Digital Vs SLR's

Born_2_Kill_83

Born_2_Kill_83

Born_2_Kill_83

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Going to spend -£400 on a new camera, will be using it for evening landscape, closeups and distance zooming.

My old man has a Nikon P90 and the 24X zoom was fantastic although anything over 18X you ideally need a stand.

My other halfs old man has a Canon 500D with a standard 18-55mm, while the image quality was better the zoom was very limited.

I'm very interested in the Nikon D3000 with 18-55MM VR and after looking at all the reviews it seems the best camera to start out with, it hits every tickbox I'm after, but what will the zoom be like.

Also open to other surgestions, but I ideally want to stick to buying new, £400 is about the limit, maybe a small amount over.
 
Nikon is currently, probably the best system to get started on.
If you can stretch to it, have a look at the Nikon D5000, can be had for £480 with the same lens as the D3000. Reviews suggest that it's a much superior camera.

Other brands in that price range:
Sony a380 with 18-55mm £420
Canon 450D with 18-55mm £450

Or if you want a more compact design with interchangeable lenses and image quality up with DSLRs have a look at these... (might be a bit more expensive, but it's new tech!)

Panasonic Lumix GF1 with 14-45mm Lens £520
Olympus PEN E-P1 + 14-42mm lens £500
 
I've just bought a D3000 refurb for £300 including an 8GB card and 18-55 and I'm chuffed to bits with it, couldn't really stretch to the D5000 although really wish I could have. The zoom's not great with that lens obviously but it came bundled with a telephoto attachment that helps a bit.
 
Pick up a second hand DSLR for less than £400 and spend the rest on a telephoto lens, worrying out zoom when your buying an SLR is a bit odd! Thats the whole point, you can just buy another lense
 
Hmmm been doing some more searching on the net and Ive come down to 3 different deals.

A well know camera seller will do the Canon 1000D and Nikon D3000 both with 18-55mm Standard and 55-300mm Tamron lenses for £500 and £480, are Tamron good lenses though?

Or theres also a massive highstreet retailer doing the Canon 1000D with a Canon EF-S 55-300mm for £480 (inc 18-55mm), that seems a rather good price?
 
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Sorry to bump again, I'm now thinking about moving away from SLR's and considering the Canon Powershot SX1 IS.

How will the zoom and picture quality compare with this to say the D3000 (surely the zoom will be better)?

What advantages does a SLR have over a top range Digital?
 
zoom isn't everything, in fact, its the last thing i think about. You have feet, just move closer to your subject. I don't get this obsession with big zooms, most people buy cameras at first end up shooting their dog, the butterfly in the garden, the daisy or the bin man cleaning up in town. None of these require big zooms of any significance.

SLR will always have an advantage over bridge or compact (except in size and cost) in IQ and versatility.
 
p0ss3s3d said:
What do you want to shoot?
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Things I cant get to by foot, and people that are far away enough not to see me taking the shot :p

On I serious note things like this, I like peoples natural (in there own world expessions) and landscape:

pic5b.jpg


pic9u.jpg


pic1gnn.jpg


dscn0358l.jpg


dscn0506m.jpg


dscn0362.jpg
 
Lol at pic 4...! yeah I like taking pics like that too...

I'd just get a standard kit, without the zoom lens. Buy a new lens when you know what you want, and have found the limitations of the standard kit lens.

Also, just so you can understand what zoom means, so you can quantify it...

...a manufacturer will often quote something as having a large zoom, i.e 10-20x This equates to the range between minimum zoom, and max zoom.

for example, if you buy a SX1 IS, with a 28-560mm (equivalent) lens, then that is a 20x zoom, which is what it is being advertised as (560/28=20). However, if a camera had a 10-200mm lens, that would also be 20x zoom (200/10=20).

So, from the above you can see that a camera with a 560mm lens could effectively be marketed the same as a camera with a 200mm lens, despite bringing you over two times as close to the subject. It's just another way manufacturers can fob of the consumer with marketing gimmicks... don't get me started on megapixels... ;)

Why is this a bad thing?
With cameras there is always a compromise. If a camera has a larger zoom range, quality will take a hit. It will also be a slow lens (lets in less light), and if it is a large zoom range on a small camera body, then you will have trouble shooting at maximum zoom without a tripod because small cameras shake a lot.

I have a DSLR with a 300mm prime lens. This means it does not zoom (fixed focal length). Effectively, it has a 1x zoom (300/300=1). Therefore, it's not compromised in the way some zoom lenses are, takes pin sharp pictures, and is relatively fast (lets in lots of light). To me, these things are more important than having a large zoom range.

I've waffled quite a lot, what I'm trying to say is don't be fooled into buying something with all the numbers.
 
Great facts thankx, sounds simular to the way they advertise other electronic such as TV's etc.

Sounds like Ill get more out of SLR in the long run. Now Canon 1000D or Nikon D3000 ;)
 
Loowi_ashley said:
What advantages does a SLR have over a top range Digital?
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Well, apart from a choice of lenses and the other obvious stuff, image quality, the sensor will be far larger so is less sensitive to noise and produces generally better results. Also speed is the other big one, when you hit the shutter release it takes a photo, compacts (even really top end stuff like the GF1 and E-P1) have a delay between hitting the button and a photo being taken. Better ones have the delay right now but it's there, try shooting sports or anything else fast moving and you'll notice the difference.
 
DiG said:
Off topic, but its always something I've wanted to get into, can you share any tips as to how you behave around people when doing this?
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Don't hide your camera, just hold it in front of you, if they turn around then move onto someone else. If you do see something, then just pick up camera and shoot, don't wait. However you got to know the environment around you in terms of light and you need to see the shot in your head so that you set focus point before putting it to your eye. And when you put the camera to your eye, there's just need a click, nothing else.

And always smile, if they see you, smile and move on.
 
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Sorry to return to topic while your having so much fun ;)

My camera choice between the Nikon and Canon is going to be decided which lens is better.

Tamron 70-300mm vs Canon EF 70-300MM III

Which will be best for quality long shots, people slate both :(
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Don't hide your camera, just hold it in front of you, if they turn around then move onto someone else. If you do see something, then just pick up camera and shoot, don't wait. However you got to know the environment around you in terms of light and you need to see the shot in your head so that you set focus point before putting it to your eye. And when you put the camera to your eye, there's just need a click, nothing else.

And always smile, if they see you, smile and move on.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I guess a lot of it is just growing some balls and getting on with it :D
 
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