Hello everyone. I know there was a previous thread a while ago (maybe 2 years ago) on digital point-and-shoot cameras. I was wondering if anyone had recommendations on digital SLR cameras. The market seems a bit cluttered with a whole bunch of digital SLRs in the $500 to $1200 range, and I'm having a very hard time figuring out what to get. This isn't for me (I'm the world's worst photographer) but for my girlfriend who is an avid photographer. Thanks in advance for your help!

Lawrence,

I am a Canon fan. The new 30D is a very nice camera. I have the model up from that one, th 5D. Also the Digital Rebel is a good jumping off place. I think that's the one Ken has.

If she's a good photographer and she has film SLR lenses, that could affect her choice. Most lenses will work with Digital cameras of the same brand. If not, then I'd say it's probably between Canon and Nikon.

Tell her to check out www.dpreview.com - she'll get lots of opinions and the latest reviews.

Thanks Kathy. She has many non-digital SLR lenses. However, it is my understanding that non-digital lenses don't work quite properly with digital SLRs. Is this indeed the case?

Lawrence, I'm looking into jumping back into the SLR market as well, of course digital this time. You are right, it is VERY confusing! My SIL, like Kathy, has the 5D, but that is a much more expensive camera, and then you have to buy the lenses. I was in B&H Camera in New York yesterday, and got even more confused!Then last night, SIL e-mailed me a link to read about a new Nikon coming out. http://www.nikondigital.com/main.html?page=d80
It will come with a "kit" lens 18-135mm which seems to convert to a zoom of 7.5x from what I've read. That site Kathy suggested is really good when you are trying to decide. They have a forum with really interesting debates about cameras!

There is something called "Crop Factor". So a 35 mm lens will be the equal to a 50mm lens. A 100 mm lense will be equal to a 160mm lens. That is the only real difference and it has to do with the sensor. If she likes wide angle photography, then she may want to get the more expensive 5D for the full frame so that a 50mm is a 50mm. If she was using Minolta, then the lenses won't work digitally on the Minolta Digitals, as I understand it.

Olivia -

Zoom factor is not important on the Digital SLR. That's the Megapixel part. You want more megapixels to crop and then zoom in. Digital Zoom is more important on the point and shoots.

Olivia: I am sure Tony, too, would love to discuss cameras with you on Mush - unless you need to buy before Mush? - he'll be happy to zoom in and discuss megapickles with you - <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" />

Joanna - Funny .. Gary also has lots of time for discussing megapickels these days. <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" /> :D <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" />

I was wondering: has Tony been shying away from discussing the "crop factor? Gary leaves the room :eek: if conversation drifts in that direction.

Cheers, Anne

Anne: Tony likes the enhancement feature - :ohmy: :ohmy:

LOL!!!

Now .. back to our regularly scheduled topic ..

Cheers, Anne

Anne,

We have no regularly scheduled topics here. :ohmy: We always start with something and veer way off course! <img border="0" alt="[c]" title="" src="graemlins/c.gif" />

Olivia, You were in the city and didn't call us? :mecry: Actually Gil was planning on heading to B & H yesterday when he was walking around the city, but he never made it. Next time please give us a holler!

Gil just recently bought the Canon 30D and seems happy with it. It's way too confusing for me.

I'm a Nikon fan since I do alot of Macro photography, but must say the time between shots seems to be much faster with the Canon.

Ok I just read down the rest of this thread. Megapickles! Zoom Factor! Enhancement features! Sheesh. Next thing you'll be discussing the bowing factor.

NO Arlene that is too risque!!!! ;) ;) ;)

So now I am expected to BOW?

Olivia - Arlene beat me to it! I was gonna give you a hard time about not letting us know you were in Manhattan. I walked right past B & H at around 11:30. Decided NOT to go in (and my credit card thanked me), and instead headed up to brunch on the Upper West Side & then walked in Central Park for a couple of hours. What a day it was!

As for a camera, Lawrence. If she already has SLR lenses, that makes a huge difference in what she should get. If she has Nikon lenses, go with a Nikon (from what I've read that new Nikon sounds pretty good). If Canon, then get Canon. It takes some time to learn a new camera - I'm still learning the 30D (Hope to have it down pat by ROAR2), but having used an SLR before will help with the learning curve - esp if staying with the same brand.

