Equipment New gear advice needed

I've not once ranted Olympus's superiority, have you not read the posts I made. I don't know anything about photography, your attitude towards me, is also, disgusting.

 

Sorry, I appear to have started World War three here.

I never said Oly were the best, I said they were worth considering which is true. The OP has tried Olympus, didn't like it and that's fair enough on him.

Personally I use a Nikon because the lenses are dirt cheap and of decent quality (I'm not a pro myself, so the 50mm f/1.8 and kit do for now). I was just trying to get a decent reason out of you why Olympus is better originally and then your responses turned into verbal abuse.

/argument

Better Glass is more important than a better body

/my participation in this topic

 

Thanks, that kind of opinions are why I made this post in the first place. Minotaur - please don't quote your age as a reason not to call anyone ignorant, true or false it may be. It does not matter. Secondly none of us went on to insult or offend you but I read through every post in the topic I made and I'm sorry to say but you don't particularly stand out with respecting other opinions yourself. That's it and I wish no longer to continue this topic in that form. So if anyone wants to continue in this spirit I will respectfully request topic removed as I already got few convincing reasons to go with better lens/cheaper body - but if this war stops now - I still welcome other propositions.

I think as we managed to establish there is vast number of possibilities out there and the choice isn't that easy at all.

 

Cameras are more controversial than Apple?

What is the world coming to?

 

Ha ha ha ha! Good one.

 

For what it's worth, this thread has got people talking again (been really quiet here lately)...

Darkened

 

Then why are you putting in your two sense as if you do? You seem intent on making an argument over something you admit to knowing nothing about...does that make sense to you? Then taking stabs at my heritage as if it has anything to do with anything? Then using your age as some kind of sympathy card as if ignorance doesn't apply. And you feel the need to call our attitudes disgusting? Give me a break. Not only do you appear ignorant, but you also appear hypocritical, 50 or not. If you had a problem with the way I initially responded to the Oly comment then you should have said so right then rather than drawing it out--It would have saved a lot of time. I explained to you several times why Oly is a less complete system yet you continued to attempt to prove me wrong as if you had some kind of personal vendetta. You then agree with Bigsharn about Canon/Nikon churning out "crap" lenses when the two manufacturers have designed and produced some of the best AF lenses to date. Now, if the two of you had actually done some research you would have known that before replying. Again, doing so would have saved a lot of time and even more importantly would have preserved the integrity of the thread.

 

Can we get back on topic? I agree with Darkened that this thread has got us talking again, but there's only so many times that we can continue going round in circles playing he-said-she-said. It gets a little tiring after a while.

 

Agreed

 

Hope I can help.

This thread has gone crazy! I personally am an olympus e-510 user. I've taken almost 40k pictures with the camera it and have been happy with it for the most part. My only complaint is the ISO performance. I'm ready to upgrade, so I have been reviewing forum and scrutinizing reviews. I've been waiting to see what Olympus has to offer with the e-3 successor. I mostly just don't want to start over with buying lenses, though will if I have to.

here's a link to my albums picasaweb.google.com/kjsdesign84
There isn't a lot of what you are looking for as far as nature, but hopefully you can agree that it's capable of high quality images for an old camera. Content-wise, I'm self taught and still learning so please don't hate.


ANYWAYS
Those are all wonderful cameras. I think as long as you don't skimp on the glass, that your output has the potential to be great. I would personally look at some in-depth reviews on any camera you are interested in.

www.slrgear.com/
dpreview.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/DIGCAM01.HTM

lenses:
http://www.motleypixel.com/reviews/

I think every camera will have it's pro's and con's, It's really up to you to decide which one fits all of your needs.

suggestions:

For portraits, I recommend finding a ~50mm equivalent lens f2 or faster
pay attention to focal length multipliers.
aside from Full frame.... Canon is generally 1.6x, nikon is 1.5x, olympus is 2x, sigma is 1.7x...
(I love my 30mm 1.4 "60mm equiv", not because I shoot at f1.4 often, but the speed is there when I need it)

Don't let pixel count be a big deciding factor. A 12mp picture can be blown up to larger than 20"x30" this is personal experience. Exception would be if you see printing larger or doing a lot of cropping.

Conclusion: Quality is in the Glass, you can have the best body in the world with crappy glass and you've gotten nowhere. Out of those choices, I would choose the 7D or D300s with good glass... however, even though it's gotten some bad slack on this forum, don't kick Oly to the curb, look at a few.

 

I used to shoot with e-510 and as much as I was impressed by how well it could expose both bright sky and dark ground I found it way to small for my hands and too light. I also used D70s (nearly perfect size/weight for me) and D80 (a bit on the small side but acceptable), shot with 5D and I loved it (hence I was so pressed to maybe try to go full frame). I must admit, since I tried Live View on Canon 40D I got hooked on it as I think it's near perfect for still/product photography as you can zoom in and focus more precisely. And now it's a must have feature for me in the camera I'll buy.

 

All 4 of the pro Nikons have this feature. D300/700/3/3x.

 

I think for what it is, the e-510 does a decent job, but it is old and there are much better sensors in the newer olympus's. For me, the 510 fits my hands pretty well and when matched with my heavy lenses, is pretty balanced, I definitely can't go any smaller. The e-3 and e-30 are more comparative in size though and have optional battery grips. About the live view, Olympus was I believe (though may be wrong) the first to incorporate live view into their dslrs and have put it in every model since the 410, this was a selling point for my first dslr. I think it will be hard to find a good dslr these days that is without. I too think it is an important feature and use it a lot.

I'll admit, that the only experience with nikons that I have is with a d40x, and looking at some great pictures that I see taken by a d300s by a couple different friends. I have more experience with Canon. I have shot with the Rebel xti, 20D, 40D, T2i and 5D mkII. Canon makes a great product.

my personal choice would be still the 7D over the 5D for a couple reasons.
• 7D is newer
• 5D's 21mp isn't important to me (neither is 18 actually)
• has a built-in flash (don't get me wrong, I hate using them, but handy to have)
• has 100% coverage in the viewfinder
• has an EF-s mount, should be a better selection of lenses (accepts ef and ef-s lenses)
• has 8 fps burst capability
• has more metering points (63 vs 35)
• Costs less and is still environmentally sealed
• still has magnesium alloy body

Advantages of the 5D
• Autofocus in live view. The whole purpose for me is to fine tune my focusing, so I don't see this being real important.
• Higher ISO sensitivity, Bigger sensor, so it makes sense.

These are all reasons that I would choose it over the other, but I'm not sure what is important to you. If full frame is important to you, the 5D is a great gateway into the FF world! If it's not, You have a little extra $$ to use on glass.

 

Just wanted you to know guys that I made up my mind and ordered Canon 7D with the 18-135mm IS lens kit, just to start with and then I'll get some nice telephoto and macro lens later. Will be picking it up Friday morning from Currys as they price matched warehouseexpress, now it's just to wait, and I'm getting so very impatient Will follow with some pics later on.

Thanks again guys.

PS
Some kind of heat up conversation it was, huh?