Beginner £500 budget for my first upgrade, advice required.

Messages
900
Name
Tony
Edit My Images
Yes
Just to set the scene a little I recently returned to photography after a long break and I bought an £80 ebay special Fuji bridge camera off a few years vintage as I promised my other half that I wouldn't spend a lot of money only for the camera to be left in a cupboard.

We purchased an MGB late last year with a view to exploring the UK more this year and then venturing further out in to Europe etc next year onwards and I am absolutely loving it and looking for picture opportunities everywhere. The combination of photography, classic car and travel is absolutely perfect and I have a little money coming in April so want to enjoy the upgrade experience.

I am not too bothered at this moment about long lenses etc as I am aware that decent quality comes at a serious price and I guess what I am looking at is what would be the best "bang for my buck" DSLR with one lens that would give me good quality with reasonable range and within the above budget for a new or used model.

I am not too hung up on make but it seems quite clear that Canon and Nikon seem to offer a huge range of models that also seem to hold a sensible resale value ( always best to have an eye on the future when you get in to hobbies like this I believe )

Your advice would be much appreciated

Tony
 
I am not too hung up on make but it seems quite clear that Canon and Nikon seem to offer a huge range of models that also seem to hold a sensible resale value ( always best to have an eye on the future when you get in to hobbies like this I believe )
There was me thinking you were going to drive that MGB rather than polish it ;)

Does it need to be a DSLR? - there are a lot of mirrorless options that are well worth a look and offer a more compact system for travelling.
 
Nikon's D300/300s and D90 also D3 have all dropped a shed load in price.
 
There was me thinking you were going to drive that MGB rather than polish it ;)

Does it need to be a DSLR? - there are a lot of mirrorless options that are well worth a look and offer a more compact system for travelling.

I'd second this - image quality is the same as a DSLR and they can be much more compact. They tend not to be so good for photographing things like birds in flight but if you're not doing that then it is seriously worth considering...
 
Lots of us have bought the canon EOS M from Argos for £200, kit comes with a 18-55mm lens and flash, perfect size for a travel camera and there are a couple of decent M lenses out there, check out the thread and with the EOS M3 out now, you can also buy an adapter to use EF lenses. Alternatively the fuji system very good, they keep pushing body lens deals.
 
Not a DSLR or mirrorless, but how about a Panasonic FZ200;

http://www.johnlewis.com/panasonic-...3_1423708773_ae7f7df467a26dcafa97bd42ff8ecc13

Or a Panasonic FZ1000;

http://www.johnlewis.com/panasonic-...3_1423708835_feb6842152b523f568941ddfb9adb51b

Both are well reviewed, have won awards, have decent zoom ranges and importantly, have a viewfinder (albeit EVF). One is well under your budget and the other a bit over, but get one from John Lewis and you not only get £50 cashback, but a 5 year guarantee as well.
 
I can second the EOS-M, its a great camera for its price, I got mine from Vennal Cameras, Ayr, Scotland. They had an offer that bet Argos when I bought it. Canon EOS-M, 18-55 kit lens, Speedlite 90EX, and they through in the Canon leather case (worth £40), with courier delivery for £179.99, saving me £20 from the Argos price. If my memory serves me correct the EOS-M is pretty much the 650D, compressed in a smaller form factor.
 
Seriously.... With that kind of money you wouldn't be far of getting a Nikon d5200 + Nikon 16-85. I've just sold both of those items and loved the combination, I found 16mm more than good enough for Landscape shots until I was hooked and needed wider but then the 16-85 range covered just about everything!!

if you tried hard enough I think you get it with in budget if you could push your budget a tad more the D5300 is available which will drop in price soon as the D5500 has been announced

Sorry that's all Nikon ..... I'm a Nikon man.....

That said if you went Canon id hold out for the 60D amazing camera and the screen quality is amazing with a built in digital spirit level
 
Thanks so far guys. I defininitely want to go down the DSLR route as there may come a time in the future that I do expand my horizons a little ( no pun intended ) and upgrade with more lenses etc and yes if another £100 added to the budget would make a significant difference then that could be possible.
 
If you can stretch your budget a little then a Nikon D700 is within reach, put a cheap 50mm on that and you have amazing image quality and an exceptional pro spec camera - might rock in at more like £700 though...

If I had £500 and was set on a DSLR then I would spend £300ish on a D7000 and the rest on a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 or similar.
 
I'm more into Pentax myself, for about £530 atm you could get a k50 DSLR and a 18-135mm weather sealed lens and body. Has 2 control wheels compared to most systems 1. I quite like the look of the panasonic gx7 as a travel camera though.
 
Looks like that was a pricing error as it's well above £500 now :)

Looking closely at the Canon 60D and also 70D and just wondered what would be the Nikon equivalents ( these manufacturers don't half like to move these model designations about a lot and don't even get me on lens numbers !! )
 
Looks like that was a pricing error as it's well above £500 now :)

Looking closely at the Canon 60D and also 70D and just wondered what would be the Nikon equivalents ( these manufacturers don't half like to move these model designations about a lot and don't even get me on lens numbers !! )

I am not too bothered at this moment about long lenses etc as I am aware that decent quality comes at a serious price and I guess what I am looking at is what would be the best "bang for my buck" DSLR with one lens that would give me good quality with reasonable range and within the above budget for a new or used model.

Best advice is head to a camera shop and have a play. The camera kits don't offer the best lenses, my advice would be to buy the camera body, lens as separates and buy used if you want best bang for my bucks
check out the best prices here http://www.camerapricebuster.com/
 
On a crop sensor
Nikon 1.5x (18-55mm lens equivalent to a 27-82.5mm on full frame)
Canon 1.6x (18-55mm lens equivalent to a 28.8-88mm on full frame)
Sony 1.5x (18-55mm lens equivalent to a 27-82.5mm on full frame)
4/3rd Panasonic, Olympus etc 2x (18-55mm lens equivalent to a 36-110mm on full frame)

Full Frame
1:1 (18-55mm = 18-55mm)

https://photographylife.com/what-is-crop-factor
 
Back
Top