Advice about new kit

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feeb

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Fi
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In a couple of months, i am going to be investing in a bigger camera, unfortunatly i cant stay with Pentax who i love and think are fantastic, but they just dont cater past the enthused amateur level and i need something with a bit more ompfh

Its not that i am unhappy with the photos i take, to the contrary i absolutely love my pentax and its well durable too so has seen me proud...

Anyway, after a bit of delibration i have decided to go with Nikon, i think they have an uber good range of stuff and i find the pictures i see with a Nikon are generally of a better quality than that i have seen with a Canon...

So... Here we go, i am going to spend roughly 3000 - its alot of money but i think i will need it... i reckon it will take me til christmas to get my act together and get the money

So what should i get?? If you had 3000 to spend on an uber camera, what would be in your box?

Please bear in mind that i already have a Metz Mz 70, so although i might get myself a wee camera topped flash, its not essencial for the moment because my flash is brill...

Anyhoo, any advice, warnings or likewise will be happily recieved, i am also well up for looking at bargains so if you think there is something i must have but can only afford second hand, please let me know :) xx

Fi xx
 
Okies well now i am a bit confused...

see i have been looking at Nikon/Canon and the problem is there seems to be a hell of alot more choice for Canon, faster shutters un stuff

so i am unsure what to go for...

What would be great would be for people to tell me (wether canon or nikon) what they would spend 3000 on, if starting from completely new...

I have been looking at the 5ds or the d300s that sort of price range so what lenses and stuff would you reccomend? Or would you get a cheaper body and some uber uber lenses?

Please help

Cheers

Fi xx
 
If you are going Nikon then have a word with Stuart at Digital Depot! You could get a D700 and have around £1300ish left. Now with the vouchers (see this thread HERE) you should be able to get a decent flash and maybe 3 lenses for that. A AF50mm f1.8 will cost £89 from Argos, AFS 70-300 with voucher at £375 and Sigma 24-70 f2.8 for the rest or a similar lens.

This is just my opinion. I have just got the D700 and I am completely gob smacked at the sheer quality of the colours it produces. It is a serious piece of kit and quite possibly the best camera on the market bar none. (The D3x is worse on high ISO that the D3/D700 and who actually needs that many pixels plus the D3 is a lot of extra cash for the same output).

Just like I said this is what I would do. Lots of people will have their ideas too.
 
thanks Cowaski thats great advice and i will definatly look into that!

@ meroving i dont need to be told how to spend it, i am asking for advice... thats all

My current setup is about 1500 quids worth, i want to upgrade from that and there is no use beating around the bush :p

I was definatly looking for the D700 Not the D3 thanks cowasaki so i am totally with you there :)
 
Just a little more detail re my last post for you.........

When you buy a D700 or in fact any Nikon from a premier or pro Nikon dealer you get 5 electronic vouchers which you can use later to buy Nikon product off the same supplier. The current D700 vouchers are:

£150 off AF-S 14-24 f2.8
£50 off SB900
£10 off EN-EL3e
£50 off AF-S 50mm f1.4
£75 off AF-S 70-300 f4.5-5.6 G VR IF ED

So the D700 with AFS 50mm f1.4 (249-50), AF-S 70-300 f4.5-5.6 G VR IF ED (449-75) and SB900 (339-50) will save you £175 off their separate prices and you should be able to get a decent walk about lens out of the change from £3000 ie 3000-1670-199-374-289 = 468 which should get you a reasonable Sigma 24-70 f2.8 2nd hand or with another £250 a new one :)
 
what range are you trying to cover? and what sort of pics?(landscape, portrait macro etc)
 
thanks for that info mate, i dont need an uber flash as i have my metz mz70 - but the rest of it is sounding really good and the money i save on the flash i already have i can spend on lenses... mmmmm lenses :) :)
 
i do event photography, people shots mostly, bit of fashion, fair bit of studio work un stuff - i also do seascapes when i can get to the sea, basically whatever i fancy, dont like to be held back, but yeah - people shots mostly :)
 
ok, i would probably go with Canon 40D or 5D, canon 24-70 and a sigma 70-200 f2.8 to get started, maybe a sigma 10-20 (on the 40D, crop body only)to sort the wide stuff. if f2.8 isnt vital, then a 24-105 canon 70-200 f4L IS and possibly 17-40 F4L(if a 5d, 10-20 if 40D).
 
