Joined the DSLR Family!

Pug

Pug

Pug

Soldato
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
5,184
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Over there...
Umm'd and aaaahh'd for a week over a canon or a nikon, and went out and bought a Sony A200 :o

chuffed though - £260 for a body (with image stabilation and AF motor) and a 18-70mm kit lens seemed like to good a deal for me!

First decent(ish) photo!

 
Congrats, now do us a favour & join the 'I don't use imageshack' club please :p
 
Pug said:
Umm'd and aaaahh'd for a week over a canon or a nikon, and went out and bought a Sony A200 :o

chuffed though - £260 for a body (with image stabilation and AF motor) and a 18-70mm kit lens seemed like to good a deal for me!

First decent(ish) photo!
Click to expand...

What a truely disgusting image.......MAGNERS!!!!! :mad:

Nice handbag though :p
 
photobucket is good if you only upload occasional photos. if you want to upload frequently then flickr is probably the way to go.

also look at how your going to edit/organise you photos on your computer. taking digital photos is nince but editing them makes the difference!
 
Pug said:
Umm'd and aaaahh'd for a week over a canon or a nikon, and went out and bought a Sony A200 :o

chuffed though - £260 for a body (with image stabilation and AF motor) and a 18-70mm kit lens seemed like to good a deal for me!

First decent(ish) photo!

Click to expand...
i have also ordered this, just waiting on mine to get here.
 
A few questions for people as i start buildng up my kit :)

Is there any point in spending a lot on a UV filter?
Seen them range from £3 to £50?

I will need a polarising filter as well - but not yet - i take it these are probably worth spending a bit more?

Camera bags. Think i'll get 2 - one smaller one for light use, and a larger one for travel use - buying smaller one first, thinking of the Lowepro Zoom Mini - any feedback? or reccomendations?

Tripods & shutter remotes - worthwhile? need to spend a lot? i guess they depend on the type of photography i do, though a small/light one could be useful for landscapes - the shutter remotes are cheap enough i'll get one anyway, but probably not much use without a tripod...

CF cards, what's the best to get? I bought a cheapy one to tide me over and when shooting in RAW+JPEG it takes a good while to save - i assume if i buy a Sandisk Extreme III or similar it will reduce this time? Is RAW+JPEG the best shooting option?

Finally, i am buying a book on my particular camera, but is there a decent book for begineers (though i'm not a beginner with PCs by any means, i've never retouched either)

cheers
 
Pug said:
Is there any point in spending a lot on a UV filter?
Seen them range from £3 to £50?
Click to expand...
these days most people use UV filters mainly for protecting the front element of the lens. Some people argue the need for this but what is true is that at glass that you put on becomes part of the image making process so you don't want anything worse quality than your lens (in other words it's worth buying something at least half decent if you decide to fit one at all).

CF cards, what's the best to get? I bought a cheapy one to tide me over and when shooting in RAW+JPEG it takes a good while to save - i assume if i buy a Sandisk Extreme III or similar it will reduce this time? Is RAW+JPEG the best shooting option?

Finally, i am buying a book on my particular camera, but is there a decent book for begineers (though i'm not a beginner with PCs by any means, i've never retouched either)
Click to expand...
I'm not sure that the A200 is UDMA capable so going top of the range probably isn't worthwhile but Sonys typically have decent write speed so somethimng like an Extreme III is probably a good choice.
it's hard to say if it will improve saving seeing as we don't know what your existing card is but RAW+JPEG involves the largest files sizes.

The best user guides for Sonys are generally reckoned to be those by Gary Friedman http://www.friedmanarchives.com/
 
Pug said:
Tripods & shutter remotes - worthwhile?
Click to expand...

Yes! Especially if you want to shoot in the early moring / dusk / night.

The remote is brilliant, reduces camera shake, making for a clearer image at the end of it.

Get a sturdy tripod, don't need to spend £100's in my opinion!
 
cheers for the info!

tripods seem expensive!

Got a gorilla pod coming (not a proper tripod i know, but it isnt a replacement, just a useful accessory)
 
Pug said:
cheers for the info!

tripods seem expensive!

Got a gorilla pod coming (not a proper tripod i know, but it isnt a replacement, just a useful accessory)
Click to expand...


After years of experimenting, upgrading, researching, trial and error I have concluded that almost ever tripod and head in existence is rubbish, a good tripod and head is a necessary, and there is really only one ultimate option.

Really Right stuff BH-40 or BH-55 with a Gitzo Carbon 6x tripod (the standard mountaineer version, 3 piece leg).
This is around 800 GBP worth of support equipment. I have borrowed something similar to this (slightly different gitzo tripod, arca swiss ball head), and it is amazing how much better things become. I nearly went out that same day to lay down 800 smackers to get the gear there and then. But then I realized you needed special plates dedicated to the camera body, I will be upgrading my camera soon so will wait before ordering.
I went from 30GBP high street shop travel tripod, 90GBP no-brand heavy and big looking thing, to 2nd hand branded tripod at 120GBP (was something like 180 new). I don't want to make this a continual series of upgrades.

Now I could do yet another upgrade and buy a 300-400 GBP setup which I would be happy with for a while, but eventually would want to upgrade to the ultimate setup anyway. Thereby I loose 300GBP again!

My suggestion is, start off with a small bean-bag or buy a small gorrila pod just so the camera sits just off the ground and will be stable enough with your small lenses.
Save up about 3-4X what you think a tripod is worth and buy the best you can spending a couple of hundred. MAke sure you get a ball head. This should last you until you get heavier lenses like a 70-200 2.8 or 300 f/4. Once this happens Go straight for the Really Right Stuff BH-55 and top of the line Gitzo tripod. Pay the money, and don't look back.


I ruined years of photography with shoddy tripods that could even support a light Sigma 70-300mm properly. Let alone the fact for each photo I would spend 30-120 seconds each time fighting the tripod.
 
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