There is a Nikon forum, and a Canon forum as well as the ones that were posted here. Nikon users don't talk to Canon users & vice-versa!

http://Nikonnet.com
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php

We bought a Canon Rebel XT (eos 350D) shortly before we left in June for Alaska. i really love it. It is fairly light for a DSLR and since I have not used one before,,I pretty much left it on auto and just adjusted lens to where I wanted it. I just brought a Tamron AF 18-200 lens because it was pretty versatile. After looking through my Swarvoski binocs I wished I had a lens that would zoom as well as them for wildlife pictures. Took good pictures though ( Hopefully I will figure out how to post some soon. I am such a camera and computer neophyte, but keep trying to learn.
Sandra

You talk to me and I'm a Nikon user

That Tamron Lens is the lens I use on my Canon 30D. It is pretty good, but I've found that at the maximum zoom (200mm, I think something like 12X), the focus isn't quite right. But otherwise, it is a pretty good value.
I recently used a Macro lens to take flower pics instead of the Tamron. Wow - there really is a difference in the clarity in extreme closeups.

Gil and Arlene, I was only in NY for the weekend for my nephew's wedding (rehearsal dinner Fri. night across the East River, what a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline, wedding outside on Saturday evening, what beautiful weather we had! I'm glad I enjoy weddings, as I seem to have a lot of them on my plate these days, coming from a large and close family! Sunday on the way home we went to B&H from 12:30-2:00pm! (my SIL is a camera nut with the Canon 5D), then down to the West Village for a late cafe lunch outside before heading through the tunnel and home. The waterfront in that area is beautiful!

Back to cameras, my SIL once had two earlier versions of the Nikon Coolpix (point and shoot). At the time, she did not think they were so user friendly, and they were certainly NOT small like they are today. Over the years, I have followed her with almost every camera she bought, buying the next release. Been stuck with my Finepix S5000 ever since and she moved forward.

I know megapickels are important when you want to crop and "create" a bigger zoom. My Finepix at only about 4 is not good at that. I cut too much out, and it is fuzzy. Even my little Sony (7.2 mp) doesn't do a good job at that. So I want to have a big zoom for travel. As anyone on this board knows, I LOVE taking pictures close up (see avatar!)

Alan just bought the Canon 5D in anticipation of ROAR 2. He spends his spare time studying the manual! I've lost count of the lenses/paraphanelia that have been arriving at our front door courtesy of FedEx ;) .

Alan has signed up for a photo course in late September. I'm tagging along and we'll be going to Northeastern Arizona and also Utah. Sounds like an interesting trip. The photographer/teacher specializes in Canon 5D (although this particular trip is for anyone with a digital). We'll be going to Lake Powell area, Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley. I'll be taking notes in anticipation of writing several travel articles. Will let you know how it goes. Only 8 students in the course.

Gil, you made me laugh about the Nikon people vs the Canon People. That is almost true! There is a photo club where we go on day trips to shoot and share equipment here in LA and we have one Nikon shooter - the rest are all Canon. It's great because we can share ideas and toys before we buy too much stuff. It's addictive, yes?

We're going to San Fransico to take a class on event/people photography from my instructor at the Santa Fe Workshops (Sarah Meeghan Lee) who works primarily as a Travel Writer/Photojournalist in September.

I had the Tamron 18-200 which is a macro lens and it was not crisp enough at the long end (higher number) - I used it for my trip to Italy with my 20D but sold it. Mostly I do Macro or wide angle. I've since bought the Canon L series 24-70 2.8 lens which is incredible.

Although I have Photoshop, I come from an old school photo background so my goal is that what comes out of my camera is the final product. That isn't always the case.

I just picked up a new client yesterday who is a professional photographer who does very high end adverstizing product and architectural shooting and he is going to mentor me for some more advanced work in exchange for being an assistant once in a while when he needs one.

Lawrence - how are you liking your Panasonic/Leica camera anyways?

I agree with everybody here - it really depends on the lenses that she already has. You'll spend a bundle on lenses. It's actually not the camera that's critical - it's the lenses that are. Frankly, if image quality is important, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to buy an expensive camera and to buy a 3rd party lens on it - Canon and Nikon became the biggest SLR manufacturers primarily because of the quality of the lenses and that's what they're primarily known for.

BTW, if your girlfriend is using Nikon, I'd actually recommend getting the D200, not the D80. Better build quality and faster shooting. Though the D80 is a very respectable alternative if the price on the D200 is too high. (I'm one of the few Nikon users here on LCT, I think :D )

Masaki

That's okay Masaki, we'll forgive you.

