 1D (whichever one - the build quality and feature set is the same.. pretty much). It's slightly more featured than the 350D, yes, but not by much. The real advantages with the 20D are the way it feels, it's larger size, and weight. This may sounds strange, but teh 350D is too small!! It's not easy to use sometimes because of this. It feels pathetically light and cheap as well.

You know which one I bought tho? The 350D. Why? Cos it's every bit as good as the 20D, that's why. If you fit the optional grip it is weightier, and feels more grown up. The only thing that annoys me is the lack of second command dial, so aperture adjustment in manual is a press a button while dialling affair.

To be honest however, these short comings are only a problem when using the camera manually. How many of you do that? Be honest now.. do you really use it manually all the time? Thought not. Damn.. I AM a professional photographer, and I don't use it manually all the time.

So... here I am, a seasoned pro, buying a cheap plastic toy of a camera... why? 'cos it's a damned fine little camera, that's why. I could have got teh 20D, but I felt like I was being raped by Canon if I did.

The 18-55 lens that comes with the kit is truly, astoundingly bad however.... buy the body alone, and get a decent lens instead.

Overall... I'd say that anyone who buys the 20D is mad. If you shoot a great deal of sport, or wildlife, maybe the faster manual use is a bonus, but I doubt you;d be arsing about metering manually for such fast moving subjects anyway.

Canon 350D... Great camera, good price.. Recommeded.

 

I too am currently in the market for my first Digital SLR and am currently torn on what to get. I've looked into the Nikon D50, the D70s and, of course, the Canon EOS 350D. I've had a play with a Nikon D70 in the past and I found the control to be pretty great, especially compared with the 300D I had a go with. The Canon didn't feel as well built either. It would appear though that the Canon gives the biggest bang for your buck. Anyone care to help me out here? Budget is an issue... I can swing to the higher price of the D70s... But only if it's definitely worth it. i.e. Why not just get a D50 or EOS 350D?

 

Yes.. the Nikon has beter controls... no doubt. Let's put this into perspective. I'm a long time Nikon user... for over 20 years in fact, but when I was in the market for a mid-range digital SLR, I got so annoyed with Nikon for having a huge gap in their range, that I decided to go over to the "dark side" and buy canon, even tho this meant Ebaying quite a few Nikon lenses. The D70 is 6Mpixel, which in itself, isn't so terrible, but when you compare the output of the D70 to the 350D then the Canon is visibly better.

Long gone are teh days where a camera body was just a box to hold flat your film, and it was ONLY lenses that matter. Now the body is equally important. The Nikon, while being better built, having a better control layout, and being easier to use, is visibly inferior to the 350D. I opted for controls that are a bit more awkward to use and better images.

You can read good reviews of both cameras here .

The Canon is also very small, which is a pain sometimes.

If you're one the people who buy cameras cos they look cool, and wear them as jewelery or a status symbol, then get the Nikon, as you'll hate the Canon's lightness, and toylike appearance. If you're a photographer who doesn't give a stuf about what the camera looks like, then get the Canon.

 

Thanks for your input Pookey. After much intensive research and such I have decided that the D70s, whilst having a great kit lens, is still too pricey in comparison to the Canon... BUT. The D50 isn't. I've read up on it and it definitely seems to my tastes. The only major advantage I can see the 350D having over the D50 is the extra megapixels (and size, if you like that... I don't). Personally, I don't really need the extra 15% increase in size when the overall image quality is virtually identical. Both have stronger points in certain areas, but considering my shoestring budget, the lower price has swayed me to the Nikon. Coupled with a ********-hot lens sometime in the future I think I'll be fine!

Regardless, I will try both out tomorrow in-store and hopefully come home one camera better off

Coming from an old Pentax K1000 in the 35mm field and a Nikon Coolpix 775 (4 years old, 2.1 megapixels ahoy!) any modern digital SLR is gonna feel like being thrown forward in time. Haha.

Cheers again.

 

I've been in the market for a dSLR for longer than I'd care to admit (my funds keep being required in other areas ), but I've long been set on the 20D. Even when the 350D was released, I still want the 20D, one of the main reasons being the 5fps and greater buffer over the 350's 2.8fps as I'll be sports shooting a lot, and also the greater ISO range and noise performance throughout the range (plus 9 focus points, etc).

I'll admit I've not been following the camera world goings on for a couple of months as have had a lot else going on, and opening dpreview just now I've seen Canon have just announced the 5D which I remember being speculated about when the 350 came out. It looks great, slotting right in between the 20D and 1DmkII with a full frame 12.8MP sensor and more of the 'pro' features found on the 1D series. I was once considering the 1DmkII for the awesome 8.5 fps and weather proofing, but I think it would just be too chunky for 'everyday' use, so the 5D is a welcome addition.