am very tempted by the Canon 5d... Sigma 70-200 at F2.8 you say... sounds sexy i will go and look that up :)

I think if going for Canon it would be the 5d...
 
lol, perhaps a canon F4 IS instead?
 
maybe yeah...

i am liking the fast-ness of t'other and i am happy to spend some money on it, but how suitable is it really for an event photography sort of thing, is it just ridiculously enormously huge?
 
not got one myself, but yeah, looks pretty big. pop into your local camera shop and have a look, if they havent got the sigma, then im pretty sure the canon NON IS isnt far off the weight of the sigma
 
Feeb, you could blow three grand very easily on just a camera and one lens. And it could easily be completely the wrong thing for you.

You need to do be more clear on the sort of subjects that interest you, how you like to go about shooting them, and what your final output usually is. Is £3k your final budget, or the basis for a new system?

You mention the Canon 5D (discontinued, now 5DMkII) and Nikon D300S. These two cameras couldn't be more different, one full frame and the other crop format. You say you want a bigger camera, do you mean full frame, or staying with crop like your Pentax? That is a fundamental decision. You can't really go much further until you have nailed that one.

As a starter, full frame is about highest image quality but your budget will vanish very quickly unless you have a bit more to spend fairly soon.

Crop format is usually plenty good enough for most folks, but much cheaper (and lighter). With £3k you could get a very good outfit including several lenses that will set you up for the foreseeable future.
 
feeb said:
@ meroving i dont need to be told how to spend it, i am asking for advice... thats all
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Indeed.
My point being: If you don't know what you need, why use a starting point of:"I need to spend 3k" instead of "Now what do I actually need". £1500 now buys more than it did 5yrs ago in terms of technology.
I would have thought saving money was essentially for a student in a recession, no?!?:shrug:
 
Merovingian, with all due respect; how, when and What i spend my money on is of very little importance to you.

if you really have nothing useful to add to the discussion, how about you leave it?
 
HoppyUK said:
Feeb, you could blow three grand very easily on just a camera and one lens. And it could easily be completely the wrong thing for you.

You need to do be more clear on the sort of subjects that interest you, how you like to go about shooting them, and what your final output usually is. Is £3k your final budget, or the basis for a new system?

You mention the Canon 5D (discontinued, now 5DMkII) and Nikon D300S. These two cameras couldn't be more different, one full frame and the other crop format. You say you want a bigger camera, do you mean full frame, or staying with crop like your Pentax? That is a fundamental decision. You can't really go much further until you have nailed that one.

As a starter, full frame is about highest image quality but your budget will vanish very quickly unless you have a bit more to spend fairly soon.

Crop format is usually plenty good enough for most folks, but much cheaper (and lighter). With £3k you could get a very good outfit including several lenses that will set you up for the foreseeable future.
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hello, Yes this is exactly the sort of research i am doing and exactly what i am asking for advice from those people who have used this kit from. I would like to buy a full frame camera, however they are very very expensive and my thoughts are that i can either get a secondhand 5D for around 900 and spend the rest of the money on lenses, the 5D Mr11 is a bit too expensive for my budget right now but it will take me a few months to get this money together (hence the researching early, if i start looking now, i can have a really good idea of what i need by the time it comes round to spending the money :) )

Other problem is, and particularly noticable coming from Pentax, is that most of the cameras are covered in plastic... i am NOT spending near on a grand on something with a plastic shell, i would much prefer to spend more and get something with at least some metal in it, although i did find a cover for Canon cameras which looked pretty groovy

So, although i am upgrading, i am looking to upgrade to something as robustly built as the Pentax... simply because i dont think a 600quid camera inside a plastic shell is very good value for money :)
 
feeb said:
hello, Yes this is exactly the sort of research i am doing and exactly what i am asking for advice from those people who have used this kit from. I would like to buy a full frame camera, however they are very very expensive and my thoughts are that i can either get a secondhand 5D for around 900 and spend the rest of the money on lenses, the 5D Mr11 is a bit too expensive for my budget right now but it will take me a few months to get this money together (hence the researching early, if i start looking now, i can have a really good idea of what i need by the time it comes round to spending the money :) )

