Yet Another "Which DSLR" thread

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Skips

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Skippy
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I'm not asking you to make up my mind for me, just asking for a nudge in the right direction.

Out of the blue my grandparents have offered to give me some money at Christmas towards a DSLR, after my bridge camera got stolen at the start of the year and I've been cameraless since then I'm sort of happy. Started looking into the options and my minds gone into meltdown. Could also be to do with the fact that its 2:18 in the morning.

So I have a budget that might be a maximum of £300 or a budget that might be a maximum of £450 I really don't know for sure. Heck if I'm really lucky I might get £600.

At this point I'm looking for options at each of these price points, how safe is second hand equipment to buy on ebay usually?

I'm also wondering which system to be looking at. Guessing the main options are Canon/Nikon (edging towards Nikon but who knows) but also like the look of Pentax and Sony.

I want something that can do a lot with natural light, including indoors, so I guess something with high ISO capability.

Would also like to pick up a 50(ish)mm Prime for not an excessive price, but not necesarily at the same time.

Oh and video shooting is essential. If it can get HD that would be a real bonus.

So yeah, thoughts?
 
ok well thats quite a big price range isnt it :P
as for ebay, most of the time it'll be ok but i had a problem buying my first camera on there (thought id lost about £300)
instead of a 50mm maybe look at a 35 or 30, if you go down the nikon route (i dont know much about cannon) it'll mean you can auto-focus on some of the cheaper bodies.

I would go into you're local camera store and have play then find somewhere a bit cheaper to buy from if there over budget, plus you might be able to try out some lenses to see what you might want

good luck

Jack
 
Very nice grandparents you have :thumbs:

Have you actually had a look / play with any DSLR bodies ?

If not I would suggest going to a local good camera shop and have a good play with the different makes - see which feels the nicest in your hands, which one has the buttons that sit nicely for you etc etc.

Then you can narrow the field down with regards to which model do I get ...

With regards to the 50mm - Amazon are currently doing the Canon 50mm F1.8 for £74 delivered

http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/cat5.html

The above site is also good for looking at prices in different stores etc.

There are some very nice bodies around at the moment (and poss some new ones by Christmas), so there is lots to choose from. As you have started to in your initial thread, make a list of what is essential to have and what would be nice to have on the body (eg Video function is essential, a tilting screen would be nice...), this can make it easier to choose a model and not get caught in the hype / sales talk.

Good luck, hope you manage to source one
 
Okay, next question, is there a list anywhere with where all the cameras (well at least Nikon and Canon) were released? I knew all this stuff when I still had my old camera but I've forgotten almost all of it. I'm talking what datethey were released and if they are in the consumer/prosumer/pro range?

Also might be able to borrow a small selection of old praktica lenses (are these likely to be any good) and if they are would it limit the camera I can use an adaptor on?
 
Went and had a play with a few today, was wondering what the equivalant in the Canon Range for Nikon's D90 is. I know its not exact...but around about. If I go Nikon then the D70 and D90 are where I'm looking, video became less of an issue after I managed to pick up a camcorder very cheap recently.

My list of desires are therefore, good high ISO performance (3200 pref but 1800 is acceptable - maybe less if I can get fast glass?)

Would prefer Flash sync up to 1/500 but 1/250 would probably do the job.

Want a camera that can give me a good contrasty look out of the camera. My photographic style, if you can call it that tends to push the shadows and highlights a little on camera I have used.

Size isn't too much of an issue as I'm pretty huge myself (6'4") so I can deal with heavy for a while.

My preferred shooting style is candid with natural lighting. This is honestly the most important to me. Spend a lot of time with teams of people and sort of train them not to pose. People very quickly stop posing I've found if as soon as they do you turn around and look for something else to do.

A quick boot up time would be nice. Power to picture under 2 seconds is not unreasonable I don't think? Have been known to wander around with my camera on all day so as not to miss a shot when out and about.

Good battery life is a bonus but again not essential, don't mind carrying 2 or 4 batteries with me.

Think thats about all.

PS. Oh, the flash + high ISO is for the other thing I like doing, which is stage performance photography. High speeds and low lights with a bit of zoom required is an absolute nightmare, but the shots I have gotten with the terrible kit I have used mean it's something I want to pursue.
 
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Skips said:
Went and had a play with a few today, was wondering what the equivalant in the Canon Range for Nikon's D90 is. I know its not exact...but around about. If I go Nikon then the D70 and D90 are where I'm looking, video became less of an issue after I managed to pick up a camcorder very cheap recently.

My list of desires are therefore, good high ISO performance (3200 pref but 1800 is acceptable - maybe less if I can get fast glass?)

Would prefer Flash sync up to 1/500 but 1/250 would probably do the job.

<snip>

PS. Oh, the flash + high ISO is for the other thing I like doing, which is stage performance photography. High speeds and low lights with a bit of zoom required is an absolute nightmare, but the shots I have gotten with the terrible kit I have used mean it's something I want to pursue.
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Are you sure you mean the D70, that's an old, old camera and whilst it would give you the 1/500 flash sync speed (that, the D70s and the D40 are the last Nikon bodies that will do that) anything above 400 iso is going to start getting noisy and 1600 is as far as it goes, but it's not somewhere you want to be...

Given your height and potential top budget, I'd suggest a D300 and an MB-D10 grip (either a genuine one, may push the budget a bit) or one of the better copies. The D300 is one of the best cameras for hight iso work at around that budget (plus it flash syncs at 1/250 against 1/200 for the D90), however for anything much higher than around 3200 iso you really need to be looking at something like a D700 which will produce perfectly usable images at 6400 with ease, but will cost you twice your budget.

Remember you'll also need decent, fast glass too.....:nuts:
 
Guess my only concern with the D300 is that it would be too complicated, I mean that might not be a bad thing but it looks like the set up would be a lot more complex than the D90...on the plus side I don't get all those stupid scene settings.
 
Skips said:
Guess my only concern with the D300 is that it would be too complicated, I mean that might not be a bad thing but it looks like the set up would be a lot more complex than the D90...on the plus side I don't get all those stupid scene settings.
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It's not really any more complicated, what it has is buttons for the most-used settings where on the D90 you have to keep going in to the menu to change them, so in that respect it's easier to use.
 
This is a hard one for me to even figure out, I've been looking at pictures taken by both the D90 and the D300 and I've been told that the metering is slightly better on the D90 over the D300, especially at high ISOs. Deeper blacks and less blown whites, is this just the way the cameras were set up, is someone lying to me to try to make a sale or is there a noticable difference?
 
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