Sub £600 DSLR

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Sash

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Been looking for a DSLR for taking pics when out - currently have an HTC One X which takes pretty good pictures, but the battery can get chomped with heavy usage!

Can anyone tell me if the info in this TechRadar article is still accurate or are there now upgrades http://www.techradar.com/news/photo...non-vs-nikon-which-dslr-should-you-buy-939229

Looking to spend about £500 - 600 on both the camera and a basic lens to get started with, potentially adding a longer distance lens in the future.

I never use Video Capture so this isn't a big deal.
 
They're outdated now but it depends if you absolutely must have a new DSLR versus buying an older higher end model, as they have better handling (bigger + heavier + better quality) as well as better AF systems by and large. It's a much more enjoyable experience than using the plasticky low end DSLRs but the sensors can sometimes be a little long in the tooth in terms of noise performance (though yonks ahead of your OneX)

My personal recommendation would be a Canon 40D for about £300 second hand, a Sigma 30 1.4 for just under £300 new and then if you want to go longer something like a Tamron 70-300 VR would be a great extension to that at around £280 new.

Alternatively if you don't want a prime (i.e. non zoom) lens as your main one you could get a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 instead of the Sigma for about the same amount of money. You'll gain some versatility in zoom which would allow you to get wider shots like landscapes, but if you're not fussed about those (most of the time they're quite average shots unless you really really work for them), then I'd go with the Sigma as you can get some lovely lovely shallow depth of field effects on the 30mm prime which you can never really replicate on a zoom lens, for various optical reasons that will probably bore you even more than this post has :D
 
Ksanti said:
They're outdated now but it depends if you absolutely must have a new DSLR versus buying an older higher end model, as they have better handling (bigger + heavier + better quality) as well as better AF systems by and large. It's a much more enjoyable experience than using the plasticky low end DSLRs but the sensors can sometimes be a little long in the tooth in terms of noise performance (though yonks ahead of your OneX)

My personal recommendation would be a Canon 40D for about £300 second hand, a Sigma 30 1.4 for just under £300 new and then if you want to go longer something like a Tamron 70-300 VR would be a great extension to that at around £280 new.

Alternatively if you don't want a prime (i.e. non zoom) lens as your main one you could get a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 instead of the Sigma for about the same amount of money. You'll gain some versatility in zoom which would allow you to get wider shots like landscapes, but if you're not fussed about those (most of the time they're quite average shots unless you really really work for them), then I'd go with the Sigma as you can get some lovely lovely shallow depth of field effects on the 30mm prime which you can never really replicate on a zoom lens, for various optical reasons that will probably bore you even more than this post has :D
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Thanks for the advice, if I was to get one I'd probably want to get one a bit more in line with the current trends and features rather than "last gen" tech, such is the geek I am!
 
How is that outdated? The only camera that is presently on sale and available that article doesn't have is the D3200.
 
Hxc said:
How is that outdated? The only camera that is presently on sale and available that article doesn't have is the D3200.
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Well yes but prices etc. generally will be outdated, better to look around now. Techradar is rarely particularly good for photography stuff anyway, I find.
 
Sash said:
Thanks for the advice, if I was to get one I'd probably want to get one a bit more in line with the current trends and features rather than "last gen" tech, such is the geek I am!
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Current trends and features haven't really changed at all, most changes in cameras have been evolutions of old performances.

For example with your budget you could get a Canon 5D Mk1 (what I shoot with) and a Canon 50 1.8 which would wipe the floor with any sub £1000 DSLR kit that will come out in the next 3 years. It has a sensor that's about twice as big as any new DSLR sub the £1400 mark which means a lot of good things for image quality, shallow depth of field and viewfinder size :)

The only recent features/gimmicks that have been added have been:
Stupid amounts of megapixels
Swivelly screens
Live View
HD Video

Given Live View and swivelly screens are only really useful with HD Video (for the most part), then that leaves you with a smaller camera with an unnecesarry amount of megapixels (and by unnecessary I mean it is impossible to see the difference on a computer screen because camera files are way higher resolution than screens, and in print you'd have to be printing over A3 to notice any difference.
 
Real geeks use older, better bodies ;)

I'd have a 40D over a 600D or 650D any day, but it's your money I understand why you want something newer.
 
JRJ said:
http://www.camerapricebuster.com/Canon_EOS_600D_+__18-55mm_IS_&_55-250mm_IS_Lenses_pc.html

Just a touch over budget but an excellent starter covering 18-250mm
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Ksanti said:
Current trends and features haven't really changed at all, most changes in cameras have been evolutions of old performances.

