Help needed in choosing a DSLR.

So with a 25-100mm lens and a 100-400mm lens you are effectively quadrupling the focal length? And the smaller the focal length the wider the view? So if I wanted to get closer to a subject the 25 - 100 would be better?
 
So with a 25-100mm lens and a 100-400mm lens you are effectively quadrupling the focal length? And the smaller the focal length the wider the view? So if I wanted to get closer to a subject the 25 - 100 would be better?
Yes you are quadrupling them, but my point was talking about zooms is often irrelevant. For example with the first lens you can say you zoomed in four times but you’re still only at 100mm, yet the second lens when you zoom in four times you’re at 400mm. So a 4x zoom means nothing without knowing the focal length.

A small focal length gives a wider angle/field of view meaning you can get physically closer to the subject without it being too large in the frame. A longer focal length means that you can be further away from a subject, hence why you tend to use long focal lengths for wildlife.
 
Yes you are quadrupling them, but my point was talking about zooms is often irrelevant. For example with the first lens you can say you zoomed in four times but you’re still only at 100mm, yet the second lens when you zoom in four times you’re at 400mm. So a 4x zoom means nothing without knowing the focal length.

A small focal length gives a wider angle/field of view meaning you can get physically closer to the subject without it being too large in the frame. A longer focal length means that you can be further away from a subject, hence why you tend to use long focal lengths for wildlife.

So a smaller focul length might also be better for landscapes?
I looked at the details of two photos with each lens, they both say the focal length of each lens but also say 35mm focal length?
 

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Free software. Canon supply DPP. You download and use the the camera serial number to activate it.
 
It’s normal for every discussion to turn into a flame war. :popcorn:
I wouldnt say it turned into a flamewar. For me its not about the camera make in question but the statement made in a context which let me to believe the commenter didnt really know much about it. Opinions are offcource ok but if you make comments such as "...and wouldn't consider Sony in a month of Sundays....." to an OP searching advise on camera purchase they should be backed up by solid reasons as to why and not just generalizing terms as the later "Sony have a habit of changing their mind in what they make and don’t make" without specifics. Its not that people cant choose Canon; Nikon, Sony or Fuji for whatever reason and personally dislike features or layout in Canon; Nikon, Sony or Fuji e.g. Sigma was to late with their 16 and 56mm lenses for Sony, I found I prefered the Dials on Fuji much more and the finder is much better. This I find much better "advise" as is the reason I prefer the A6000 to the Nikon D3200 which is the handling especcially when going M, the Q menu in the A6000 simply was much faster and easier.
And To the OP con gratulations and welcome to the world of GAS. Nice pic of a cute kitten
 
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So a smaller focul length might also be better for landscapes?
I looked at the details of two photos with each lens, they both say the focal length of each lens but also say 35mm focal length?View attachment 248330
Yes for the 'classic' landscape shot you use the wider focal lengths ie smaller numbers for example 18-24mm.

The reason that they use the 35mm focal length can get very confusing, but here's what it means. Back in the film camera days when cameras were for the masses they used what was called 35mm film, which had the dimensions of 36mm x 24mm (35mm came from the actual total width of the film). When digital cameras came out it was too expensive to make sensors the same size as 35mm film and so the original digital cameras has smaller sensors. The effect of the smaller sensor means that you were 'cropping' the image, ie just seeing the more central portion of the image. The smaller the sensor the smaller the portion of the image that you see.

Early adopters soon found that using their old 35mm film lenses gave a different image or field of view to what they were used to (due to the reason explained above) and to compensate and make things universal we compare each lens to the 35mm format, this in turn brought about the 'crop factor'. Depending on which camera you use it will have a different crop factor and you need to apply this to the focal length of your lens to calculate what field of view you are getting in 35mm terms. Are you still with me? ;)

Firstly we have full frame cameras. The sensor of these is the same size as 35mm and so no crop factor news to be applied. Therefore a 20mm lens is 20mm

We then have APS-C type cameras (some people refer to these as crop cameras). Most APS-C cameras have a crop factor of 1.5 therefore a 20mm lens will give the effective image or field of view as a 30mm lens in 35mm terms (20 x 1.5 = 30). Canon like to confuse things a bit as their APS-C cameras have a crop factor of 1.6 so a 20mm lens gives the effective filed of view of a 32mm lens (20 x 1,6).