Other problem is, and particularly noticable coming from Pentax, is that most of the cameras are covered in plastic... i am NOT spending near on a grand on something with a plastic shell, i would much prefer to spend more and get something with at least some metal in it, although i did find a cover for Canon cameras which looked pretty groovy

So, although i am upgrading, i am looking to upgrade to something as robustly built as the Pentax... simply because i dont think a 600quid camera inside a plastic shell is very good value for money :)
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You could stay with Pentax. The new K7 is high spec and well regarded. See review here http://www.dpreview.com/previews/pentaxk7/ Could be a good option if you have investment in current Pentax lenses, and it would give you a spare body.

Most middle to high end cameras are metal. Canon 40D and 50D, 5D, 5D2, all Canon 1-series cameras, Nikon D300, D700, D3, also the Nikon D90. High end Sonys. I'm not sure your comment about better pictures being taken on Nikon really stands up and although a few professionals have switched to Nikon recently this has more to do with the high speed operation of their latest cameras - fast AF, exceptional high ISO performance etc, coupled to particular problems Canon has had with the 1D3 that have now been fixed with a free recall.

FWIIW, I have chosen to stay with crop format Canon rather than switch to a Nikon D700 based system. I think that the quality advantages of full frame will be eroded with every new camera introduced, and that Nikon's short term advantage in a few areas will be short lived. Plus I can be doing without the extra bulk and cost of full frame.

You really need a strong reason to go full frame and exceptional demands for quality in big prints. At A4 and smaller you will be hard pressed to ever see an advantage, ditto on screen, but it is there if that's what you need and a used Canon 5D is a very good way of getting it. Couple that with a 24-105L 4 lens and you are very well set indeed, unless high speed action is your thing. If the 24-105 range suits you, and it is pretty much perfect for so many things, then that Canon lens is unique at the moment; it is reason enough to go Canon full frame just for that.

On crop format, the leading players are Canon 50D, and Nikon D300 (and new D300s). Tough call on those two - I think the D300 is the better body (debatable) but Canon again has the lens advantage with their 17-55 2.8 IS. It is the crop format's sister to the 24-105, but goes to f/2.8 because it doesn't have to cover the larger full frame sensor. Nikon equivalent lacks IS or VR. On lens choice, Canon edges it in quite a few areas.

After you have the 'standard' zoom sorted, you would normally then go for a tele-zoom (70-200 4) and then wide zoom (eg 17-40 4). After that, maybe a fast prime, or a macro. Don't forget to budget for a good flash, in fact I would rate that as a priority before any additional lenses, but I guess that's an individual thing. Tripod of course, and some carefully selected filters.

You can also get f/2.8 versions of most lenses, but cost and weight both pretty much double.

If you are thinking of perhaps saving money by buying a crop camera but building a system of full frame lenses with a future upgrade in mind, I think that is a flawed concept unless you have immediate plans. It's just a compromise and you lose the benefits that both formats have in different ways, plus all your lenses will have a quite different field of view when you do change.

HTH.
 
Hoopty i am blown away by your lengthly and well thought out respone

thank you so so much, its given me Loads to think about...

The temptation for FF is there, but if i am honest with myself i dont feel i necessarily need that right now, particularly as they are bulky...

With my current setup i have a 16-45mm lens a 55-300mm lens and a fast 50mm prime, i also have a whole heap of old skool Pentax lenses but those are my main ones right now... i would love to get something more wide angle for funky shots but its not a must if you see what i mean

If and when i swap systems, i would be hoping to upgrade that setup and at least match it. The temptations of a f2.8 kit lens is lovely indeed :)

thank you for the information on the metal bodies, that is uber uber helpful :)
 
feeb said:
In a couple of months, i am going to be investing in a bigger camera, unfortunatly i cant stay with Pentax who i love and think are fantastic, but they just dont cater past the enthused amateur level and i need something with a bit more ompfh

Its not that i am unhappy with the photos i take, to the contrary i absolutely love my pentax and its well durable too so has seen me proud...