Well - my "Other Camera" is a Nikon, so I can't talk to myself! (But that's never stopped me)

All these workshops you people are attending! I'd like to get in one or two befire Roar2. I took one online course at betterphoto.com & I think I got some good ideas from that. It seemd to help my Eye. (Of course, having an artist around when I shoot helps the eye also) And I certainly plan on upgrading my Tamron lens by that trip. As mentioned, it is not as sharp as I'd like at it's closeup & telephoto extremes. the lens that is currently catching my eye is the Canon 70 - 300 with IS. I think that the image Stabilization would help with the sharpness. It does allow you to keep your lens 2 stops smaller to get better focus.
Then in my wish list, I combine that 70 - 300 with the Canon 18 - 50 (I think that's their wide angle) IS, and I think I might be set. Now to just find a really good price on them.

I've also recently put together a website for my photography on Smugmug. It is a SLOW work in progress. I've got many pics on there already, and am weeding out the not so great ones, and making some fixes to others.


I tend to Overuse Photoshop. And when I use Photoshop, I have a tendency to oversharpen. I'll often spend alot of time working on a pic in PS, and then when I am done I compare it to the original out of camera shot & the original is better! Grrrrrr!!!

And lastly, on the subject of photography, since we'll be snorkelling a few times on the New Year's cruise to W. Carib, am looking for an inexpensive underwater camera. The Pentax looks interesting, but it might not have a long enough Underwater life rating to use when snorkelling. Have to still research that subject.

Gil- I got some nice underwater shots via a Fuji Disposable. No fears it will get wet or damaged. They do make an underwater housing for your camera.

The long lens you are looking at is okay - I'd suggest as Masaki said in sticking to the Canon lenses. I find that I shoot either pretty wide or pretty long. Weight for travel is an issue too. That being said, I also like a fast lens. My walk around is now the 24-70L 2.8. The long lens you are looking at is not that fast (smaller number apeture) so it won't work well in low light situations. I have the Canon kit Lens 18-55 for digital that came with the D20 Frank has - we'd be interested in selling, never used.

There are ssome good lens discussions on the forums at www.dpreview.com

I take some decent shots using Gils Nikon 8800. Only thing I wish is that I could get good telephoto on it.

I have the Nikon Coolpix 4500, the one that swivels. Nothing I've found beats that for macro, but to change settings is a real pain in the rear with it.

The best camera in the world won't help you take better shots if you don't first learn about composing a shot.

The Canon web board ran a poll of the best lens for Wildlife. The Canon 100 - 400 L IS won by a Huge margin.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59931

I only just now noticed that the Canon 70-300 is only F5.6. You're right - need something faster than that. But there is another Canon lens that is faster in same range - so many choices. Fortunately, have plenty of time.

Those L Lenses are professional quality - the 100-400 is $1400+ so for me there would need to be an awful lot of animals to shoot! I have the 2nd most popular lens (75-300 4.5-5.6 is)in the poll which I have rarely used. It's going MUSHing though!

I just asked Alan if he bought that Canon 100 - 400 L IS lens. He did. :ohmy: Guess he will be taking lots of photos.

Arlene

You are so right about composition. it's amazing what I have seen lately on the photo boards - and by pros selling their work. To me what's said is all the Photoshop in the world can't really fix it if it didn't get composed well to start with!

Some of our LCT stuff on Ofoto is better!

Donna,

I am just going to have to travel with you and ALan to borrow that lens!

I'll be next in line. :)

Hmmm, I sense a business opportunity here. <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" /> . I could rent out Alan's lens!

Oh Gil, we'd all have so much fun! Have Camera will travel. Have big lens, well, we'd need a Chiropractor on board with us (lol).

Up until this thread, and after thousands of dollars of therapy, I never realized the root cause of all my inner conflict.

Yes, I admit it, I own both Nikon and Canon cameras. Now I am cured and I can F...stop buying all these lenses for both cameras.

You all want to share Alans big lens? Hmmm I don't know about that!
:eek:

Bill - the first step towards curing any problem is recognizing that it exists. :D

Masaki

Arlene!!!!!! <img border="0" alt="[c]" title="" src="graemlins/c.gif" /> :D

As Freud would say, it's a severe case of lens envy!

Very good Kathy!!!