The nice thing about the 5D is the full frame sensor and extra pro features, whilst still being contained in a relatively compact body (only slightly larger than 20D and with optional grip). It doesn't have the environmental seals, but I guess you'll just have to be careful in wet weather. But, despite having a huge buffer especially considering the greater file size for the 12.8MP, it's only 3fps.

Guess I'll stick to wishing on a 20D then.

PS - Nikon's of course are an option, but I'm not so keen on them after trying out friend's Nikons and Canons, I prefer the Canon.

 

The whole nikon vs canon argument is overrated, you really need to try both cameras and see which is most comfortable for you personally. Bare in mind the 350d is tiny. The difference in image quality is going to be minimal between the d70 and 350d, and ive had zero issues printing images from my D70 at a2. Anyone looking at the D70s should consider the D70 (if you can still find it) as the "extra" features (ie an extra inch of lcd) are not worth the extra 200 quid and the firmware for the d70s is available for the d70.

Lens wise i personally need at least 18mm on the wide side (~28mm in slr terms), for dSLRs remember as pointed out above the crop factor (1.5 for nikon and 1.6 for canon).

Also be careful of buying from places like 7dayshop or ebuyer, as lots of these places grey import and this means your going to get zero warrenty on the body. I got jessops to price match my d70, which means if anything goes wrong you can take it back in person and get it sorted.

BTW K http://nikon.co.uk/sites/d50cashback/ should be of interest to you

 

Cheers for the info and cheers for that link! I'm waiting on an educational grant thingie to possibly happen before I pick up a new camera... So I'll hopefully get around £600 to £800. A D70s looks likely if that's the case. If not, a D50. Will Jessops price match a model from any UK website? Like Dabs and such?

 

Jessops will match any website/shop offering genuine uk stock (which is often difficult to check), i got them the match amazon. They wont match grey importers such as pixmania etc Your best bet is to take a quote and see what they say.

The bonus with the d70s is that you get the 18-70mm which is a cracking lens (retails for ~300 quid on its own) i cant vouch for the quality of the 18-55mm bundled with the d50.

 

D50 on a "shoestring budget" I love you K.

 

Actually.. there difference is quite marked. It's for this reason I decided against the D70, despite it being a properly built camera, that feels nice, has great controls, and opted for a tiny, light, plastic toy of a camera instead. The D70 is very good.. don't get me wrong, but at A3, the difference is easy to notice. Read as many reviews as you want, but I actually set up a tripod at various scenes and shot on both cameras... the 350d was clearly superior in terms of image quality and resolution.

I agree about Nikon vs Canon arguments being silly.. it's not about that.

Basically.. you need to use them both. The Canon is very small, and very light, and looks and feels like a toy compared to the D70, but if you can live with it, you'll get better mage quality.. not photographs... no camera can help with that, but the image quality os definitely higher with the 350d. I'm not saying that 'cos I have one... that'w WHY i have one. I've been using Nikon since 1987, but they just don't have anything to match it in terms of price and performance. They have the D70, then a great big hole in the range until the D2x. They desperately need a mid range 8 to 10Mp body to compete with Canon in this arena.

 

just to jump back to earlier, because i didnt see anyone mention it.
i use photoshop for resizing. for multiple images just go file automate, batch.
to create an action to batch is simple too. just goto action, new, record. then do whatever you want to one of the files.
it will then follow this action for all the other files. so you can end up with some pretty advanced actions doing everything from re-sizing to changing the levels.

 

Just a note to anyone thinking of using 7dayshop, I think they've totally stopped stocking anything Canon... which is a shame since they were the cheapest in the UK by far (I know they're not actually in the UK). Apparently Canon wouldn't supply them with stock because other retailers were complaining that the pricing wasn't fair!

I've just spent a whole lot of money on a camera and lenses but have yet to take many pictures yet, well not proper ones. I did loads of research and in the end settled on a 20D... just before they released the 5D damnit! The whole 1.6x crop thing is a bit annoying at the wide end, but great for telephoto. So far I've got a 50mm f/1.8 (This lens is a must for any Canon DSLR, esp at the price... its only £60 and its so sharp), 17-40L and a 70-200L f/2.8... I think i'm slightly out of control, and in retrospect I should have got a 350D I think. The main reason I bought the 20D was the 5fps burst mode which is amazing. I intend to take a lot of sports pictures, snowboarding etc, where burst mode is useful.

I'm not even sure what the point of the post is any more, but go for Canon if you can IMO

 

The 5D is taking you into a different price bracket again tho... can't really compare that to the D70 or 350D. The 20D maybe, but it's more to compete with the D2X really.. Very nice camera indeed however... and yes, full frame sensor is a very good thing.. it's about time we had a realistically priced body that offers that.