Equipment Help with Camera Choice

Guys,

Looking at picking up a DSLR in the next month or so, and just wondering if anyone has any recommendations or good places to read up and find info.

Budget wise, well that depends have a decent amount to spend but that doesn't mean I want to spend it all (if that makes sense)

Photography wise, I'd like a decent all purpose lense to start with with the view to picking up a specialist macro and zoom at somepoint in the future. Usually use a mix of zoom/macro on my current "compact" camera. From what I've read, the stock lenses on most camera's are pretty decent but again if its worth the extra I may consider upgrading a stock lense.

Thanks for any advice anyones able to give.

 

Hey

My first choice for a DSLR was the Olympus E-520, which is a decent camera for it's price. But the thing is that I only bought it a couple of months ago and haven't really used too many other cameras. And therefore I really can't give you good advice about the make and model you should go out and buy.

What I can give you advice on is how to invest your money to the right equipment at least from a beginners point of view on the matter.

I chose the Olympus because of four things. Firstly it had Live View, which is quite standard in any camera you can buy atm. Secondly it had an attractive package offer of two kit lenses (double tele zoom kit) which are 14-42 (28-84 @ 35mm) and 70-300 (140-600 @ 35mm). Third point was the well working anti-dust system (SuperSonic Wave Filter). And the most important feature for me was the IS aka. the anti-vibration system which is built in the body and not in the lenses.

Okay, a decent set of good arguments. Now after about 3 months and about 4500 photos taken, I can tell you how I'd go about it now.

I do remind you that I'm quite happy with my investment still, but this is just how I'd think and go about buying a camera now.

1.) Live View: It can be good for macro photography, but I haven't gotten around to using it too much yet. It might still prove to be a good thing, but for now, it's been almost useless to me.

2.) Kit lenses: This is something I'd do differently now. Sure, the dual kit lens set gave me a damn good coverage (although with a small gap in between), but even at this stage I've noticed their flaws and restrictions. For example I've bought the 12-60mm Pro-grade lens, which cost more than the body and the kit lenses together So, next time around I'll be going with only the body and adding better lenses from the start to it.

3.) Anti-dust system is really good to have, no cons here, especially when Olympus anti-dust system is regarded to be the best.

4.) Anti-vibration system is also a must. Whether it is in the lens or built in the body, I really don't know which is better. One thing I do know, go for it in some form. Also, I've noticed that Olympus glass is soo much more expensive than other brand lenses that it really wouldn't make a difference if I didn't have the anti-vibration system built in the body.

Also one thing I noticed is that the "big players" aka. Canon and Nikon have a huge amount of used lenses on the sale, even here in Finland. I could buy them from forums, local camera shops etc. But when it comes to Olympus, I'll have to buy almost every piece of equipment new as there really isn't any used stuff around.

IMPORTANT!!! When you're buying your first DSLR, learn about sensor sizes and the crop factors. On the other hand, I'm loving the x2 crop factor of the Olympus, but on the other hand, the sensor is quite small. Seriously, read about them

Other equipment that you should get are at least a decent tripod and an external flash. I used to hate flash on my last camera (which didn't have a hot shoe), but now I'm loving it since I got an external one. This is how opinions change

I'm sure I've missed something, but this is a start...

Darkened

 

Everyone's going to have different opinions on cameras.

Personally I like Pentax, but I might be alone here. The K200D is a good little starter DSLR with mechanical image stabilisation built into the body, anti-dust shaky sensor thing as well as the usual camera features. It uses AA batteries which means if you get caught short in the field you can pick up spares fairly easily.

Big brother to the K200D is the K20D which has a bigger sensor (14.6mp vs. 10.2mp) and Live View.

They're worth having a play with if you have a friend with one/in a shop.

Otherwise, Canon. Upgrade to L glass in the future, stuff like that?

 

http://www.dpreview.com/ or http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/

 

Perfect just what i was looking for!

Been trying to get my head around F-Stops and focal lengths for a while Cheers dude!

Camera wise, I'm probably looking more towards a Canon or Nikon. Having had previous experience with both (in the form of compacts) I like the way their menu's work etc and there's lenses widely available.

 

Yeah, should have read the post more carefully. Steves Digicams have decent in depth reviews.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/

 

I went for a slightly stranger (and more expensive) route than some of the others here. My first DSLR (and first real camera) was a Canon 40D. It was on special at the time, and I had researched heavily before i bought. Remember that ultimatly you are not buying into a body , as you will upgrade and go through more than one body. You are ultimatly buying into a lens system, which is probaly one of the reasons many shooters go for Nikon and Canon, over smaller brands, as they have large range of new and used lens' on the market. My main advice would be to read lots and lots of reviews before making your decision, and also talk to actual people (like your doing here) before buying. Then try out different cameras in the store and see how you find the menus, ergonomics, build quatlity etc.

