Entry level DSLR review

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oldnick

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This months PC pro has a review of all the current entry level DSLR contenders. (Apart from this its excellent magazine anyway well worth the money, unlike the majority of dedicated photography magazines.)

Having brought a 3100 before any reviews were published, I'm well pleased, but had come to the conclusion I had got it right anyway. Oh dear, I have no excuses for crap pictures anymore.
 
oldnick said:
Having brought a 3100 before any reviews were published, I'm well pleased, but had come to the conclusion I had got it right anyway. Oh dear, I have no excuses for crap pictures anymore.
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Reviews are helpful, but its also important how the camera feels in your hand and whether it suits what you need. Enjoy your new camera! :D
 
Glad to hear the 3100 got good reviews. I just bought one for my girlfriend (we're excitedly still waiting for it to arrive)
 
Actually it’s more than a good review, it’s a brilliant review. However even as a Nikon owner I feel that the Canon 550D is treated somewhat unfairly. The review fails to make clear that for video use the Nikon and all the other cameras reviewed are almost useless on HD as they can only shoot at between 24-30 frames/sec which seems pretty useless for almost everything containing movement. The Nikon is basically on full auto when in video mode, i.e. no dof control and has no external mic input - Useless. From what I have read the Canon allows full manual control and is capable of producing broadcast quality HD footage. In addition the Canon has significantly more Mps than the other cameras and seems to control the noise well. It also has a much better screen.
I was severely tempted by the Canon, but in all honesty it’s in a class above the 3100, given that it costs around £120 more and the kit lens seems to be pretty poor, meaning additional cost to get pictures equal or better than the Nikon with its kit lens.
 
oldnick said:
Actually it’s more than a good review, it’s a brilliant review. However even as a Nikon owner I feel that the Canon 550D is treated somewhat unfairly. The review fails to make clear that for video use the Nikon and all the other cameras reviewed are almost useless on HD as they can only shoot at between 24-30 frames/sec which seems pretty useless for almost everything containing movement. The Nikon is basically on full auto when in video mode, i.e. no dof control and has no external mic input - Useless. From what I have read the Canon allows full manual control and is capable of producing broadcast quality HD footage. In addition the Canon has significantly more Mps than the other cameras and seems to control the noise well. It also has a much better screen.
I was severely tempted by the Canon, but in all honesty it’s in a class above the 3100, given that it costs around £120 more and the kit lens seems to be pretty poor, meaning additional cost to get pictures equal or better than the Nikon with its kit lens.
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Funnily enough I was considering both of these cameras and initially I wanted the D3100 as my current camera is a Nikon (D40).
As I've always liked the Nikon I wanted to stay with them but a little research reveals that the 550D is a far better camera in many ways. It certainly fits the criteria that I'm looking for anyway.
The price difference is not much of an issue and the weight is virtually the same but the LCD screen on the Nikon is nowhere near the quality of the Canon.

At one point I was more in favour of the Nikon because of it's D-Lighting system but then I found out that Canon have a similar thing under a different name. I can't remember what they call it now.

Yes it's true that all the reviews say that the kit lens on the Canon could be better but actually it's not so much that it's a bad lens it's just that it doesn't take advantage of all those extra megapixels.

So anyway it looks like I'm going to go for the 550D but I'll get it body only and then get an ultra-sharp lens for it.

Anyone else bought a 550D yet? Did you also upgrade the lens?
 
I've seen some images from the D3100 and it seems to handle noise amazingly well.
 
I bought a 550D yesterday :)
Haven't had time to take pics with it, hopefully today I will.
I read many reviews, and for me, it seemed a really good option.
I didn't upgrade the lens though...that will the next thing after hubby has got over the shock of me spending!!
 
Doddy1974 said:
I bought a 550D yesterday :)
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Bought mine today! :)

I had a good look at the D3100 and the D7000 as well just for good measure but the D7000 was too heavy for me (I have a bad back) and the 550d is better than the D3100 imo.

I originally went in there wanting to buy the Canon body-only and get the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 lens as an upgrade to the kit lens.
The general consensus is that it's an excellent lens but when I put it on the camera it was just too heavy and I could see it giving me backache.
The lens weighs 645g and the camera body only weighs 530.

So I ended up getting a Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f2.8 XR lens instead as it was much lighter. I think it's about 430g or something and you can really feel the difference.
The shop I bought all this from couldn't actually sell me the Canon body-only for some reason so I had to buy it with the kit lens anyway, which I'll just sell off.

I'm charging the camera up and really looking forward to using it. Hopefully the weather will be decent tomorrow.
 
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