Camera advice for my wife please.

footman

footman

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Laurence
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When I seriously got into DSLR photography just a few years ago I bought a Canon 350D for my wife in the hope that it may spark an interest in "serious" photography in her.

She actually has a very good eye for composition. I also bought a Tamron 18-250 to go with it. To be frank she has no real interest in the technical side of photography and stays in the green zone permanently.

The results needless to say are indifferent and I'm sure that she only uses the 350D when she comes out with me to please me.

Last week she went to Sharm with friends and just before she went bought a Panasonic DMC-FT10 compact purely because she could use it underwater.

The underwater results are fair but the rest of her shots are of poor quality unless the light is really good. The IQ and colour is then almost acceptable. Night shots are appalling. However, she wants to keep this compact simply for it's underwater capability.

This morning we were discussing selling the 350D and lens and moving up to something like the Panasonic GF range.

I'm totally ignorant about the quality of these cameras so I'd like to know whether she could expect better IQ from these than she gets form the 350D or the compact.
 
I woudn't do anything rash, particularly when she can share lenses with you while she has the 350D.

Jan hasn't got a massive interest in photography but she loves to come with me photographing birds. She has no real interest in the technical side of things, but she has a good long lens technique and shoots on AV and gets some good results. I just call out when to change the ISO or the metering pattern.
 
I think a GF will probably give punchier and more print ready images straight from the camera than the 350D and will almost certainly produce better pictures than the compact but you shouldn't expect miracles with night time shots.

The GF range has mini DSLR like and more compact like bodies, the GF2 is meant to be more compact camera like in operation so might be worth a look?
 
CT said:
I woudn't do anything rash, particularly when she can share lenses with you while she has the 350D.
Click to expand...

The danger there is that she might ask me how much they cost!
Thanks for the replies. I think the best thing is that she handles a Panny in the shop, take a few frames on her card and compare them at home with her holiday pictures.
 
My wife likes taking photographs, but has absolutely no interest in photography. She's got a Canon A610, and a new Panasonic TZ9 and she's quite happy with them; and takes remarkably good shots on the automatic settings too!

This works for us. I have a DSLR, and she has a compact which we use as a travel camera too.
 
I bought my wife a 10D, she felt it was too big/heavy, so I got her a 400D instead, she got fed up with the poor results, she borrowed my 50D (I know, same size as the 10D) but she loves that because it gives her great results, especially with the ef-s 60macro lens. She takes a good picture and is slowly coming round to the technical side of things now she can see what difference different appertures do etc.
I'd persevere with a Dslr, especially as you can share lenses and settings etc, but get one that gives better results, for us it was the AF that caused us so much grief, not sure what its like on teh 350D but for us the 400D just didnt lock on enough times to keep many, especially in low light.

Matt
 
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