Micro 4/3 have a 2 x crop so 20mm lenses give the effective field of view of a 40mm lens in 35mm terms.

Then there's 1" type, 1/1.7" type, 1/2.3" type sensors and so on which have even bigger crop factors. This is why bridge cameras can have such long lenses. Typical bridge cameras only have a 1/2.3" sensor has a 5.6x crop factor, so a 20mm lens has the effective field of view of a 110mm lens. The Nikon P900 has a 357mm lens which gives a 1200mm field of view. As I said before, 1200mm lenses for full frame are massive and would cost you over £100,000 used :eek:


This should help, have a look at the images near the top of the page and it shows it nicely in a pictorial form.
https://photographylife.com/what-is-crop-factor
 
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So a smaller focul length might also be better for landscapes?
I looked at the details of two photos with each lens, they both say the focal length of each lens but also say 35mm focal length?View attachment 248330

You have took an awful lot of shots with that new camera, I am no where near that amount and I have had mine for over a month now.
 
Our local Currys has a very poor choice of cameras and lenses, luckily we have" Park cameras" not to far away, so Currys don 't get a look in from me
 
Thanks guys for the input, as always its greatly appreciated.

I dont know why it thinks ive taken 9000 odd photos! I did use the card out of my bridge camera, its still a bit odd though! It could just be how windows files photos?
 
Thanks guys for the input, as always its greatly appreciated.

I dont know why it thinks ive taken 9000 odd photos! I did use the card out of my bridge camera, its still a bit odd though! It could just be how windows files photos?
Did you not format the card first? It should start at 0, I assume you bought new and not used?
 
I almost got conned by Jessops that was over the purchase of a new Nikon D300 at the time.The box had already been opened and doing a shutter count check it had almost 100 photos taken with it. Going back to the shop to complain their excuse was they had to test the camera first before they sold it. Now Iam quite a eay person to get on with UNLESS something like this happens.

There is nothing better than going into a shop when it is busy and in a loud voice saying they are con artists and should be prosecuted. The last thing any shop wants is customers being driven away by someone complaining in a loud voice. Needless they got out a new one in an unopened box. My guess is they thought here comes another
mug who knows nothing about cameras. From then on there is no way would I buy anything from that company even under new management.
 
The reason that they use the 35mm focal length can get very confusing, but here's what it means. Back in the film camera days.....
This is a good explanation.

But for the OP: now you understand it, don't worry about it. 35mm-equivalent focal lengths are *only* relevant if you're looking at different systems that have different sized sensors. For example if you have a friend who has a 40-150mm zoom on his Olympus Micro 4/3rds camera, and you want to know what would be a similar lens for your camera, then you need to do the maths. But most of the time you won't be doing that. If you like the feel of your 50mm lens, the fact that the equivalent lens on a full frame camera would be 80mm is irrelevant because you don't have a full frame camera. Just explore and learn what focal lengths you like to use *for your camera* and you'll be fine.
 
Guys, is there a windows app that can do a shutter count on my camera?
It's normal for even a new camera to carry on the number sequence from an old camera when a previously used card is inserted - my old canon's did that for sure, so don't stress about shutter counts! Just use the camera.

Had the same discussion with a friend about cars - both bought MX5's in 2016, he's done 5,000 miles, I've done 60,000 in the same period - he's horrified, I'm smiling :)
 
Auto white balance at a guess?
That's what I reckon. There doesn't seem to be any EXIF data in the images, so I can't see what you did; but if you used AWB, then that's probably the issue.

For what it's worth, I think a lot of people can sometimes get a bit hung up on getting the "correct" white balance. I think it's a subjective decision, to some extent; we don't all see the world in exactly the same way, and sometimes an image can just look "right" even if the white balance is technically "wrong". For example I think that, whilst the colour in the first of your images is probably more nearly correct, the warmth in the second image is not unattractive. But on the other hand, it's a very good idea to get your white balance consistent from one image to another, especially when you're showing two of them side by side.
 
Cutting through the top notch advice, I think it's clear there is not really a bad DSLR (or other) around these days.
Go with what you like the look of.
 
This is the data for the first photo.




So it would seem the auto White balance was the same on both photos. It could be that the cat in the window frame is subject to different light, the photo of him lying down shows him out of the window frame and more into the room? It was dark and we had the lights on in the room.
 
