Purchase Advice - Recovering Gear W***e

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gingerweasel

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A fair while ago I started getting serious about my photography, I went equipment mad and spent an absolute fortune. It got so out of hand I decided to sell up and get some perspective.

I haven't owned a camera for quite some time now (beyond the cheap compact I use for family events) and I'm looking to make tentative steps back into photography.

I am looking for something that offers fair low light capability, used mainly for portrait and general street work (natural light). I tend to convert almost everything to black and white, I'm a fan of shallow depth of field, and I'm a real anal sod for needing razor sharp images.

I don't mind prime lenses, in fact I enjoy the image quality of good primes and it's always nice to get the extra stops without having to sell a kidney. I don't mind picking up a small range of lenses but really want to keep this to an absolute minimum - I don't want to get sucked into the buying frenzy again.

I will have a total budget of say: £1600 but could slowly pickup additional pieces if absolutely nessisary.

Thoughts?
 
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Nikon D7000
35mm f/1.8, 50 f/1.8, 85mm f1.8, 180 f/2.8
Maybe the 105mm Macro too.
 
I have to say moreorless I have seen the x100 and the quality of the images it produces. It looks like a solid piece of kit but I'm concerned about the price tag considering its limitations compared to a full DSLR.

Perfect from my main type of photography though, street and close up portraits.

Keith from experience I've found the Canon lens lineup outside of the L glass is a bit flimbsy. The Nikkor fixed primes kick some serious butt, in particular the 35mm f2.0 and the 85mm f1.8. Both build like tanks.

Tom I haven't heard much about the D7000 will have to take a look.
 
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lexie said:
canon 40/50d with 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8. should be well with in budget

:edit: or the nikon equivalents, i have no experience of nikon gear so i quoted canon only.
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Take a look at the 50D, i've heard good things about that body :)
 
gingerweasel said:
I have to say moreorless I have seen the x100 and the quality of the images it produces. It looks like a solid piece of kit but I'm concerned about the price tag considering its limitations compared to a full DSLR.

Perfect from my main type of photography though, street and close up portraits.

Keith from experience I've found the Canon lens lineup outside of the L glass is a bit flimbsy. The Nikkor fixed primes kick some serious butt, in particular the 35mm f2.0 and the 85mm f1.8. Both build like tanks.

Tom I haven't heard much about the D7000 will have to take a look.
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I can personally recommend the Canon 35mm f/2 (stunning!) and the 85mm f/1.8. There's nothing flimsy about them, solid as rocks and stunning quality.
 
odd jim said:
There's nothing flimsy about them, solid as rocks and stunning quality.
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The EF 85mm f/1.8 is far from being flimsy, but it's certainly not as solid as a nikkor 85 f/1.8D
 
squishy said:
The EF 85mm f/1.8 is far from being flimsy, but it's certainly not as solid as a nikkor 85 f/1.8D
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The Nikkor 85mm f1.8 doesn't have the smoothest focus action in the world, it's loud and cranky but it feels like it could survive a car crash. It's the same with the Nikkor 35mm f2, what a lens!

Still open to further suggestions if anyone has any?
 
Canon 550d + Sigma 50mm f/1.4 + Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 + Canon 70-200mm f/4 (IS or non IS)

That should cover all of your bases, and hold you in good stead to upgrade after easily (all lenses are very easy to sell onwards, you'll likely only sell Tokina when moving to full frame).
 
Thanks Tom, one of the things I was considering is buying a well constructed film camera. It certainly removes the urge to upgrade, assuming a steady availability of film it would probably last in excess of 10 years!

As I shoot on B&W I could develop myself and buy a half decent scanner to digitise the negatives.
 
gingerweasel said:
I have to say moreorless I have seen the x100 and the quality of the images it produces. It looks like a solid piece of kit but I'm concerned about the price tag considering its limitations compared to a full DSLR.

Perfect from my main type of photography though, street and close up portraits.
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You are looking at the equivilent of a camera and a lens though, whats more a wide prime which isnt nearly as cheap or easy to get for crops.
 
Go sony then you'll be an outcast and concentrate more on your photography and less on competing with others ;) Sony a580 has same sensor as Nikon D7000. Plastics used are a bit yuck but it is only about £500 not £1100. Then get a raft of cheaper primes, minolta 50mm, 35mm etc, sony do several now. Also carl zeiss glass if you want a bit of gear whoring :)

Or get a bridge camera. No need to change lenses and you can spend the rest of the budget on going places to use it. Nikon P500(? new one) seems to be quite impressive. Panasonic FZ45 or FZ100. Low light capability won't be as good but how often, genuinely, would you use it??

If you know you get sucked into more, better, faster etc there is a lot to be said for going for something that does limit your options for constant upgrades.
 
I have a Panasonic G1 and Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 and can't speak highly enough of it. You can just about see in the dark :) and it's quite quiet too unlike your average DSLR.

If going for a DSLR the Siggy 50 and 85mm f1.4's are great lenses. I thouught that the 50mm was great until getting the 85mm, it's astoundingly good.
 
Ross_Curtis said:
Sounds like you need a Leica M9.

There is something wonderful enjoyable about Zeiss lenses.
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I'm not sure a move to Leica rangefinders would help curb my gear fixation. It's one thing buying a Canon 5D MKII and changing my mind a week later, it's quite another doing the same with an M9 and a lovely 35mm. Although I'd happilly give one a try if I could get one within my budget.

Alan if I could only have two focal lengths to use for the rest of my life it would be 35mm and 85mm, with the later getting only light use.

I've looked at the new D7000 briefly and it looks quite interesting but the crop factor would make it awkward to get a nice fast 35mm prime equivelent.

I would love to get another D700 (and the 35mm f2 and 85mm f1.8) but I suspect this would lead to just one more lens, and another, and another... oh and maybe I'd be better with the extra resolution of the 5D MKII, lol. It's a slippery slope.
 
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Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the suggestions, I have a lot to go away and think about.
 
Indeed you will have lots to think about, it is quite abit of money at the end so you want to get the gear you want within spending another chunk of money straight away.

The D7000 idea with a few prime is a good idea and sounds good as well, but it seems you want FF instead because of the crop factor you were mention.

In that case, may have to look used and then spend the rest money on used lens as well.
 
gingerweasel said:
Alan if I could only have two focal lengths to use for the rest of my life it would be 35mm and 85mm, with the later getting only light use.
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Thats part of the reason I suggested the x100, getting a 21/23mm prime relatively cheaply for a crop doesnt seem easy.

The price might come down a bit but really is that any different from any recent DSLR you might buy? My feeling is that the X100 will probabley hold its value better than most bodies.
 
Moreorless said:
Thats part of the reason I suggested the x100, getting a 21/23mm prime relatively cheaply for a crop doesnt seem easy.

The price might come down a bit but really is that any different from any recent DSLR you might buy? My feeling is that the X100 will probabley hold its value better than most bodies.
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I've been seriously looking at the x100, based on the reviews and sample images I've seen it looks like an excellent camera. ISO performance looks amazing with almost no noise at 3200 (testing seems to have it only fractionally worse than the D7000 for ISO).

I caught a glimpse of the Panasonic G3 today, I can't believe how small it looks. Definately portable, but ISO performance on my GF1 and PEN was far from ideal.
 
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