Anyway, after a bit of delibration i have decided to go with Nikon, i think they have an uber good range of stuff and i find the pictures i see with a Nikon are generally of a better quality than that i have seen with a Canon...

So... Here we go, i am going to spend roughly 3000 - its alot of money but i think i will need it... i reckon it will take me til christmas to get my act together and get the money

So what should i get?? If you had 3000 to spend on an uber camera, what would be in your box?

Please bear in mind that i already have a Metz Mz 70, so although i might get myself a wee camera topped flash, its not essencial for the moment because my flash is brill...

Anyhoo, any advice, warnings or likewise will be happily recieved, i am also well up for looking at bargains so if you think there is something i must have but can only afford second hand, please let me know :) xx

Fi xx
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:thinking:

£3000 is pretty much enough to get you sorted. As people have no doubt said, lens > body. Get a few decent lens and see how much you'd have left for a body.
 
so you would reccomend sacrificing a high spec body for better lenses and feel that would get better results FP? I must say i am swaying towards that too :)
 
Nikon D300 is 899 as is the Canon 5D so thats good, just need to look at lenses and see which system is best for the long term :)
 
okay thanks FP thats great advice. am liking this lens you mentioned (clearly not the 200quid one :) ) a grand is alot to spend on a lens but i am thinking its worth it...

now i just need to find a fairly lightweight decent zoom, a nifty 50 and i will be laughing :)
 
If you're going full frame, the 85 f/1.8 is beautiful. Can be had for £250.

There is no point in getting a nifty fifty if you're going to get the 24-70. The image won't be significantly better (if at all) and you'll only gain a stop. Just put the ISO up a stop.
 
Which makes it even more tempting...

D300 is the equivilant of the 50d,
5D is an upgrade to the 50D and yet they are the same price

i think, i am going to have to go with Canon...

As for decent flash, please see my previous two posts regarding my Metz Mz 70

its an uber good flash and although a hot shoe flash would be nice, its not neccessary as yet, not worth including in the first setup because i already have a brill flash that i can use with any camera (so long as you buy a new adaptor)

Only thing is i have heard Nikon have got a much better flash system than Canon so i will have to check the specs of my flash and include that in my decision me thinks :)
 
Lens first for sure (do you need to buy new? You'll save quite a bit if you go down the 2nd hand route, but that's up to you...)

A decent body would be the D300 (again a mint 2nd hand version will rush you no more than £800) - that would give you plenty left over for your glass.

Btw, are you sure your Metz flash is compatible with the latest Nikon or Canon SLR's?
 
yep my metz flash is compatible particularly with Nikons :)

am going to check the ins and outs of that now :)
 
still got better specs than the D300 though and they are the same price, have heard the 5D had problems though, very bad for weather sealing and general dust problems which doesnt sound too good

i am going to go to jessops and have a lookie at what they have in stock there

not that i will be buying from there but it would be good to have a feel :)
 
feeb said:
so you would reccomend sacrificing a high spec body for better lenses and feel that would get better results FP? I must say i am swaying towards that too :)
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Not sure I agree that, with digital, you should invest in lenses as a priority rather than the camera. Used to be good advice with film, because the camera was in some respects little more than a film holder. But with digital the camera is the film - you need both.

You should also check out your Metz flash. It will work for sure, but I think it's quite a few years old now and may not be compatible with the latest TTL metering systems which are well worth utilising. Top end Canon and Nikon guns can also be used for wireless TTL control in a multi-flash strobist system, are more powerful and less cumbersome, but you can worry about that later.

The main difference between Nikon and Canon flash systems is that the built-in flash on Nikon cameras can be used as a Master controller. With Canon, you need either a 580EX/EXII gun which doubles as a flash and Master, or the ST-E2 controller unit. Basically, Canon maybe costs a little bit more to set up a multi-flash system but otherwise they are fundamentally the same. Nikon were first with this kind of thing and rightly got good rep for it, but Canon's E-TTL II system is every bit as good as Nikon and goes back a few years now.
 
Hmmm, okay thanks for that, i know that Metz and Nikon have a good synergy going on, i will check with metz about wether i can use my metz with a new Nikanon...
 
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