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Guys, is there a windows app that can do a shutter count on my camera?
shoot an image in Raw it will have a CR2 at the end and see what that says. I don't do Canon any more but I should imagine it will show up the correct file number and not use a previous follow on number from the jpg's. It has been known for people to return a camera as unsuitable even though they have used it, was the box sealed ????
 
I formatted the card and its gone to counting from zero. RAW image is inline with this new count.
 
I tried shutter count . com and got this, Your camera doesn't add shutter count information to images.
I have a plug in for IE that I will try.
 
I use a Mac - and there's an app that's not free - but cheap - one payment and it's yours forever - called 'Shuttercheck' (one word) - some of the newer cameras can't be read by the free software - but this one apparently works with almost all. I have a 1dx2 that none of the free ones would count for me - but this app brought up not only the shutter count - but also the live view actuations... Might be worth a try if you can't find a free one that works (i think from memory it was about £2.99)
 
I dont have a mac, only windows. The other half has an Apple phone but I doubt I could do it on that.
 
I formatted the card and its gone to counting from zero. RAW image is inline with this new count.
Picture number count will go back to zero with a new/formatted card if you have your camera set that that way I believe. I always have my camera set to continue counting from where it left off, but does go back to zero after 9999.

I've googled shutter checkers for your camera and the only ones I can find are Mac only, and not free. I've always had Nikon which show the shutter count in the info section on Mac, and Olympus where you can actually check shutter count on the camera itself. Not sure why Canon make it so complicated.

Maybe someone on here that already has the software on Mac would be willing to check for you if you took an image and sent it to them? I'd be happy to check for you if you paid for the app, but it seems daft if someone on here already has it.
 
Sorry guys, didn't want to start a brand flame war, but I do appreciate everyones input and help.
I had to use Currys because a while back I bought something from them on a buy now pay later deal, and they gave me more credit than I expected, so I decided to take advantage and replace my old bridge camera. It meant I could buy a camera that I otherwise couldn't afford and pay for it over 6 months.

So, I went to Currys today after work, its the kids sports day tomorrow and it would be nice to have a nice camera to use. They didn't have much there to look at to be fair, they did have a lot of stuff that didn't interest me. I came home with a 200d ''portrait package''. It felt like a nice compact , light , comfortable camera, its plastic but that doesnt bother me too much, I have taken a few photos of the kids and I am very impressed with the picture quality and how easy it is to use. It definitely has the ''point and shoot'' capability's that I wanted. It has bulb mode that I also wanted. Its got good connectivity (wireless, NFC, Bluetooth) which will be handy if I ever use it, I have ran through the modes and they seem clear and easy to understand although I still have a lot to learn about it. The creative mode is good because it can get beyond the basics but in laymen's terms, the auto focus is quick and responsive, touch screen and the way you can touch the screen to focus on a particular subject is brilliant, so all in all its seems be to doing what I want on the basics, low light photos come out great although its still bright outside it is quite dark in our cottage.

The lenses are a zoom and a prime, the prime looks very well made but the zoom not so, the prime means I have to stand back from the subject but with the zoom I can get a little closer. I have to admit the zoom lens isnt great, my bridge camera can zoom into stuff miles away, this can zoom into stuff in the middle of the room, so it looks like I will have to buy some lenses at some point but I am in no rush. Perhaps something with a wider angle and something with a better zoom, but I will have to read up on lenses before I know what to look for.

Thanks for the update, I'm in a similar situation to you, I'm about to upgrade from my bridge camera and have chosen a 200D, so it's good to hear it's easy to use and access the various features and giving good picture quality. Cheers.
 
Thanks for the update, I'm in a similar situation to you, I'm about to upgrade from my bridge camera and have chosen a 200D, so it's good to hear it's easy to use and access the various features and giving good picture quality. Cheers.

I found this very helpful. Its a long video but he does go into a lot of depth.

 
Guys thanks for the offers to help check my camera but I think my 200D doesnt record shutter count in the images, I think it needs to be plugged into a computer.
 
Thanks for that, I'll give it a watch.


I watched it over the space of a couple of nights, I am going to watch it again and go through each section with the camera until I get to the point where I dont have to think about it then move onto the next section. The guy hosting the video makes it quite fun and although he goes through stuff quickly he makes it simple at the same time.
 
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