 

Found http://www.jessops.com/Store/s74764.../Canon/EOS-450D-Twin-Lens-Bundle/details.aspx
deal at jessops (+50 quid cashback from canon)

The extra lense seems to retail for a bit over 100 quid so it seems like a fairly good deal.
Reading up, the tele lense isn't the best (but for that price wouldn't really expect it to be brilliant) with most complaints being its a bit slow. Since I'm not going to be using it (at the mo) for much live action don't think that's a massive problem.
Certainly not expecting it to be fantastic but the overall package seems quite nice for an "entry level" setup. Gives plenty of room to add new lenses etc but gives a fairly decent starting point to upgrade from.

Other option, is to get the base 450D and a slightly more expensive telephoto lense instead however I'd prefer to get some practice in with a "cheaper" lense to start with and then upgrade to a decent one if i'm getting sufficient use out of the camera.

 

Anyone have any opinions at all please?

 

Looks like a good bundle, jessops should let you have a play before you buy aswell.

If you're thinking about saving money for glass, you can get a 400D for £350 at pc world, there arent any massive differences between the 400D and 450D, aside from which memory cards they use. That would save you enough to buy this and spend £60 on memory/batteries/other accessories.

If you were closer I'd be happy to let you have a fiddle around with my 400D, my only complaint about it is that sometimes I find the viewfinder difficult to use, but that could be down to my own level of concentration.

 

Seems like a reasonable choice, and if you read my earlier post to this thread, this is quite similar set to what I got with the E-520.

All in all, it all boils down to what you want to do with your camera in the near future. I've taken almost 4000 photos during these three months and fairly quickly realized that these kit lenses are holding me back quite a bit. So now I've got a 12-60mm lens that was more than I payed for the whole camera with the two lenses. And probably more to come when I get more money

Just wanted to give you the heads-up. The 450D is a really good camera, but with these kit lenses it's going to be just an ok camera. So what I'd do is that I'd buy just the body and save a few squirrel skins and invest it to a better lens. Just my 0.02$

On the other hand you might be really satisfied with this gear, so you'll have to do some soul searching here

Darkened

 

That was the other option i was considering - the reasoning for not going for "uber" kit at the start is so I can make my own choices about future upgrades. If i find myself noticing a limitation in the kit lenses (likely) then I want to be able to upgrade to suit. Rather than taking a guess, buying a 500 quid lense then having to get another 'cos it doesn't match what I want to achieve.

One thing which drew me to the 450D was the liveview feature. While i'll be using the cam (hopefully) to get some nice shots I'd also like it easy(er) for my mrs to use. This feature gives her more of the "point and shoot" option which isn't available on some of the other cam's. It doesnt sacrifice (*sp) on cam quality etc but just makes it a little more "gf friendly"

 

Me and my better half both much prefer a viewfinder even for P+S shots. She can take good shots, but isn't too interested in setting the camera up for the shot, so I tend to set it on auto or aperture priority for her and let her have fun her way .

 

I second that, using the live view function is not similar to P&S cameras, it's much more "clumsy" in a way. Good for studio and macro work sure, but not taking snapshots.

 

Ok, thanks for the heads up

Damn you too for throwing (yet another) spanner in the works!

 

I bought a second hand Canon 400D about 5-6 months ago which came with the kit lens, and whilst this has and still is serving me well, I also wanted a cheap zoom lens to expand my options a little bit. For what its worth, I found the zoom lens more useful for the type of shooting I was doing, and so decided to upgrade there. Having said that, the package there looks like a good deal, although I would agree with the 450D not being that different to the 400D.

If you do chose to go the body only route, I do have a zoom lens available on the cheap! (in my sig ;-) )

 

Go to a shop & handle them all.
There are no bad current production DSLRs but their ergonomics & UI differ & some will suit you & some won't.
Then there will be differences in features available at whatever price point that you can afford - it's up to you to work out what is important to you & what isn't. Bear in mind that some apparently similar features may differ across brands e.g. Sony's LiveView is very different from Canon's, Nikon's etc.

Someone will no doubt mention the size of available systems but realistically they are all big enough for the vast majority of users with only very serious amateurs, pros & people with very specific & unusual requirements having potentially genuine concerns.

I'm a longtime Minolta now Sony user with an A700 which I've never regretted getting over a Canon 40D/Nikon D300 & I do believe that the A200 is the current standout entry level DSLR (if the ergonomics & UI suit you).