For example with your budget you could get a Canon 5D Mk1 (what I shoot with) and a Canon 50 1.8 which would wipe the floor with any sub £1000 DSLR kit that will come out in the next 3 years. It has a sensor that's about twice as big as any new DSLR sub the £1400 mark which means a lot of good things for image quality, shallow depth of field and viewfinder size :)

The only recent features/gimmicks that have been added have been:
Stupid amounts of megapixels
Swivelly screens
Live View
HD Video

Given Live View and swivelly screens are only really useful with HD Video (for the most part), then that leaves you with a smaller camera with an unnecesarry amount of megapixels (and by unnecessary I mean it is impossible to see the difference on a computer screen because camera files are way higher resolution than screens, and in print you'd have to be printing over A3 to notice any difference.
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I have heard good things from other people about the 600D which JRJ linked, but from what I've seen it's usually the quality of lens that makes one of the bigger differences to the photos, so always open to more suggestions.
 
Actually now that I've brought it up I'd say go with the 5D + 50 1.8 combo. Quite often it's hard to convince people that full frame is worth buying second hand for but I find pics a lot more helpful. Image quality is miles and miles and miles ahead of crop cameras.

A quick flickr check of the Canon 50 1.8 group searching for 5D revealed the following shots taken with the combo (though a couple of 5D Mk2 shots, the images will be more or less the same for the most part):
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?q=5d&m=pool&w=873614@N24&s=int

I am a total sucker for shallow DoF, mind :D
 
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theheyes said:
Real geeks use older, better bodies ;)

I'd have a 40D over a 600D or 650D any day, but it's your money I understand why you want something newer.
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Tbh, I'm a newbie at photography so probably won't use all the advanced features of the newer ones until further down the line, I'm imagining that the connections for the lenses haven't changed that much and the lens makes more of a difference than the bells and whistles of newer things!
 
Ksanti said:
Actually now that I've brought it up I'd say go with the 5D + 50 1.8 combo. Quite often it's hard to convince people that full frame is worth buying second hand for but I find pics a lot more helpful. Image quality is miles and miles and miles ahead of crop cameras.

A quick flickr check of the Canon 50 1.8 group searching for 5D revealed the following:
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?q=5d&m=pool&w=873614@N24&s=int

I am a total sucker for shallow DoF, mind :D
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Any idea the best places to go for these? Checking out the bay is saying these are well over a grand or close to £600 for body only!
 
Sash said:
Any idea the best places to go for these? Checking out the bay is saying these are well over a grand or close to £600 for body only!
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Search the bay for "
CANON EOS 5D 13MP DIGITAL SLR CAMERA BODY - 5 D - EOS5D"
Seems like a reputable seller. Yes it's £540 for the body but the combo (50 1.8 and 5D) will give you much better IQ and shallower DoF than any comparable crop setup. The 50 1.8 you can get new for around £80 or less. I realise that will be a couple of quid over your budget but trust me if there's one jump worth making in photography, this is it :)


Sash said:
Tbh, I'm a newbie at photography so probably won't use all the advanced features of the newer ones until further down the line, I'm imagining that the connections for the lenses haven't changed that much and the lens makes more of a difference than the bells and whistles of newer things!
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I know it makes it very confusing but lenses make bigger differences when you're talking about the same sensor size. When you make the jump from a small sensor DSLR like a 600D to something like a 5D, the sensor size overrides everything and it's pretty much guaranteed that any image you take on a 5D will be of higher technical quality (sharpness, noise performance etc) than had it been taken on a 600D. Also bear in mind that the sensor in the 600D has been used since the 7D (2009) and so the sensor is outdated anyway.
 
Ksanti said:
Search the bay for "
CANON EOS 5D 13MP DIGITAL SLR CAMERA BODY - 5 D - EOS5D"
Seems like a reputable seller. Yes it's £540 for the body but the combo (50 1.8 and 5D) will give you much better IQ and shallower DoF than any comparable crop setup. The 50 1.8 you can get new for around £80 or less. I realise that will be a couple of quid over your budget but trust me if there's one jump worth making in photography, this is it :)




I know it makes it very confusing but lenses make bigger differences when you're talking about the same sensor size. When you make the jump from a small sensor DSLR like a 600D to something like a 5D, the sensor size overrides everything and it's pretty much guaranteed that any image you take on a 5D will be of higher technical quality (sharpness, noise performance etc) than had it been taken on a 600D. Also bear in mind that the sensor in the 600D has been used since the 7D (2009) and so the sensor is outdated anyway.
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I don't think I'll go for the 5D tbh, else I will be spending way over budget! :o
 
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